Preface to the revised and updated edition
By Jim Carmichel， Shooting Editor， Outdoor Life
On the 200th birthday of the United States all Americans would
do well to reflect on our heritage of great firearms and the men who
used them. No history of the nation s development could be complete
without a detailed examination of American guns and， in fact， as
readers of this book will soon discover， the history of American fire-
arms is itself a rich chronicle of American achievement.
Such legendary figures as Daniel Boone， Andrew Jackson， Davy
Crockett， Jim Bridger， Wild Bill Hickok， Theodore Roosevelt， and
Sergeant Alvin York， to name a few， might never have strode into the
annals of immortality had it not been for their ability to use a firearm.
Had it not been for the rifle over the colonial mantel and a willing-
ness to use it in the cause of freedom， there would be no Bicentennial
-no America.
Along the way our language has become rich with the idioms of
the gun; going off half cocked， a flash in the pan， ramrod straight，
and dozens of others are common phrases everyone uses without
realizing their shooting origin.
Also， too few of us are aware that the greatest sports heroes of
the last century were competitive marksmen and that the rifle tourna-
ments held against other nations were banner headline news as well
as the most avidly attended sporting events of the day.
This is the story of American hunting and firearms， from the early
settlers who made their way into the \"dark and bloody ground of
Kentucky\"-the region which gave its name to the graceful long rifles
they carried-to the modern sportsman who has mastered the science
of giving back to nature what he takes from it.
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