Sunday, November 30, 2008

Colonel Cooper and the Kazakh Eaglers

Colonel Jeff Cooper was a crusty old marine, shooter, and writer, one of the most influential firearms thinkers of the twentieth century. He wrote an enormous series of entertaining and informative essays, observations and quips called his Commentaries, a sort of proto- gunblog.

But he could be a bit set in his ways, at least in his later years. When he called for suggestions for the greatest hunts in the world I proposed the Kazakh flight of eagle at wolf. After several notes back and forth I received the following postcard:


That this might be a case of more than usual stubbornness is suggested by the fact it was a reply to this photo:


As Jonathan Hanson said at the time, he was a splendid creature, but he should have perished at the K-T meteor impact.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The label "Random Weirdness" reminded me of one of my favorite sites for REALLY sick stuff. Sometimes amusing, sometimes simply horrifying, but always fascinating in some.. weird.. way. Here's a good example: http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/odd-fishes-you-didnt-know-about.html
I chose this one because I think you have mentioned fishing as one of your passions? :D :D Check out the other categories as well.

Steve Bodio said...

I knew about some of these, and some are even eaten-- but some...! That blob is like something out of H P Lovecraft.

Steve Bodio said...

PS; Would love to fish for tigerfish-- first one-- sometime, but the only time I was in their habitat (Lake Kariba) I was getting malaria!