Recommended reading

[schauckis]

Hello fellow shooters,

On the TT forums I came across some recommendations for literature for pistol shooters; few, indeed, are those books in number.
Some of the books I had read, some I have myself, but the one I sourced via Amazon.com was Dr. Laslo Antal's "Competitive Pistol Shooting" (2nd Ed., 1989). I just finished reading it and, boy, what a book!

Of all the articles, books, coaching sessions etc. this was the best.
My previous favorite - and a good book it is - was Frank & Paul Leatherdale's "Successful Pistol Shooting" (revised ed., 1995).
Having read the Leatherdales' book I was simply flabbergasted. It contained all the info needed, omitted nothing, yet was short, concise, and easy to read. It also illustrated some shooting disciplines which made the book even more interesting. This was the one that got me hungry for the pistol range, again. And: following the advice therein I did very well with the air pistol last winter.
Paul Leatherdale is a very successful British shooter himself.

But Dr. Antal's book is in a different class yet.
It digs deeply into the physical and mental training, in detail describes the differences between the disciplines and why different techniques are applied, and also discusses some of the merits and dismerits of some techniques in a calm, analytic, convincing manner - although I don't agree on all points... Dr. Antal has a way with words which makes the book easy to read, and even rather difficult topics are understandable for a non-native speaker like myself. Certainly not a dry read. I shall immediately re-read it using a fat marker pen.
Dr. Antal is besides an international marksman also a British National Coach.

These are also the two most recent books on pistol coaching I have come across; many of the existing ones are rather old thus presenting perhaps outdated techniques so they should be read with some caution.

- Larry

PS. I have nothing further yet on the malfunctioning IJ-35M but it just returned from the gunsmith's so I shall test-shoot it next weekend.