[kraigwy]

Yes Hatcher is gone, but not his work. His writings are still valid today.

As to the Textbook of Pistols and Revolvers: Pistol Marksmanship Fundamentals are just as valid today as when Hatcher wrote that book.

I mentioned his "Machine Guns, 1916". I used that as a text book when I taught machine gun schools for the National Guard. We used the M-60, a bit different from the Machine guns of WWI.

Yet: They are the same. Laying in a gun now is no different then laying in a gun in 1917, the math to determine max. ord. is the same, math doesn't change. Methods of using indirect fire is no different now then in 1917.

Hatcher, (in more then one of his books) mentions the use of the Mann Accuracy device. The same device is used the same way by the army today to test their ammo.

Guns change of course, but many of the methods of using these guns haven't.

Take the M1 Garand, Via the CMP GSM games and the CMP Sales the M1 is as popular probably more now then any time in history. One of the best works on the Garand is Hatcher's "Book of the Garand". Demand was so great it required a reprinting or re-issue of this book.

You find no better instruction in rifle shooting then "Military and Sporting Rifle Shooting" by Capt Edward Crossman. This book was published in the early 1920s I believe. Crossman's methods are still taught in the CMP/AMU Small Arms Firing School at the National Matches and other CMP Games today as well as GSM Garand Clinics.

Crossman's "Book of the Springfield" is the best I've seen on that rifle.

Don't discount these old authors, we can learn a lot from them.