The Rifle
by Gary Paulsen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gary PaulsenEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-02-10
ISBN: 0440219205
Number of pages: 112
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Book Reviews of The Rifle
Book Review: "Waiting"? Give me a break.
Summary: 1 Stars
I'd like to write a little more on this book, riddled with far too many inaccuracies. Despite what Paulsen says about the powder staying dry as a result of oil hardening in the vent (incorrectly called a touchhole in the novel), moisture would still come in via the rifled grooves. Remember that unless you're firing a hexagonal bullet (not designed until the 1850's), there is still space between the bullet and the rifled groove. Another thing Paulsen says about muzzloading rifles that is incorrect is that "the only safe way to check whether a muzzleloader loaded or not is to know how far the ramord sticks out (about 2 inches) when the gun is loaded". I found out first hand that this is incorrect. The way to know whether an old muzzleloader is loaded or not is to first stick the ramrod down the barrel, and then line up the ramrod with the end of the breech outside of the rifle. If the end of the ramrod is in the same place it was while it was in the barrel, the gun is unloaded. If about an inch higher, the gun is loaded. A very simple technique. Also, the fact that "Tilson" has the gun in his closet "waiting" is ridiculous. If he could disassemble and clean a 224-year old flintlock rifle, then he would know if and when it was loaded or not. As for portraying Tim as a person who believed that the men of the 7th Cavalry "died with their boots on", it's true! Custer was a blithering idiot who misled his men. And the men knew that the Indians wouldn't let them surrender (book talks about US soldiers trying to surrender; simply made up). Several soldiers, in fact, were found after the battle with .32-30 bullets in their brains--self-inclicted wounds. They'd rather shoot themselves than be tortured and be hacked to pieces (the Lakota-Sioux even today admit to doing this to captured prisoners). Paulsen also gave the impression that a pro-gun person like myself would only care if a hero died in battle. I don't know one person in the local NRA, of which I'm a member, that doesn't think that General John Buford, a Union Cavalry commander during the Civil War, is a hero. He probably saved the United States from shattering when his regiment held off wave after wave of Confederate soldiers who would've marched on Washington if they defeated General Buford at the Battle of Gettysburg. He died during the war of disease that was rampant in Army camps. IMHO, the point of this book is to prove that guns are abominations, no matter how "sweet", and that guns (which are inanimate objects) are somehow evil and go off by themselves. Aside from the point that the gun going off would be physically impossible due to inescapably wet and degraded powder and a ball turned to lead oxide and rusted to the barrel, I just think Paulsen has an axe to grind with guns, and just hates them. If you want to learn the real stories, take your kids to the West Point Museum, buy them a history book about sharpshooters in the Revolution, or maybe take them shooting with an old muzzleloader, as opposed to reading this piece of closed-minded hatred.
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