Book Review: The Complete Gun Owner by James M. Ayres

There are few things I enjoy more than shooting, but sometimes Mother Nature just does not want to cooperate.  So there are often times when I have to find some other way of occupying myself.  Luckily, for the firearms enthusiast, there are many related endeavors for which we can use our "down time," such as cleaning our firearms, reloading, rearranging our gun safe (yes, I have been known to do this), sorting ammunition, etc.  Rainy days also give me an opportunity to keep abreast of what is new in the world of shooting sports, by reading some of the sporting magazines that are available, or picking up a book on firearms.  Most recently, I picked up a copy of The Complete Gun Owner, by James M. Ayres (Gun Digest Books, 2008), and would like to take this opportunity to give a review of this particular book.

(Image courtesy of amazon.com)  The Complete Gun Owner is written on a very basic level, with the intent, I imagine, to make the information contained therein accessible to readers who are just getting involved in the shooting sports.  The sub-title of the book is "Your guide to selection, use, safety, and self-defense," and the book undertakes to cover each of these areas.  It is 271 pages long, and contains many color photographs.  The book's appendices contain information about federal and state firearms laws; state game and wildlife agencies; a list of gun, safe, and case manufacturers; and a web directory.  An index, however, was not included.

The book is divided into four main sections (five, counting the appendices).  First is a section of gun selection. Second, a section on basic gun use, including how to shoot, the care and cleaning of your guns, hunting, and what the author refers to as the "Tao of Shooting".  Third, a section on gun safety.  And lastly, the book covers self-defense with a gun.  Each of these sections is further broken down into chapters, each focusing on a specific aspect of the overall subject (for instance, in the basic gun use section, there are individual chapters on how to shoot handguns, rifles, and shotguns).

One thing that impressed me early on with the book is that the first chapter is dedicated to making "A Case for the Twenty-Two."  Unlike some other shooting enthusiasts, I still feel that the .22 is a great cartridge, especially for the beginning shooter.  And the author points out that this cartridge is useful for helping a first time shooter become acquainted with the sport, without developing bad habits, such as "the flinch," which can be brought about by starting off with a high-recoil cartridge, such as a .357 Magnum or a .45 ACP.  So it was refreshing to see a book devote a whole chapter early on to recommending the .22 as a viable weapon.

It is in the very first chapter, however, that I also started taking issue with some of what the author was saying.   Ayres makes it clear early on that he is not a fan of the revolver.  On page 33, he states that semi-automatics are "subject to fewer mechanical problems under field conditions" than revolvers.  Really?  I would like a citation for that assertion.  I, personally have had mechanical failures with nearly every semi-automatic I have ever owned, some due to faulty ammunition, some due to bad magazines, some due to operator error, and some due to problems with the actual gun. I have yet to have a single mechanical failure of any kind with a revolver...  ever.  The closest I have ever come is a failure to fire due to a bad primer, in which case I simply pull the trigger again and "bang."  Revolvers are one of the most user friendly platforms for new shooters:  there is no slide to have to rack, one need not worry about "limp-wristing," no safeties to have to learn, etc.  The author also denigrates lever-action and bolt action rifles in favor of the semi-automatic (that is until page 104, when he talks about his bias "for" bolt action rifles for hunting...  er, ok...  which is it?).

Some of the firearms that the author recommends seem to be odd choices, based on the audience to whom he is reaching out.  For a book aimed at beginning shooters, the author recommends the Ruger Mk III and the Browning Buckmark,  two excellent firearms by most anyone's standards.  However, for someone who has had to disassemble and reassemble these pistols, recommending them to a novice seems like a bad idea.  Ayres also seems to recommend the Beretta Neos and Sig Sauer Mosquito, even though he states that he has no personal experience with either weapon, and he is just going by the reputation of the company.  Which is like recommending someone buy a Ford because they have such a great reputation -- on one hand you might wind up with a Mustang, but on the other hand, you might end up with a Pinto.

Aside from the wealth of opinion that the author shares in the book, there are also factual inaccuracies, poor editing, and photographs that do not seem to belong.  Did you know that the AK-47 is chambered in 7.61x39?  That's ok...  it's news to the Russians as well, as they are still operating under the mistaken assumption that it is 7.62x39.  And sure, this may just be one more instance of the editor missing something, and maybe it is not that big of a deal, or maybe it is to the new shooter who is now looking for a non-existent cartridge.  Then there is the assertion that the Remington 552 BDL is basically the same gun as the 597, "without the fancy checkering."  Sure...  other than the fact that the two guns have completely different actions, the 552 has a tubular magazine while the 597 has a removable 10-round magazine, and the 552 will chamber and fire .22 Short and .22 Long as well as .22 LR, whereas it could be dangerous to attempt to do so with the 597.   But yeah, other than that, the same gun.

Then the author offers up such gems as "eighty-five to ninety-five percent of the effectiveness of any shot is determined by shot placement," in big, bold font on pages 167-168.  Yet nowhere does he offer any statistical evidence to back up this claim (one might as easily say that 100% of the effectiveness of any shot is due to shot placement, in that if you miss the target completely, it will have no effect at all).  Or when he states that twenty-two pistols are commonly carried by Israeli assassins (and likewise U.S. operatives) because they "might only receive a few days training and practice with a handgun" (page 195).  Citation, please?  And this brings us back to the chapter on twenty-twos in that Ayres states on page 29 that the .22 is commonly used in a defensive role by "individuals and members of certain organizations."  Well, I guess if Israeli assassins can be trained to use a .22 in a few days, then why should a novice gun owner be any different, right?

On page 179, Ayres discusses the handgun shooting positions used in defensive shooting.  The first position he covers is hip shooting (no relation).  In the first paragraph, he states that "(m)any experts deride hip shooting as being totally useless....  Perhaps they are setting their sights incorrectly."  Setting their sights incorrectly?  OK, well, Mr. Ayres is holding himself out to be an expert on firearms, not anatomy, after all.

Poor editing is, in my opinion, the primary problem with this book, and it is most clearly evidenced by photographs that are placed throughout the text in a seemingly random fashion.  For instance, chapter 5, "How to Shoot a Shotgun," is illustrated with a total of nine photographs:  seven photos of someone wielding a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle, one photo of a handgun's sight picture, and one photo of someone wielding a single-shot rifle.  Not a picture of a shotgun to be seen.  Other masterful touches of editing include two copies of the same exact photograph on the same page (Wait, this looks familiar... where have I seen this photo before?  Oh yes, in the aforementioned shotgun chapter.), one with the caption "Correct sight picture," and the other with the caption "Correct sight alignment." There is also a firearms terminology section at the beginning of the book  in which the terms are not in alphabetical order. And let us not forget the editorial comments that were left in the text when it went into print, such as when the editor asked the author to provide "some specifics that make it a "good shooter," when referring to the Savage Model 64.

Taking all of this into consideration -- the overly opinionated approach by the author, the poor editing, and the reliance upon anecdote as opposed to documentary evidence -- means that I just cannot recommend this book to anyone, especially someone new to firearms.  While there may be nuggets of wisdom hidden in this book, there is also enough that is inaccurate or misleading to cause confusion in someone who is just getting his or her feet wet in the shooting sports.  I would look to other texts, such as those penned by Massad Ayoob, if you are looking for well-written, accurate books on firearms, shooting, and self-defense (The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery is just such a book).