The Rifle by Gary Paulsen

IndyHunter83 · 11-25-2007, 06:22 PM

I don';t usually recommend books to people but I was hunting with my cousin on saturday.He is 12 and in the sixth grade this year and he was telling me about this book he read for school. Its called "the rifle" and it was written by gary paulsen. He gave me his copy to read while I sat today.I read it today while I was in the stand and its the story of this rifle that was built way back during the revolution and goes into pretty good detail about making a rifle back in the 1700s. Its not very long. Reads really quick. Anyone else read it?

wabi · 11-25-2007, 08:10 PM

Sounds good - I ordered a copy.

nchawkeye · 11-26-2007, 08:29 AM

I was given this book a few Christmases ago...It's anti gun ownership...
The maker got hung by the British and each owner after that was killed because of the gun, when a collector bought it in the 20th century it was still loaded and one of his kids (or grandkids) got killed by the gun because it was still loaded...

The cover states that this book shows that guns do in fact kill, not people...

I didn't care for it, or the theme of the book....[:@]

IndyHunter83 · 11-26-2007, 10:06 AM

Yeah. All those things happen in it. But it also has alot of really cool stuff in it too. It talks about the rifle and how it was made and then it talks about the story of the rifle. I never got anything along the lines of anti gun from the book. Think what you will.

nchawkeye · 11-26-2007, 01:09 PM

The man that wrote the book knows nothing about how rifles were made back then...He mentions the barrel was filed with 6 flats, they were octagon, 8 flats...He mentions the barrel was made of steel, not so, they were made of wrought iron, Henry Bessemer wasn't even born until 1813...In fact, before the Revolution, 95% of the barrels and locks were imported, mainly from England and Germany...He mentioned drilling the touch hole, mentions nothing about a liner, which is imperitive to fast ignition in a flintlock...

One of the guys that bought the rifle drove around in a motor home, with a beer gut, NRA sticker on the window, didn't pay taxes, hated the Government and died from excessive drinking...Nice way of calling all NRA members drunks and tax evaders....

Once again, the cover sums it up..."With deadly accuracy, Gary Paulsen takes aim at the notion that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

rem 700 · 11-26-2007, 04:38 PM

Louis L'amour has some decent ones

IndyHunter83 · 11-27-2007, 03:29 PM

Wow... nc. your kinda jumpin off the deep end aren't ya? Its just a book and is suppose to be fiction. All I said was that it wasa good read. Really didn't mean to offend you but if I did offend, all I can say is "Oh well". Chill out man. Its just a book.

frontier gander · 11-27-2007, 04:19 PM

i too have the book and enjoy it. Gary Paulsen is also, or atleast was a hunter in his younger days and many of the books he writes, are experiences from those days. Anti NRA, Anti Hunting? No, Just a book. He has a lot of excellent books out there. His book "Hatchet" Is a book our class read in 6th grade and i have that book to thank. Its the one that got me into reading. In the book Hatchet, The kid survives a small airplane crash. Does this mean this book it anti Airplane?

Sharp Shooter · 11-27-2007, 07:26 PM

I have that book and really like it. It is a good book.

frontier gander · 11-27-2007, 07:38 PM

".He mentioned drilling the touch hole, mentions nothing about a liner, which is imperitive to fast ignition in a flintlock.."

What Liner? Touch hole liner?? Im looking at pictures of original flintlocks from that date the book takes place and all i see is a hole drilled in the side of the barrel. Also looking at a rifle in Toby Bridges " Muzzleloading" The complete hunter, And theres a flintlock in there with just a hole drilled into the side of the barrel.