I have 3 books on shooting:
1.) "The Ultimate Sniper" by Maj John Plaster
2.) "The Military and Police" Sniper by Mike Lau
3.) "The Art of the Rifle" by Jeff Cooper
I have also read a fair number of books and of course information online at various other websites. So here is my quick and dirty review of three I have.
1.) "The Ultimate Sniper" - Fantastic read, John Plaster really does an excellent job in presenting his information on shooting/sniping in a very logical manner (progressing from job, eqpt, basic/advanced shooting techniques, alt. sniping techniques, etc) and his style is very easy to read. I found that this particular book was well worth the money I paid for it (~$40 USD). He includes a fair number of excellent master copies for log books and I found that I would regularly return to the book to re-read various chapters. The only negative to the book is that it is somewhat out of date - much of the eqpt is old/not in use. That being said the shooting techniques/log stuff is still very much useful. I am probably going to pick up the newer version as I was very happy with the first print that I currently have. It is too bad that a lot of ppl look down on his work esp. after the Ultimate Sniper Stock debacle, as he really does know his stuff.
2.) "The Military and Police Sniper" - a good read, it is somewhat more current then the "The Ultimate Sniper". I really liked his scenarios for various tactical situations but I found that he really glossed over shooting techniques, esp advanced shooting techniques. I also really didn't like how he seemed to use his book to promote his company, Texas Bde Armory. I respect that he knows his craft and wants to promote custom rifles but I felt that at times he was too over the top with showing pictures featuring his rifles and discussing how great his particular rifles were. I don't know that I buy this particular book again if I had to do it all over again.
3.) "The Art of the Rifle" - this was by far the worst book I have had the displeasure of opening. I have a great deal of respect for Jeff Cooper, however I felt that the book was amateurish in execution and was incredibly elementary in content. The book was almost like a kid's book, he covered the most rudimentary of shooting, such as basic shooting positions (kneeling, prone, etc.) and he never discussed any advanced techniques. An example of this is in John Plaster's book, he discusses how to shoot consistently at nebulous objects (tgt quartering techniques) and also points out ways to select aiming points to "aim small" (avoiding aiming at COM and picking out small aim points such as buttons on shirts, tips of ears, etc). Mike Lau goes into excellent detail about how to achieve CNS hits and where a sniper needs to aim to drop someone w/ minimal fuss. Cooper's book was just a simple shooting manual with pictures. As well, he really pushed his Scout Rifle concept which really was aggravating.
Hopefully this helps with selecting a good read.
