Welcome to the 83rd edition of Shooter s Bible.

We ve updated and improved the book considera-

bly, always with your best interests and needs in

mind, and we invite you to browse through all 576

pages.

You ll note that after a year s absence we ve

brought back a popular feature, "50 Years Ago in

Shooter s Bible," which includes a dozen pages re-

printed from the 1942 edition of this annual pub-

lication. To give readers a better persnective this

time around,we re included a chronology of major

sporting and news events of that same war-torn year

in our nation s history. Next comes the fourth in a series of heavily il- lustratea articles on sporting art by 5tepnen Irwin. This time, the author--who practices medicine in

Montana when he isn t out hunting, fishing or col-

lecting more memorabilia--offers a fascinating

history of the duck decoys in America, complete

with a portfolio of marvelous photos.

The third in a series of company biographies by

Wayne van Zwoll tells the story of Samuel Colt and

the now famous company he founded more than

150 years ago. Accompanying van Zwoll s piece is

another by Bill Clede on Colt s thriving Custom

Gun Shop. That s followed by Sam Fadala s article

on the African safari and a chapter from his new

book, Great Shooters of the World, about Teddy

Roosevelt, who was himself a safari hunter of some

note. Our old friend Ralph Quinn writes about the

advantages of mild cartridges in hunting big game,

and we conclude the article section with Wilf Pvle s