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Guns, Bullets, and Gunfights: Lessons and Tales from a Modern-Day Gunfighter Paperback – January 3, 2018

by Jim Cirillo (Author), Charles R Grabbatin (Foreword), Ray Chapman (Foreword)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 483 ratings
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If you want to know what it really takes to prevail in a gunfight, you must go to a person who’s been in them. Jim Cirillo is that person. As one of the top guns in the New York City Police Department Stakeout Squad, Cirillo participated in some of the most harrowing of the unit’s 252 armed confrontations with the worst of New York’s criminal element. He went on to become one of the most sought-after combat shooting instructors in the country. This book is packed with practical information that can come only from someone who has experienced the fear and intensity of an actual shootout. Find out what Cirillo has to say about how to handle the stress of a gunfight, the qualities of a good gunfighter, how to aim a handgun in the heat of combat, which types of bullets offer the best stopping power, the most vital single element to develop in training to survive a gun battle, plus hair-raising and humorous tales of life in one of the most elite units in law enforcement history. “There is no better way to learn practical defensive shooting tactics and techniques than from an experienced instructor who has been there. Jim Cirillo has been there.” —from the foreword by Ray Chapman
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  1. Print length
    136 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    January 3, 2018
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.31 x 8.5 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1976745160
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1976745164
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (January 3, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 136 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1976745160
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1976745164
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.31 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 483 ratings

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Jim Cirillo

Jim Cirillo

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
483 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Brendan Lahey
5.0 out of 5 stars Peppy writing
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2024
Verified Purchase
Wish he was still with us.
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bxm 5
5.0 out of 5 stars Good short read with great information.
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2023
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The subject matter presented was very applicable in the world we live in today. The author has more than a lifetime of real world experience that everyone can understand and apply. Great info in a well presented format.
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Gary J. Chenett
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book for new gun enthusists and experienced people also
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2013
Verified Purchase
While this book is intense and frankly at times over my head when he gets into doing reloaded ammo, it's still contains a warehouse of info.

I was impressed that such a huge amount of info could be pressed into so few pages. Jim does a great job for newcomers to the sport and also to new people carrying concealed......

He brings it home with the point that every weapon is to always be considered loaded and also the importance of practice, practice, practice.

I have so many people I meet that will take a new shooter to the pistol range and then set up targets at 25 yards or more, most of these new shooters become quickly discouraged when they can not hit consistantly at such a long distance, Jim makes it clean most trained Police Officers can't either. Shoot at 7 to 10 yards and you will soon find yourself not doing bad at 25 yards or more but start up close were the hand gun was designed to be used.

I was trained in the Army and had to qualify with a 45 Semi Auto and many other long guns but was suprised with the 45 qualification when we
had only to shoot at 10 yards in a prone supported position in Infantry AIT....

I was even more surprised that after firing like 4 magazines that when I went to cover the holes in my target that not one damn round hit a full siloutte 6 ft. man sized target.

I had been born and raised with long guns and easily qualified expert with them but damn my ego at 19 sure hit rock bottom after shooting a pistol for the first time in my life and only hitting spaces in the air..

I had a old Drill Sergeant that like Jim that said son you blind? or just stupid. I was really angry and of course if I had not qualified that meant I would have to go back and redo many weeks of training in areas I had accomplished.

I asked him Sarge what am I doing wrong? He told me the same things Jim talks about in his book about how to properly hold a hand gun, sighting etc.

Needless to say with maybe 30 minutes of instruction my Drill Sgt. had me dialed in and I qualified expert. Read Jim's book and take heed to his knowledge and he will help you if you are having problems getting nice close groups.

Jim does wander off talking about tricked out self loaded ammo he does himself. I had to skip that, it's out of my class but I was glad to know that I am loaded in my carry gun with good hollow point roundsthat I can count on..

He has some good shoot em up stories from his and his friends Police back grounds and also some good stories about what caliber rounds are the best to use in a handgun, This helps settle the many debates you can read almost monthly in the average gun magazine.

The talk about penetration of rounds and also a practice of using a double tap firing sequence or more are also very true. We experienced this same thing many times while I served with the Big Red One Infantry while in Nam 67/68....

I am going to pass my copy of his book onto a series of friends who all have recently decided to receive their carry permits, His messages and stories are I feel vital for all shooters old and new to read.

It's a short but interesting book and again has good stories relating to the experiences of himself and many friends.

Jim by the way did organize the New Youk City Police into a very effective crime prevention unit over the displeasure of many Politico's in NYC. which is no surprise when you consider the mentality of New York State and NY City for having great disdane for any civilian having a carry permit while the Politico's always have a crew of guards all locked and cocked with them all of the time.

After all of these years many people and unfortunately many Police Officers for some odd reason think that they are the only people in America qualified to carry concealed and also do not want to admit that they are heavily short staffed and in most cases their response time to protect us in the Private sector is usually 15 minutes or much longer.
It's way to long for us to wait for help from the guys that wear the white hats. When we can take care of business ourselves as has been well proven to current crime stats.

Unfortunately Obama and the many fools following him have not a clue what it is truly like to live on the streets of America Thanks to them sending billions of our tax dollars to many nations , some our enemies , instead of fixing our ouw crime problems.

He dream cloud of disarming American Citizens I feel will never be successful, many Americans are to complacent but thankfully not stupid when it comes to their right to the Second Amendment and so called Assault Rifles but I must admit I was please to know that my Ruger 22 caliber is considered a assault weapon.
This shows the mentality of many of our leaders, Thankfully we have men like Jim who make them quickly loook like the fools they are.

Thankfully America has woke up and through out many local training programs available all over the Country we have helped bring the crime rate down and not the Police.
Buy the book it's a nice piece of work
18 people found this helpful
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Cory Staats
5.0 out of 5 stars Solid book
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2023
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I wish it were longer. It's a very straightforward book that's easy to pick up and enjoy. Jim is a legend.
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KeepingItFair
5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly Surprised
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2018
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I was always skeptical about the book, but it's been highly recommended by top notch shooters and people who specialize in self defense, so I gave it a go. And boy, did I learn a lot from it, and was pleasantly surprised to do so considering how much literature like this I've absorbed. Now, admittedly, there is a lot of things I already knew much about, but then again, having been in the military and training people in self defense myself, I wasn't necessarily new to the subject, and you know what? That's why I like this book even more, because even a guy like myself saw some insight as to how people did things back then, and amazingly, a lot of this knowledge, if not, all of it, applies today.

I saw a review on this book that claimed that it's outdated because bullet technology has improved by quite a lot today, and though I agree with the latter, his statement on it being outdated is incorrect. Because Jim explains in full detail why even a properly expanding hollow-point is not as deadly as believed, as the edges of it are not sharp, and it's still just temporarily displacing tissue for the most part, instead of cutting a .60 inch diameter hole in a person as someone can easily but incorrectly imagine after seeing how big a fully expanded 9mm's diameter can get.

Good no nonsense book, with some amazing recollections of stuff that happened during his stake out squad stint. There was this one part where the man mentioned that his two partners dumped 10 rounds of .38 special into an assailants head, only to find that the bullets entered the skin, but skidded around the skull instead of penetrating into the brain. Basically, this man survived 10 rounds of point blank .38 special to the head. Now, that's interesting.
26 people found this helpful
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Russ Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars The Real McCoy
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2011
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I was fortunate to have shot against Jim, in several matches. In fact I even beat him in a few in the late 60's and early 70's. I beat him in Ayoob's NH State Undercover Match, I think in 1972. He wasn't happy to have lost to a virtual unknown. I also beat him in several matches held by Jeff Cooper, at Hyde Park, NY, where I came out second to Ray Chapman in the Night Shoot. I was also fortunate to have personally listened as others too gathered around, when Jim spoke of his various encounters some recalled in this book. It was like he was holding "Court" and everyone paid attention, because they knew he was the real McCoy. He believed in training the way you have to fight, and not the way most LEO's are trained. Most LEO's go through an entire career without shooting anyone, Jim was certainly an exception. Every LE Dept of any size should have a "Stake Out Squad" and smaller agencies should designate one or two of their members to form several teams, train together, and do stake outs, in their various jurisdictions. I think there would be less armed robberies if the bad guys never knew if in fact a "Stake Out Team" just might be on the premises. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to hear the way it really was, and is, from a guy who was there and did it. Jim's untimely death was unfortunate, because he had a lot left to give. I was also fortunate to have had Gunsmith Austin Behlert living in my town, and he made me some guns like the ones he made for Jim, and others of the era. I'm long "retired" but still carry, instruct, and shoot when I can. Practice like you fight. Best regards to all, Russ Thomas, Roxboro, NC russ@thomaspi.com
I forgot, but I'd rate Jim's other book 5 stars too. Buy them both, you'll enjoy them as told by a true gun fighter, who dispels sill politically correct notions that one shot stops are possible and verified by others who were there too!
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Alessandro Faelli
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative !
Reviewed in Italy on July 1, 2020
Verified Purchase
A must for everyone who nedds to use a gun into a gun fight. After this book your thinking about fighting with a gun will never be the same.
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Richard Law
5.0 out of 5 stars New York's finest
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2018
Verified Purchase
Jim joined the New York City Police Department in the 1950s and by the late 60s was a firearms instructor. Then cutbacks made his post redundant and he was asked to join a new ‘stakeout squad’ being formed to do something about the high incidence of robbery/murder in New York at the time. He said no, but his partner talked him into it by saying it would be easy. And so it was for the first two hours of the first shift: then a robbery went down and when the dust settled Jim was left wondering who’d been firing his revolver, as he did not feel in control of the event. A point he returns to repeatedly in his book: the subconscious taking over and all that training and practice kicking in. You will have experienced this yourself: it’s why your foot is pressing on the brake pedal before you thought of braking. And that highlights another point – the subconscious kicking in to save you is because it is drawing on all your training and experience. How many miles did you drive before passing your test? Now think of ammunition as miles. Nobody with 400 rounds of training behind him is going to have what it takes to trigger the subconscious into action – but back to Jim Cirillo.
One robber died at the scene and the other two were arrested in a hospital emergency room.
Jim writes as though he has a lot to say and not much time to say it in. Aside from being a policeman Jim was also a keen handgun hunter, so he had experience of making his own ammunition for specific tasks, the reality of ballistics and the practicalities of what can be carried discreetly. The book is a series of explanations of each of his points, delivered in much the style we imagine he taught students; so the first bit is about firearms safety, gun-proofing your family and much else that he knows about not wasting ammunition.
Then he moves on to what he did with revolvers – with a lot of name dropping: he liked Dan Wesson barrels, but stick it on a Smith and Wesson frame, add a Bo-Mar rib and watch your target scores climb – and your trousers sag if you try carrying that hunk on duty!
He gets stuck straight in with an explanation of his search for suitable street ammunition. His problem on the Stakeout Squad was that bad guys duck for cover in a gunfight; same as everybody else, and that leaves their head as the only target. Low velocity bullets can bounce off skulls, or penetrate the scalp, then slide around the skull to exit opposite their entry. Hollow point ammunition can fail to expand if the hollow gets stuffed with clothing fibres on the way in and when it does expand it mushrooms into a larger calibre ball round that parts tissue rather than tearing a hole through it.
He wanted something akin to an apple corer and where he gets to in the book is one called a pin grabber – shooting bowling pins is a similar problem to shooting heads – they are round and bullets slide off them. Not so these pin grabbers; designed with what looks like a serrated leading edge. Anything other than ball is a potential problem in semiautomatic pistols and he deals with that issue before moving on to the selection criteria for gunfighters and a lot of detail from his training courses. After six years in the Stakeout Squad he moved on to a federal agency and fed his knowledge into other peoples training. Massad Ayoob’s told an anecdote about meeting Jim Cirillo for the first time in the 1970s after Mass succeeded to Jan Stevenson’s chair as guns editor of Police Magazine. Mass was by then developing the theories that would become his ‘Stressfire’ programme and when he met Jim, he asked about aural exclusion and tunnel vision. These are experienced under pressure; you tend to see only the threat to the exclusion of all else and won’t hear your partner’s shouted warnings because he’s outside the orbit of your tunnel vision.
Mass wondered if Jim had seen any evidence of the bad guys having those experiences during the adrenalin dump that likely occurs during the robbery: such as, do they hear your shouted warnings and do they react to them? Jim said they might not hear shouted warnings due to the noise of the gunfire, at which point the chief told Mass not to dare publishing that remark.
He didn’t, but Jim does – in this book; in the context of his first gunfight. The robbers appeared, so Jim does likewise and they couldn’t have been suffering aural exclusion at that point because the groin guard fell off Jim’s body armour and all guns turned in the direction of the clunk. That’s when he felt his revolver jerking in his hand and was still wondering who was firing it when the gunfight ended.
It’s one of those books that finds its way onto the shelves of those interested in firearms matters. Looking along the shelf, Americans have held centre-stage for the last hundred years – Massad Ayoob, Jeff Cooper, Julian Hatcher, Bill Jordan, Ed McGivern,– to name but a few, but Jim can step up to that plate and stood tall with the rest until his untimely demise in a traffic accident.
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Radu C.
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is really aimed to keep you alive!
Reviewed in Germany on July 14, 2017
Verified Purchase
This book draws a line between solid practical shooting that ensure you remain on the safe side and the rest of the staff that will prove to no avail in a real confrontation. Jim Cirillo is another great teacher that inspires in decisive moments.
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Glen P Pitcher
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on October 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
Great book!
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Frank Leutenegger
5.0 out of 5 stars Comme un roman
Reviewed in France on November 1, 2012
Verified Purchase
Jim Cirillo est un tout grand monsieur, parmi les policiers américains. Son livre est passionnant comme un roman et se lit d'une traite. Et on peut en retirer pas mal d'enseignements.
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