Earlier this month, I went on a short-notice impromptu trip to Turkey. To be honest, Turkey really wasn’t ranked highly on my travel bucket list and I hadn’t considered ever traveling there. At the end of August, my friend Nathalie and I had an amazing time attending the Burning Man festival. We had so […]
Marcus Wynne was an amazing author and a great friend. He died unexpectedly in January 2022. Marcus was one of the first people I told when I got diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was also one of the few people who supported my decision to go against my doctors’ advice and refuse the traditional […]
A little more than a week ago I taught my defensive shotgun class at Blackwing Shooting Center in Delaware, Ohio. I only do this class a couple times a year and usually learn as much from the students as they learn from me. In large classes like this one (21 students), I have a real-world […]
I only have a small number of open enrollment classes remaining this year. Many of those I do have on the books are already full. Here are the last classes I have with some remaining open seats. My next open enrollment classes will be held at Apache Solutions in North Carolina. They are about […]
Instead of a written article for you today, I’m going to share a podcast Interview I recently completed. This is the first podcast I’ve done in three years. When I got my cancer diagnosis and didn’t have long to live, I decided I wanted to focus my limited time on writing and stopped doing […]
My blog usually focuses on the topic of self protection and survival. This post detailing a recent experience is a little different. Stick with it, as there will be some survival lessons I hope you will find useful. I first went to Burning Man back in 2013. Since then I’ve attended a total of […]
I recently returned from a 10-day trip to Rwanda and Uganda to track mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. Solo travelers can’t do this trip on their own, they must sign up for a government park ranger-led program and pay for a very expensive permit. The tours in both countries are done in groups of […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Fifteen years ago today I made a trek to the summit of the highest mountain in Africa. While getting to the top of Kilimanjaro didn’t require any technical climbing skills, it did require more fortitude than any endeavor I had previously undertaken. For those who don’t know, Kili is […]
Here are all the open enrollment classes I am teaching between now and the end of June. On May 14, 2023 I’ll be back in Ohio at Blackwing teaching my Snub Nose Revolver class. Registration details HERE. This is one of only two snub revolver classes I am teaching this year. […]
Two years ago, the email service I was using to notify all of you when I had posted a new article became defunct. In looking for a replacement email notification system, we found that most of the programs charged between $300 and $700 a month for a service similar to what we were getting […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Please be careful this week. Terrorists and crazy people put a lot of credence in the importance of symbolism. Historical anniversary dates are important to them. This week contains the anniversary dates of: – The Boston Bombing – The Columbine Shooting – The Virginia Tech Massacre – The […]
In October, I will be teaching three classes at the Apache Solutions facility in Yadkinville, North Carolina. If you would like some more information about Apache Solutions and the trainers they bring in, check out the link below. https://youtu.be/yIykhzlkKi4 The registration links are below. October 13, 2023- Snub Nose […]
Here are all the open enrollment classes I am teaching between now and the end of June. In mid-April, I will be traveling to Davie, Florida (near Ft. Lauderdale) to teach three different classes. On Friday night (April 14), I’m teaching a three- hour lecture class called Armed Citizen Response to the Terrorist […]
Last week marked my 11-year blogging anniversary. Eleven full years of blogging about self defense, firearms, and personal safety topics. I started this website on March 18, 2012 and have posted 2416 total articles since then. The average novel is somewhere around 100,000 words. In the last 11 years I’ve written a total […]
Here are all the open enrollment classes I am teaching between now and the end of May. My next class will be Tactical First Aid and System Collapse Medicine at Blackwing Shooting Center on March 12, 2023 in Delaware, Ohio. Registration details HERE. As of today, there is only one open slot. Register quickly […]
I’m working on finalizing my 2023 class schedule and will be teaching my first open enrollment class at the end of the month. Here’s what I have scheduled for February, March, and April. My first class is in the Los Angeles, California area on February 25-26, 2023. It will be my relatively rare Two-Day […]
I recently returned from a three-week trip to Mexico. I wasn’t teaching and didn’t have any holiday plans, so I decided to do some relaxing down in one of my favorite places in the world, Playa del Carmen. I spent my 50th birthday, Christmas, and New Years down there. If you want to experience […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Last week, I posted an article linking to my most popular posts in 2022 In that article, I discussed how my “most popular” articles were not the same as my “best” articles. I liked many of the most popular articles (ranked by page view), but I think other […]
Back in the earlier days of my blog, I used to write incredibly detailed posts about all the training and travel I completed each year. I talked about how many students and classes I had taught, rounds I fired, and books I read. You can read my older annual updates HERE I enjoy […]
Seth Godin once made a very powerful statement in a blog post. “My most popular blog posts this year…weren’t my best ones. As usual, the most popular music wasn’t the best recorded this year either. Same for the highest-grossing movies, restaurants and politicians doing fundraising. “Best” is rarely the same as “popular.” Which means […]
