*This article is a guest post from my friend Jonathan Willis. Jonathan is a retired paramedic and fire lieutenant who teaches with Dave Spaulding for Handgun Combatives. Jonathan has extensive firearms training experience, but this was the first shotgun course he took. I took the class as well and echo the author’s comments. The class […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Ammunition is now difficult to find and more expensive. Many ranges are closed. Because of those facts, I got an email last week from a reader who suggested that I put together a list of shooting drills that don’t involve firing too many rounds. I thought it was an excellent […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz The Casino Drill was devised by Rangemaster’s Tom Givens as an exercise designed to evaluate/train multiple skill sets in the context of defensive handgun shooting. Tom provides a description of this drill in his September 2017 Rangemaster news letter (opens to PDF). If you are a video person, watch […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Odd But Good? Some historical firearms technology that you’ve likely never seen before. FILLING THE GAP BETWEEN TOO LITTLE AND TOO MUCH FORCE Pepper spray is an incredibly valuable bit of gear […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz After Sunday’s active killer attack on a church in Texas, I thought some of you might be looking for resources to determine “best practice” recommendations for your house of worship. Here are more than a dozen highly informative articles/videos covering the topic: Church Safety On Active Shooters […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Compared to the average American, I read a massive number of books. I try to read between around 10-15 books a month. I accomplish this because I don’t have TV in my house and I carry a book wherever I go. Whenever I have a few spare moments, I spend […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. When You Can’t Pull the Trigger I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard ignorant gun owners make the statement “I’ll just shoot him if he grabs my gun.” It isn’t quite that […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Shooting from Retention A discussion about in-fight weapons access, timing errors, dominant positioning, shooting from the “two,” and the dangers of floating the gun. These are the factors that are commonly misunderstood by well-meaning […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. 3 Techniques Predators Use to Hunt Women “Having studied this platform of evidence-based “real world” violence, particularly where the victim has been a female, I have identified three techniques that criminals consistently use to […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz “You can’t screw up, not even once, not even a little, because someone’s life hangs in the balance.“- Tom Givens When I looked back at the notes I took while attending a recent Rangemaster Instructor Development course, that quote seemed to sum things up best. I’ve taken close […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I read Chris Cerino’s recent article titled A Short History Of Pistol Shooting Techniques. It was a great article and identified many problems with which the firearms training community continually struggles. Tom Givens and I were just having this discussion last week . We both lamented the fact that […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz My friend Claude Werner recently published a book titled “Shooting Your Black Rifle.” A large part of the book contains shooting drills and qualification courses for the AR-15 rifle. One of the drills Claude developed is one that he calls the “Punto Banco.” It is a rifle adaptation of Tom […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. This guy got lucky. You might not. “Just because it “worked” doesn’t mean it’s worth emulating Let’s look at this incident from a practical standpoint. What if the thief hadn’t obeyed the owner’s commands? […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Criminals Often Carry Ineffectual Guns that are Broken, Unloaded, or Toys An article about the types of guns carried by criminals, including a link and discussion of my research on the topic. […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Although I’m not well known for it in the commercial arena, I really enjoy teaching shotgun classes. In fact, the first firearms instructor school that I attended was a Benelli shotgun instructor school taught by Phil Singleton (of SAS and HK fame) way back in 1999. I taught police shotgun classes […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. One-Handed Shooting and Why You Should Learn How to Do It Efficiently A lot of people don’t put in enough time practicing single hand shooting drills. Fix that. How to Spot Cheap […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz In 2014, the FBI made a historic change in their qualification course by making the qualification stages more similar to the types of threats that agents face. I detailed the change and described the utility of the qualification course in this article. My friend Tom Givens (who has trained […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Spreading Lies Great article from Todd Louis Green about bad advice given by lazy and inept firearms instructors. The Pachmayr Aluminum Competition Speedloader The pros and cons of a new speedloader design […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Now that most states have a process allowing citizens to legally carry concealed handguns, many of you may be carrying a firearm more frequently, or just starting to carry for the first time. A common mistake I see with a great number of my students is an obsessive focus on […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Shooting an Unarmed Man? A lot of hard-won knowledge here about stopping the draw, “gun arm grappling” and drawing a firearm in an empty hand encounter. You all should read this one. […]
