Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
Skeeter Skelton on Point Shooting (1968)
Skeeter was my favorite gun writer when I was growing up. Thanks to Karl and his crew for digging up this older article.
Concealed Carry Clothing With Style
I’m a retired dude who lives in central Texas. My wardrobe consists of shorts and a T-shirt 99% of the time. For those of you who don’t have the luxury of looking like a bum every day, this article might be useful.
July Newsletter
The monthly Rangemaster newsletter is required reading.
Designated Training Tourniquets
Caleb describes why you should not use your primary tourniquet for practice.
How to Prepare for Your First Major Match: Essential Tips
For those of you interesting in competing.
Five Reasons You Should Carry A Fixed Blade
Come to one of my knife classes. By lunch time of the first day, all of my students are ready to trash their folders and just carry fixed blades for the rest of their lives.
Louis Awerbuck: Interview With a Madman
We lost one of the world’s best firearms instructors ten years ago this week. If you don’t know who Louis Awerbuck was, read this article to learn more. His book Tactical Reality is a must-read for anyone practicing the art of self defense. You may also like his commentary about legacy written in SWAT magazine a couple months before his death.
Can You Outshoot an FBI Agent [Part 3: 2019]
The third and final installment of Lucky Gunner’s series on FBI shooting qualifications over the years. For an additional shooting drill, try the Rangemaster Advanced Firearms Instructor Qualification Course of Fire.
Chain of the Knife, Knife Combatives by Hock Hochheim
I like a lot of Hock’s knife material.
Hard work, Dedication, & Study Needed
“All opinions are not created equal, and yours isn’t even close to being on the same level of the names constantly on your tongue when you talk down about those who are always working to reach perfection. With a Chris Kyle shirt on your back and a Punisher back plate on your Glock, you have the moral ineptitude to assume your experience qualifies you to churn out a diatribe about how gun fighting really goes and that (insert instructor here) doesn’t know shit.
It’s you who doesn’t know shit, and you will go from ignorant, to stupid at the drop of a hat to drive that point home. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy; a manifest destiny of Dunning-Kruger excellence, you are everything that is wrong with the shooting community and anyone who doesn’t make an attempt to at least show you that is wrong also.”
One-Handed Shooting Grip.
Thoughts on one-handed shooting.
Understanding Trigger Reset: Three Spots on a Bell Curve
Mas discusses trigger reset.
My Father’s Gun
A good story from Michael Bane.
The Drop Test
Given the horrific quality control all of the ammunition companies are displaying, this might be a best practice for your defensive ammo.
50 Travel Safety Tips for Adventurous Families
Very solid travel safety tips here.
Mindset
“In the firearms culture, we’ve developed this obsession with weapon capability instead of our personal capabilities.”
Argument Leads To Desperate Need For a Tourniquet
Some very valuable lessons to learn here. Note the quick stab. Note that the victim didn’t appear like he even felt it. Note how quickly the victim lost consciousness and died.
I might be a bad medical instructor. I don’t always carry a tourniquet on my person every day. It’s all about costs and benefits. Yes, I could be stabbed like this and need a tourniquet. I might also be shot at by a man armed with a rifle from 300 meters away. Does that mean I should carry my sniper rifle every time I leave the house?
The tourniquet would be ideal here. In its absence, solid direct pressure and wound packing could work as well. I’d say the man died more from a lack of bystander intervention more so than a lack of a tourniquet.
Why You Should Own Body Armor
I think most shooters would be better served buying a couple sets of body armor instead of a couple more guns. For more body armor info, read my articles here and here.
Speed Holstering: Why It’s a Bad Idea
Don’t be in too big of a hurry holster your gun. One of the biggest problems I see in my classes is that students hurriedly and vigorously shove their guns back into their holsters. Barring a few law enforcement encounters, there are few good reasons to train a speedy reholster.
Slow down. Take a breath. Look the gun into the holster. If you feel any resistance at all, stop and evaluate the conditions before attempting to force the gun into an ill-fitting holster.
Where Will Your Guns Go When You Die?
As topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’m leaning towards his final suggestion as being the way I dispose of my collection as my cancer worsens.
Throne of Grace: A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure, and the Bloody Conquest of the American West
What I’m reading…
20th Century Gangsters and the Guns They Made Famous
Unexpected favorite carry guns from some of the world’s most notorious gangsters in the 20th century. Did you know that Capone favored a four inch model 10? Or that Dillinger was carrying a .25 acp Colt 1908 pocket when he died? For an additional history lesson, read The Day Politics Started a Gunfight Between the Police and Sheriff’s Departments in Hot Springs and Free Historical Shooting Films.
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