If you are like me, you probably have more than a single rifle, and possibly more than one ammunition type in your stockpile. Adding to that, you may have different optics that you zero at a different distance due to use case…
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Those of you who’ve taken a class with me know that I’m an IT nerd, rather than someone who jumps out of aircraft or eats things that would make a billy goat choke – so today, July 19th, was a big day in the news for me.
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Recently, a firearms instructor from another agency contacted me. His students were asking the “why” behind the modern method of employing the M4 selector and he wanted some easily digestible bullet points to give them. I decided to turn the points from that conversation into an article.
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In the Training Mindset article, I talked about the ubiquitous “Tactical Tool Box” and I wanted to expand on that a little bit. Another way of thinking about the “Tactical Tool Box” was given to me by a friend who put it this way: Every single time you draw from the holster or bring your rifle on target, your mind does the mental equivalent of placing a card into your mind’s file cabinet.
Read MoreIt was mid-day in the deep south of Missouri and the sky had just turned a sick greenish color as the sun disappeared and darkness took over. It sounded like a train as it flew by in the sky. As the tornado passed over “The Garden,” the 11-year-old boy prayed, “Please God… let this tornado take me now.”
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We all know the guy who has a gun for every day of the year, but has very little clue as to how to employ them. We also know the guy that goes to the range with a mountain of ammo and zero structure, then leaves with a ragged target (and most likely, target stand) and not a thing learned. He looked great and had fun doing it, though!
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It’s been a busy few months. I have been running classes for a wide variety of students. Firearms classes for us “normal” people, as well as some for local Law Enforcement and Government Agencies. One of the consistent things I’ve seen in all the classes is the desire to go fast. That’s normal.
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We all have different ways of learning and ways of being taught. I saw an awesome t-shirt the other day that said “The Winner Spoils and the Loser Learns”, so naturally I picked it up for myself. In a society of First World problems and participation trophies, it can be easy to stagnate.
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Never doubt that you can make a difference. One of the greatest lies of the adversary is that you don’t matter, that you can’t possibly have an effect for good. Believing that lie then leads to it becoming true by your inaction. I learned the lesson the hard way as a young man.
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The AR-15 pattern rifle is not an overly complex weapon, once you “open up the hood” and learn how it actually works.
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After wrapping up the Urban Evasion Workshop, a common phrase I heard was, “I’m really glad I was concealed-carrying a firearm.” But what if you find yourself in an environment where you can’t? Whether it’s the location or situation, it may not be always be feasible to concealed-carry a firearm. I had a discussion with a family member who lives in New York City.
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So, it’s the end of the world – you’ve got you bullets and beans, and you’ve stocked up on gold and silver to trade with your fellow survivors of the apocalypse. You’re set, right?
Well, let’s take a look at that.
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The shotgun is a versatile tool, and perhaps the most common firearm in the homes of America and abroad today. It’s a jack-of-all-trades, able to hunt anything from birds to buffalo – and yet, using it in a defensive application is a bit of a specialist’s trade.
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There are two metrics by which we judge someone’s performance with a firearm – accuracy and speed. It naturally follows that focusing too much on one will naturally lead to shortcomings with the other.
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Magazines are a consumable wear item and we should treat them as such. In fact, Eugene Stoner’s original vision for the AR15 magazine is that it would be shipped loaded, used once, then discarded. That was not to be the case and for decades, bad magazines were still retained by shooters of all stripes.
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This topic has been coming up within the Lodestone circle of instructors for years – last year, Flynn and I did a podcast about the subject, and this year, I decided it was high time we actually put our discussions into action.
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Often, in our classes, someone will bring up a question about outdoor clothing. These questions mainly focus on color and pattern. As far as outdoor clothing goes, there are generally three camps…
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"Do hard things. Hard things are rites of passage, hard things ground you, hard things heal you." —Jessica A.
The Project Avalanche was a 3-day training evolution and assessment of current skills in the “Austere Environment” series of training produced by Lodestone Training and Consulting. This course was run at the Ben Franklin Range, an 1,100 acre plot of land with thick vegetation, significant elevation changes, lots of natural resources, and no cellular reception.
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“Hey Uncle Chris! I think Jimmy hurt his wrist!”
We were on vacation at the beach; my family, my sister’s family and my parents all packed into a rental house a short walk from the Atlantic. It was the first time my three youngest had seen the ocean, and I was applying sunscreen on the back patio when the injury was announced.
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I've been wanting to write this article for a few weeks now, without knowing how to start, so I'm just going to do it. We find ourselves standing at the edge of a Cliff, looking off into the future and seeing many potential hazards. We do not want to fall down this Cliff, so we make preparations to be ready for the things to come. We make plans, we store goods and equipment, and we train. We know there are many dangers ahead. In this article, I want to address one of those dangers.
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