Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
3 Ways to Escape Zip Ties: An Illustrated Guide
An informative infographic about escaping zip tie restraints. This is useful, but the best advice I can provide is to AVOID BEING RESTRAINED! I don’t care if there are five guys with rifles pointed at my head, it’s time to fight. Nothing good can happen after the restraints are applied.
The Shooting Drill You’re Probably Not Doing Enough…
It’s not cool. It’s not fun. But the simple one-shot “up” drill is probably the most important training drill you can do with either a rifle or pistol. You’ll also want to read Marcus Wynne’s take on this drill.
Boxing Glove Leftovers – Fists ON Your Face, Yours…
Hock brings up some of the downsides of using some commonly taught “default cover” positions.
Appendix Carry’s True Strength
I wish more folks would conduct their own scientific research to answer questions rather than trusting a YouTube expert.
Driver ‘deliberately’ plows into pedestrians in Silicon Valley
Terrorist vehicular attacks have almost been forgotten by much of our population. They remain a serious threat. I believe that we will see more of these in the future. As much as I hate to say it, I think we will see a significant increase in gun control legislation passing in the next decade. When it becomes harder for terrorists and active killers to get guns, they’ll just use cars instead.
One other point…
Look at the incredible amount of damage on the suspect’s vehicle. I hear lots of people saying “If a crowd of rioters blocks the road I am traveling, I will just run them all over.” This guy ran over a whole bunch of people. Look at his car. It’s no longer operational. All the airbags deployed. When the airbags activated they likely injured the suspect’s hands and filled the passenger compartment with an noxious thick white powder that makes breathing very difficult. Being broken, blind, and coughing is not the spot you want to be in when the mob descends on your car after you ran over a few of their friends.
I’ve responded to quite a few car versus pedestrian crashes over the years. In almost every case the vehicle was either disabled or severely damaged after striking a human. Go ahead. Run over those rioters. I hope you’re ready when the mob comes to drag you out of your completely disabled automobile immediately after the collisions. Escape plan fail.
Re-read my article on terrorist vehicle attacks and commit to utilizing the strategies I described whenever you are out in public near a road or parking lot.
The world is sadder, angrier and more scared than ever before
I’ve always thought that my travel destinations have been pretty whimsical and randomly selected. Looking at this article might prove me wrong. I’ve been to 9/10 of the most positive countries. I’ve been to NONE of the most negative countries. I think I like hanging out where people are happy.
Then again, all this research could be complete bullshit.
Getting Started: AR 101
Kyle lamb covers some AR-15 basics.
The Joy of Thor
“Several years ago, I wrote that I “train for honor.”
I was looking for a higher reason — beyond mere narcissism or physical maintenance — some greater purpose for training. It has always been the job of men to be strong and to demonstrate that strength, and in an age where weakness is encouraged and even celebrated, I considered strength training of any kind to be a revolt against the modern world. I wrote that I trained to be worthy enough to carry water for my barbarian fathers — for men who lived harder lives in a harder world. That I trained to avoid being a living, breathing embarrassment to their memory. I wrote that training for honor meant training to earn the respect and admiration of my spiritual peers and the men who I myself admired as exemplars of masculinity and the tactical virtues.”
If you liked this article, read the author’s books The Way of Men and Becoming a Barbarian.
The Border: A Novel (Power of the Dog Book 3)
What I’m reading…
No one can describe the world of the Mexican drug cartels quite like Don Winslow.
The 16x16x16 drill
A fun new shooting drill from Karl Rehn. This week, I’m going to share lots of shooting drills. If you shoot a revolver or carry a backup gun, you should try the ‘New York Reload’ Revolver Drill.
If you shoot rifles or carbines, give the BCM Triple 5 Range Drill a try.
How to Tame Recoil and Increase Precision
A very good article on recoil mitigation.
Small Revolvers are Hard to Shoot
“Small revolvers don’t have to be “belly guns” or “card table guns.” With some skill you can really let them stretch their legs. It takes work to get there and stay there, though. When I say “work” I mean “work,” in the same way you and I mean it when we say, “I had a busy day at work.” I mean hard, mentally and physically tiring work.”
Right For You: Ladies Pistol Project 3 Results
I think this is both a great idea and stunningly flawed at the same time. It seems like a good idea; let a large number of your target audience shoot a large variety of defensive pistols and detail which ones they like the best. It makes perfect sense. The problem is that you are relying on the general consensus of a population who is not well informed about the issues at hand and likely don’t know enough about shooting to even be able to adequately compare the weapons to one another.
The sole criteria used is “how well the gun fit, felt and functioned.” Gun “fit” and subjective “feel” are useless metrics. Asking true/false questions after each woman fired only a few rounds with each handgun isn’t the best way to evaluate a gun.
Just because a gun “feels good” doesn’t mean it is suitable for self protection. To do this project right, each woman should have shot the same drill (containing measurable and verifiable standards) with every weapon. An objectively improved score is a much better measurement of effectiveness than simply asking how the gun felt when the student shot it.
Body Builder vs Rubber Buckshot
For those of you who think rubber buckshot is an adequate load for self protection.
Do You Think Michael Jordan Leaves Youtube Comments?
There is a reason I disabled the comments on this site…
“What sucks is these critics don’t know that they’re being critics. They think they’re voicing their opinion, telling the world who they are, and they think they’re affecting the person they’re commenting on.
The truth is that these venomous humans who only talk down on people or hate what people say or who live to criticize will end empty.
They’ll end their lives never having entered the arena of life, never having lived, never having done something instead of just talking about things.”
Equipment And The Point Of Diminishing Returns
It’s not always about the gear….
One handed Reloading
Have you considered that you may become injured and need to reload your weapon with only one hand? Here are some simple techniques to do it. I teach something very similar in my classes.
The light at the end of the gun
Even though this is an older article, the sentiments hold true in today’s world of even more complexity and available weapon light options.
Bad Practice: Knives and Guns and Cardboard, Oh My….
“The knife isn’t to make space to get to your gun. It’s to take space so your adversary can’t get to his.”
24 Classic Travel Scams, and How to Avoid Them
A long and very informative article describing many common travel scams.
Adaptive Tactical Tac-Hammer 10/22 Magazine Pouches
A lot of really smart people think the Ruger 10/22 is a very versatile rifle. With extended mags, the rifle excels in everything from home defense, small game hunting, or even “Fry the Brain” style guerilla sniping. I have a 10/22 with a nice scope, a suppressor, a folding stock, and several extended magazines. I think I could cause quite a ruckus with this set up should it be necessary.
What I don’t have is an easy way to carry all my extended mags. This may be a great option.
Owning, Using, and Carrying Guns in Russia
It might be my passion for travel, but I find learning about foreign gun culture to be very interesting. Many Americans assume that citizens of other countries are not allowed to own firearms. In most cases that is not the case. There may be more restrictions on owning weapons than there are here, but many residents of other countries can own firearms. This article describes what the gun laws and gun culture is like in Russia.
Don’t Let Injuries Keep You from Carrying! Tips for the Wounded Carrier
Given a long enough time frame, all of us will find ourselves injured or ailing at some point. It’s best to plan in advance for that possibility. For some other ideas, see my article on Self Defense After Surgery.
10 Essential First-Aid Skills that Every Outdoorsperson Should Master
This is actually one of the better first aid articles I’ve read recently. While I don’t share the author’s enthusiasm for either the SWAT tourniquet or rectal rehydration, most of this information is on point.
VERY RARE INTERVIEWS FORMER MEXICAN MAFIA, NUESTRA FAMILIA, ARYAN BROTHERHOOD, AND NLR SOLDIERS
Here’s a good look at how a top-tier violent criminal thinks and operates. Are you prepared for this type of person?
He Banned ‘Warrior-Style’ Trainings. Now He Wants To Punish LEO’s Who Take Them
What is “fear-based” police training and how does one determine if the training class he is attending is “fear based?”
A healthy fear is a good thing for police officers to have. One of the primary goals of police training is to “remove novelty.” Cops (and anyone else) don’t do well when trying to improvise solutions to violent problems on the fly. If those cops had seen the same scenario played out in a training class prior to it happening in real life, the cop will be much better prepared to deal with it. He would also be far less likely to act inappropriately because (having seen the scenario in training) he already knows the best course of action to take.
Here’s a piece of advice for my cop friends…
If you work for a department that restricts the type of training you do on your own time, get out. Right now. Your department doesn’t give a fuck about your well being if it prohibits you from training the skills you need to stay alive. Find a new job at a department that at least pretends to care if you live or die.
Maintaining The Blade
Some very good advice about knife sharpening. In addition to the author’s recommendations, I would also add the the Spyderco Sharpmaker is another type of sharpening tool that controls the angle at which you are sharpening. I’ve found the Sharpmaker to be the fastest and easiest solution for my knife sharpening needs.
The “Reloading Pause” Fallacy
Doing the math on some active killer mythology.
1911 School, Feeding Part 2 of 3.
The second installment of a good series of articles covering how the 1911 works. This issue covers everything you might possibly want to know about the extractor.
Modern Warrior ProjectBlack Label Report
A very thorough (130 pages) analysis dissecting a massive amount of research describing what your gunfight may look like. For the TL;DR crowd, don’t even click on the link. It’s dense material and requires a good bit of concentration to digest. It’s definitely not a document that can be scanned in a couple of minutes. Opens to PDF
Illinois Warehouse Gunman Said ‘I am Going to Blow Police Up’ Before Shooting Officers
My cop friends need to pay close attention. We’ve known for a long time that active killers research past mass shooting incidents and analyze police response. They alter their strategies to simultaneously avoid the police and rack up a higher body count.
Today’s killer knows that most police officers will make immediate entry and engage the killer with gunfire as soon as possible. The cops shouldn’t be waiting outside for a “posse.” Nor should they be waiting for SWAT. In well trained departments, officers will enter active killer scenes alone and without hesitation.
The killers are now preparing for that. I’ve seen several recent attacks where the killers have shot innocent victims for a couple of minutes and then lay in wait to shoot the cops they know will be making entry. Here’s another example. The killer stopped shooting his co-workers to ambush the responding cops. Five cops were hit by the criminal’s gunfire.
All my cop friends need to read The Ever-Changing Nature of Active Killer Response.
Cops should also study other countries where police ambush is even more prevalent to get some ideas about how a criminal might ambush you on the job. Here’s one example: MS-13 Lures El Salvador Police into Bomb Ambush with Fake Body in Vehicle.
Running Ranges
“Perhaps the most salient point of this column is that a truly invested instructor pays attention to detail, genuinely cares for those s/he instructs, has a real-world verifiable background, can impart knowledge in an efficient manner, and runs evolutions that prepare individuals for that most likely to be encountered.
Experience allows for adaptation, the referencing of real-world shootings and debriefings with no need for a syllabus, and empathy for those who are about to go into harm’s way.
I’ve lost patience with stupidity and nonsensical courses and schools of instruction. As P.T. Barnum once stated, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” My suggestion is, don’t be that sucker.”
A Huge Tip For Using Cover and Concealment
This is excellent advice. I tell my students “If you can touch your cover, you are generally too close.”
There are, however, two exceptions to this doctrine. The first is when dealing with threats from above (including going up stairways). Hugging your cover offers more protection when your potential attacker has the high ground advantage. The second is when operating in very dark conditions with a flashlight. You may have to actually find your cover by feel to ensure that your light beam spills around the cover and doesn’t create a blinding backsplash of light when shined against whatever you are using for cover or concealment.
What to do When a Good Gun Goes Bad
This is actually a very good list of troubleshooting tips for when your rifle accuracy suddenly starts to decline. I would switch up the order of operations a bit. Check the scope mounts first. That’s what I see most commonly causing problems. For copper fouling, I use Sweets 7.62. I’ve tried the others and always had better luck with the Sweets.
Some of the above links (from Amazon.com) are affiliate links. If you purchase these items, I get a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
