Written by: Greg Ellifritz A reader recently emailed me a question: “What have you found that works best to keep cool while keeping dry (sweating), when wearing a vest? I find myself wearing a vest for as long as 12-hours a day.” It’s a great question. As temperatures broke 80 degrees here last week, […]
Weekend Knowledge Dump- April 12, 2019
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Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. The Old and the Bold: Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife A very interesting video series interviewing British WWII vets. In this episode the veteran being interviewed dishes the dirt on the famed Sykes Fairbairn combat knife. […]
Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz A couple days ago I finished Karl Rehn and John Daub’s new book Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training. I really enjoyed it and found it to contain a whole bunch of valuable information. The authors’ book description follows: “What percentage of carry permit holders attend training […]
Weekend Knowledge Dump- April 5, 2019
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Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. How to Master the Double Action Trigger “The common thing that I see with most people when it comes to a double action trigger pull is they want to pull the trigger pull like […]
Teaching Tips: Vocal Range Commands
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz At the Rangemaster Tactical Conference last month, quite a few of my fellow instructors and I had some in depth conversations about the topic of teaching. The general consensus we came to was that there is an endless variety of information available concerning the relative merits of every tactic and […]
Weekend Knowledge Dump- March 29, 2019
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Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Italian Driver Sets School Bus on Fire After Kidnapping Students I bet most of you didn’t hear about this attack. In Italy, a school bus driver held 51 kids hostage on his bus. He […]
2019 Rangemaster Tactical Conference Round Up
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz I spent last weekend teaching at the 2st Anniversary Rangemaster Tactical Training Conference in New Orleans. I’ve now taught at the last seven Tactical conferences and my TacCon blocks are regularly the most fun classes I teach every year. The conference is three days of material taught by 40 different […]
Don’t Dig The Rig #21
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Written by Greg Ellifritz Concealed Nation has a regular feature on its website called #DIGTHERIG. It consists of reader submitted photos about their individual chosen concealed carry weapon and holster choices. A huge variety of guns and holsters are featured. Real people carry each of these gun and holster combinations. Unfortunately, some of […]
Developing a Pet First Aid Kit
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Last weekend I had the honor of assisting Dr. Lauren Pugliese as she presented her class on pet first aid at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference. Dr. Lauren is a former human EMT and is currently practicing as a board-certified small animal veterinary surgeon at a large veterinary specialty hospital. Dr. Lauren has written an […]
Weekend Knowledge Dump- March 22, 2019
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Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. THE TROUBLE WITH RED FLAG LAWS “Red Flag laws need to be done right, and that won’t happen unless our side goes beyond knee-jerk opposition and has a hand in formulating them. Such a […]
The Gas Station Clerk
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz *I posted the article below on my Facebook page a couple days ago. I got a lot of feedback and the post generated a massive amount of commentary. Several people asked me to expand upon my original post and turn it into an article on my site for those who […]
Seven Year Blog-iversary
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Written by Greg Ellifritz This week marks the completion of seven full years of blogging about self defense, firearms, and personal safety topics. I started this website on March 18, 2012 and have posted nearly 1500 total articles since then. Over the course of the last seven years, the website has seen more […]
In the Name of Self Defense
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Anyone who has studied the science of self protection for a long time will recognize the name Marc “The Animal” MacYoung. I first started reading MacYoung’s books when I was in high school. Back in the late 1980s, he was one of the few authors who wrote about real life street combat and the psychology […]
Can a Walking Cane be an Effective Weapon?
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I’ve taught hundreds of people how to fight with a cane. I genuinely believe that a cane can be an excellent “low profile” weapon in the right hands…assuming the person wielding the cane has a little training or practice. Before I talk about how best to use the cane, let’s take a look at […]
Weekend Knowledge Dump- March 15, 2019
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Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. CHAIR QUAL:Barricade Skills Using a Folding Chair I did this drill for the first time almost 20 years ago in an NRA patrol rifle instructor class taught by the now-departed Clive Shepherd. I used […]
The Serpa Compendium
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz I listened to an excellent podcast yesterday. The episode was from Civilian Carry Radio, discussing an incident where a heroic female security guard stopped an active killer outside of a dance club. The security guard was an Army veteran and had some military firearms training. She also passed her state armed […]
Tactical Training Scenario: Fighting Against a Taser or Stun Gun
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz Have you ever thought about what you would do if a criminal threatened you with a Taser? I’ve been seeing criminals use electric shock weapons with increased frequency recently. I did a quick google search and found 20 separate Taser crimes in the last two months. Five years […]
Weekend Knowledge Dump- March 8, 2019
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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 […]
Weekend Knowledge Dump- March 1, 2019
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Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. International Travel’s Biggest Risks I discuss this issue at length in my upcoming third-world travel safety book. If you die overseas, it won’t be from a terrorist bullet or an infectious disease. It will […]
Tactical Training Scenario- Violent Car Jacking Attempt
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz I was scanning my online news feeds yesterday and found this interesting account of an attempted carjacking. Read about it at the following link: Cowardly carjacker brutally punches woman, 62, knocking out several teeth It was almost one a.m. when a 62-year old woman parked her car in her […]