Thank you for coming by The Everyday Marksman. This site and its community are a labor of love. I hope you stick around for a while, and maybe even join us.
-Matt
Matt is the primary author and owner of The Everyday Marksman. He's a former military officer turned professional tech sector trainer. He's a lifelong learner, passionate outdoorsman, and steadfast supporter of firearms culture.
The Magazine Pouch Primer: Access, Security, and Ergonomics
In this article, we’re diving in on the topic of magazine pouches. We’ll go over my classification system, the tradeoffs between them, what you should prioritize based on your uses, and some basic rules for configuring your ammunition load.
Three Reasons Fitness Matters in Scenario-X
Today we continue on our Scenario-X series by touching on fitness. It’s a core pillar of The Everyday Marksman philosophy, and in this episode I’m giving three domains where it really makes a difference. Only one of them actually has to do with accomplishing the mission at hand.
The AR-15 Barrel Cheat Sheet: Everything You Need to Know
This post summarizes just about everything I’ve learned about rifle barrels in general, and specifically AR-15 Barrels.
It’s fair to say that the barrel is the heart of the gun, and the most important choice to make when configuring a rifle. There are a lot of considerations and tradeoffs to make when deciding on the “right” one for you, so let’s dig in.
Do You Really Need That? A Better Gear Philosophy
Gear articles are among the most popular on the site, so it shouldn’t surprise you that I get a lot of questions about what chest rig to buy, how to set up belts, or whether or not someone really needs a set of plates and night vision. When just starting out, an aspiring prepared citizen is easily overwhelmed by the myriad of choices out there, not to mention the cost of actually acquiring it all.
To many, the simple answer is defaulting to how the military does it. That means dividing up your equipment into first line, second line, third line, and so on. While that makes sense for a military unit who has a primary mission of seeking, fixing, and destroying enemy combatants- it might not actually work for the average citizen just trying to protect their neighborhood during difficult times.
Fit or Fat? It’s Time to be Honest With Yourself
Earlier in 2022, I told you about some of the goals I was working on. Two of them dealt with fitness and nutrition, and now that I’m about done with the six-week nutrition plan I thought it was time to have an honest discussion about where I’m at, where you might be, and where we should all be striving to go.
Marksman Live: How to Build Your Team
In this session of Marksman Live, I talked to Brent0331, Doc Larsen, and Les from Pegasus Tests about the structure and capability of your survival team in Scenario-X. We dug into posture, weapon selection, mindset, and more.
Deal With the Compromise: AR-15 Weight, Capability, and Balance
There’s a question that I see pop up a lot in forums and social media: “How much should my AR-15 weigh?” The most popular answer is, “as light as you can make it.” While pithy, such a response is still valid up to a point. While I can provide some firmer numbers, and I will, it’s also important to consider the weight factor within a context of balancing other elements as well.
Make Ready! Defensive Conditions and Posture During Emergencies
When we start talking about bad situations and what we think we’re going to do, most people in the shooting world immediately think of firefights and raids. But that’s not reality. There are far more mundane concerns that we’re going to spend our time worrying about. Int his post, I’m proposing a system for quickly communicating defensive posture to yourself and the world.
Minimum Capable Handgun Skills Challenge
During last week’s live stream with USPSA Grand Master Josh Shaw, I broached the topic of standards that every capable citizen should aspire to. He provided two simple tests, and now I’m turning them into a challenge for you.
Exploring the Road to Handgun Mastery
In this session of Marksman Live, I talked with Josh Shaw of Green Ops Inc about handgun skills. Josh is a USPSA Grand Master and teaches courses for Green ops in the Northern Virginia Area. We cover the importance of handgun skills, misconceptions, gear selection, and a training plan to propel your success.
Feeling the Crunch? Stockpile Intelligently with Ammo Squared
Every time an ammo crunch comes around, I find myself asking why I didn’t take my own advice about buying ammo slowly over time. The reality is that it comes down to a mixture of time, budget, and attention. I recently came across a company that looks like it could solve that problem for me, and I want to bring them to your attention.
Scenario X: Our Realistic End of the World Situation
I’ve been having a lot of conversations lately about the right mixture of skills, equipment, communications, and other elements of a theoretical emergency situation. With that, it’s time to revisit Scenario-X, our fictional disaster first introduced in the load carriage series. In this post, I want to build out my thoughts a bit more and discuss some of the nuances and reasoning behind it. Why? Well, because it’s going underpin a lot of things coming up soon.