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.

Are You a Tactical Minimalist?

The longer you're in this community, the more you realize that there's almost an overwhelming number of skills to learn. One of the biggest traps people fall into is trying to become a master of everything. Often that looks like learning infinite variations of each skill. I think this ultimately becomes a distraction, and prevents us from thinking about the bigger picture.

Do You Need an All-in-One Fighting Kit?

I ventured off into a thought experiment that ended up becoming something...more. I've long suggested that the average prepared citizen should consider a battle belt and chest rig (or plate carrier) combo as their go-to fighting gear. There's a lot of advantages there. On the other side, though, I've been thinking a lot about a single "grab and go" fighting kit all contained in a single piece of equipment. Here's where I'm at with the idea.

Hammer-Fired vs Striker-Fired: A War on Two Fronts

There are several timeless debates in the firearms world: 9mm vs 45, Stoner vs Kalashnikov, 10.5" vs 12.5" AR-15's, Kydex vs leather, or Glock vs...everything. Some of these have settled, but others....well I don't think we'll ever get to a final answer. One of these debates is hammer-fired pistols against striker-fired. I'd like to put my own two cents out there.

Evaluating Your Gear for Real World Use

A series of recent events reminded me of the importance of actually checking your gear for fit, function, and purpose. It doesn't have to take long, and it pays dividends when you actually have to use your stuff for competition, personal defense, or worse. Unfortunately, many people just don't know where to start, so they begin and end with mounting pouches on their kit, snapping a few photos, and saying "Good enough!"

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.
Faxon 18" Gunner profile barrel on another project

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 ...

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.

Adventure Awaits

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