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
\\\ Administrative
\\\ Helpful Links
COPYRIGHT © The Everyday Marksman
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 the AR-15. Barrels are an important topic, so settle in for some details.
Community Member Highlight: Mark Cutright
Podcast: Play in new window
As part of a new series I’m calling Community Highlights, I asked Mark Cutright- my first subscriber, to come onto the show and tell us his story. Mark has extensive background with tactical training as a civilian, and a lot of advice overall.
Choosing the Best Concealed Carry Belt for You
Today we’re continuing our discussion on load carriage. But now we’re moving towards the discreet end of the spectrum. I didn’t think all that much about my belt when I first received my CCW permit. It was all about the pistol and associated holster. But the truth is that a good concealed carry belt is part of a system that includes the pistol, holster, belt, and you.
The Go-Getter Marksman Challenge
Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
At its heart, The Everyday Marksman is about taking action. The more action you take, and the more wins you amass in the process, then the stronger your mindset becomes.
As Coach Lombardi put it, winning is a habit. So even if you have to start with small wins and slowly build up to big wins, that’s still building a habit towards success. For this challenge, you are going to set a goal, tell us about it, and then follow it through to completion.
Goal Setting: When Wishing is Not a Valid Course of Action
Podcast: Play in new window
Today’s episode covers three topics. Each of the focus on some important aspect of setting and achieving goals. First, we’ll talk about selecting and writing down a goal. Secondly, and this is where most people fall short, we’re going to talk about how to actually plan for the success of that goal. Lastly, we’ll talk about some of the common mental pitfalls that stop you from achieving whatever desire you have.
Why are we talking about this topic today? Well, that’s a great question.
How to Breathe for Better Marksmanship
One of the easily overlooked areas of good marksmanship is controlling your breathing. I really believe it’s one of those things that everyone knows they should get control of it, but good breath control becomes one of the first marksmanship fundamentals to go out the window as pressure mounts.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the midst of a stage and didn’t even think about my breathing until after it was over. Of course, then I try to go backwards and wonder if I did it correctly anyway, or if I did it wrong and it cost me a little bit of performance.
Loading Your Rifle with Ammo and Not Ego
Podcast: Play in new window
Russell Miller is a triple-distinguished competition shooter as well as a former special operations officer. He’s spent an enormous amount of time coaching snipers and precision shooters, and today he’s our guest on the show.
In this episode, we cover a lot of ground between the world of competition shooting and tactical precision marksmanship. Russ shared some very pointed criticism of US Army marksmanship training.
Some of the main topics I think you’ll enjoy focus on getting started in rifle competition, and establishing a balance between behaviors appropriate for competition versus defensive situations. Additionally, we spend a lot of time talking about the importance of consistent practice to build a foundation of skills that make good marksmanship instinctive.
Conquering the Emergency Shelter Challenge
For this challenge, we’re pivoting to the survival world. With hunting season approaching, or just general outdoors activity in cooler weather, I thought it was appropriate to work on developing and deploying an emergency shelter kit.
So let’s talk about the Emergency Shelter Challenge.
On Tactical Timmy, Boogaloo Bob, and Other Notable Characters
Podcast: Play in new window
This podcast episode introduces you to four recurring gun culture characters I might mention from time to time: Tactical Timmy, Boogaloo Bob, Fuddy Fred, and Sheepdog Shane.
Try not to take my irreverence too seriously on this one. We all have some of these characters inside of us, and I’m just giving them names so that we can bring the stereotypes to light and talk about it.
AAR: GoRuck Active Shooter Intervention
On July 20th, 2019, I attended GoRuck’s Active Shooter Intervention training course, as well as a night fire. I took away a lot of lessons from this one, including a preference for fiber optic sights on my pistols over tritium night sights, as well as the importance of good weapon light usage.