The Everyday Marksman

Tactical Skills for a Life Well Lived

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Tips for Adding an Assault Pack to Your Loadout

Last Updated on - By - 8 Minute Read - 3 Comments

During our series on load carriage, we’ve gone over all of the most common methods available. We hit the battle belt, the chest rig, and even the classic load bearing equipment (LBE) configuration. In all of the other articles I’ve written, I’ve made it pretty clear that I like to keep things minimal on the belt or chest.

Well, now it’s time to talk about where to put all that extra stuff: the assault pack.

However, I’m not taking this in a direction you might expect. The assault pack needs to be pretty minimal as well because weight is our enemy. Let’s dig into it. [Read Full Article »]

Conversation Starter: Have You Registered for Any Upcoming Matches?

Last Updated on - By - 4 Minute Read - 4 Comments

In the last conversation starter post, I talked about my goals throughout the year. We’re closing in on the end of the first quarter, and I’m on track to finish mine so far. It’s time to look ahead.

In Q2, I want to start competing in local matches. As a point of commitment, I registered for a match about an hour away. My equipment probably isn’t up to snuff, and my skills are certainly rusty, but that’s ok.

Let’s talk about my match and what you might have coming up. [Read Full Article »]

Book Review: Total Resistance – A Layman’s Guide to Guerilla Warfare

Last Updated on - By - 10 Minute Read - 6 Comments

I have an enthusiastic interest in the Cold War. You could probably attribute that to my experience as an ICBM officer while serving on active duty, but that’s beside the point. As an extension of that interest, I collect manuals and books dealing with the era. I want to take a closer look at one of those books today. I find this particular one relevant to the topics of community defense and working with a team to provide security.

I picked up this book several years ago when I heard that Paladin Press was going out of business and liquidating inventory. My edition is a reprint of the manual.

A Swiss military officer wrote the original book in 1957, the peak of the Cold War. The authors believed that the Soviet Union was ready to steamroll through Switzerland, and they wanted to prepare the population to survive an occupation. Major Von Dach’s work is the written portion of that effort. [Read Full Article »]

The Tactical Chest Rig: Is Higher Better?

Last Updated on - By - 8 Minute Read - 13 Comments

With this post, we turn our attention to the chest rig. The main focus of my article is on the standalone versions of the chest rig, but the information applies just as readily to plate carriers and other ways of moving the load higher on the torso.

So far, we’ve focused on carrying the fighting load around the waist, where it distributes load to the hips. Historically, this is the load placement of choice for militaries around the world going all the way back to the Romans. But it wasn’t the only option. [Read Full Article »]

How the Infantry Board Kept the AR-15 Alive During the 1950s

Last Updated on - By - 10 Minute Read - 4 Comments

It’s time to continue our series on the history of the M-16 and how it came to be. You see, the story of the M-16 is really the story of its accompanying cartridge, the 5.56×45 NATO.

We last left off from this tale in 1955, where Gerald Gustafson and William Davis had their funding cut off for any further research into small-caliber high-velocity (SCHV) cartridges. The Army Ordnance Board, responsible for developing new small arms, was well down the path to adopting the 7.62 NATO and M-14 rifle. [Read Full Article »]

Load Bearing Equipment: History, Personal Use, and Pro-Tips

Last Updated on - By - 13 Minute Read - 11 Comments

This post continues our look at load carriage by focusing on more traditional load bearing equipment. Before we get into my personal setups, I want to talk a little bit about how load carrying gear evolved over time.

Let’s set the way-back machine to the early 1950s, when Norman Hitchman published the Project ALCLAD report (remember that one?) flatly stating that the survival of a soldier on the battlefield necessitated reducing the weight of their equipment. [Read Full Article »]

Trijicon LED TA-110 ACOG: Raw Truth Reviews

Last Updated on - By - 10 Minute Read - Leave a Comment

For whatever reason, I don’t think the Trijicon battery-powered LED ACOGs have gained as much traction as they deserve. Perhaps it’s the overall trend towards low-powered variable optics that’s hindering it, or maybe it’s the relative cost. Either way, the classic combat optic paired with an efficient LED emitter is a great combination, and I want to take a deeper look at it. In particular, I’m going to review my TA-110 ACOG with the horseshoe-dot reticle and green LED illumination. [Read Full Article »]

Gerald Gustafson’s Underdog Cartridge and the Future of Small Arms

Last Updated on - By - 5 Minute Read - 2 Comments

By the mid-1950s, Gerald Gustafson and William Davis had taken up as champions of the little .22 cartridge. They were involved in D.L. Hall’s earlier work, and now they wanted to continue proving to the Army that this research path was a worthy contender for an infantry rifle.

But they met stiff resistance. Not the least of which was from the Chief of Army Ordnance, who took every effort to hide their work from the world. [Read Full Article »]

The Battle Belt: 3 Essential Tips for Carrying Gear Like a Boss

Last Updated on - By - 13 Minute Read - 33 Comments

The battle belt is a sort of modern iteration of the classic ALICE gear that served the US military from the 70s through late 90s. But there are some significant differences, particularly in the type and amount of load that the belt handles.

You see, the battle belt should not carry your entire load. In fact, you should think of it more as a minimum essential kit for fighting and surviving. It’s a piece of gear that you can keep with you all of the time, and then build up with extra equipment as needed.

In this post, I’m going to go over my own history with battle belts and walk you through how my own kit evolved over time. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and lessons, and develop your own ideas. [Read Full Article »]

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