Only accurate rifles are interesting
The primary emphasis of The Everyday Marksman is on your personal skill and capabilities, but I’m not blind to the importance of good and reliable equipment for your success. The articles here cover selecting, configuring, and using your gear.
You can’t escape the work, though.
The thing I want to you remember is that your equipment only has to be good enough to be reliable. After that, it’s all about what you are capable of achieving with it. Don’t fall into the trap, as I did, of looking for mechanical solutions to software problems.
/// Equipment Archive
The Beginner’s Guide to Ammunition Management
A while back, I did a primer on magazine pouches, and one of the topics I mentioned was managing your ammunition supply. This is the follow-up where I get into some specific advice for beginners about working through your equipment and positioning your magazines.
Just Say No to Flex Culture
Like many enthusiast topics, we've got a problem with flex culture. What is that? Today we're talking about it, how it manifests, why its a problem, and what you can do to combat it.
Resource Review: The Guerilla’s Guide to the Baofeng Radio
My friend NC Scout of Brushbeater recently put out a book about using the Baofeng radio as the base of a whole communications plan. The interesting thing about the book is that the Baofeng is only a small part of what he's actually talking about, while the rest is incredibly useful for just about anyone looking to use radio equipment in challenged situations. Let's dig in.
Chasing Optimum and Other Marketing Failures
Everyone loves talking about optimization. Entire industries spend huge amounts of money convincing you that their new whiz bang gadget or service will take you to the next level with no additional skill required. Today I'm putting a stake in the ground to tell you that optimum is a myth, and our constant pursuit of it only detracts us from focusing on what's actually important for our success.
Canik Rival Review: Bullet Points
The Rival is Canik’s first competition-focused gun and is supposed to be ready to compete in USPSA, IPSC and IDPA out of the box. This is close to true, as that box is loaded with accessories.
CoolFire Trainer: The Raw Truth Long(ish) Term Review
There was a time where ammo was cheap, but those days are gone. The CoolFire Trainer allows you to train with your carry gun for the price of cheap .22lr in the comfort of your own home and on your own schedule. But after nearly 18 months of ownership, do I think it's worth it? Let's discuss.
Otto Noizebarrier Range SA: Raw Truth Review
When you talk about electronic hearing protection, most people either think "cheaper" like the ubiquitous Howard Leights or "Super Expensive" like Peltor Comtacs and Ops-Core AMPs. Today I'm looking at another American-made option you might not know about, the Otto Noizebarrier Range SA.
The Rifleman Harness: Old School is New Again
As part of revising my load bearing equipment, I've continued building on previous versions to create something I've dubbed the Rifleman Harness. It's a heavier load bearing equipment configuration for longer duration away from home.
Digital Radio for Serious Marksmen: AnyTone 878UVII+
Since you and I aren't part of a well-organized, funded, and supplied group who can issue common equipment to everyone, it makes the most sense that your radio brings the most flexibility that you can get. In this post, I want to quickly touch on what I think is the best "all around" radio for the prepared citizen. We'll touch on digital mobile radio (DMR) and the capability it brings along, as well as a few alternatives.
Swampfox Optics Trihawk Review: I Can See Everything
The Swampfox Trihawk is a 3x magnified prism optic intended for tactical usage by law enforcement and prepared citizens. It sports a best-in-class field of view, great optical clarity, and battery-powered illumination. At about a quarter of the price of an ACOG, will it become my go-to recommendation for people looking at prism optics? Let's take a look.
TA33 3×30 ACOG Review: The “Gunfighter’s” Optic
To start off a series of reviews concerning 3x prismatic optics, I wanted to start with the current king of the 3x hill, as it were. The TA33 has been around since 2007, and is well known among enthusiasts. Let's run down what makes this model so interesting, how it works up close, and where its age is starting to show.
The Complete Novice’s Guide to Your First Handgun
The first handgun purchase is usually a daunting decision, because there's a lot of technicality mixed in with personal preferences of the individual giving the advice. This is my attempt to simplify it down a bit and focus on the most important things.
Developing a Flexible Team Communications Setup
I spent a good part of 2021 trying to figure out a way to better integrate communications into my equipment without breaking the bank. While I'm all for spending money on quality gear, I'm not above considering the return on investment, and I've not felt like $1000 communications headsets were worth it for me. Then, one random day, I realized that I had almost everything I needed already, minus one important affordable part.
Marksman Live: The Prism Optics Primer with Ilya Koshkin
This week I sat down again with Ilya, the Dark Lord of Optics, to answer some lingering questions I've got about prism optics. I wanted to understand how they work relative to traditional rifle scopes, and some of the tradeoffs required when designing them. During the conversation, we also wandered over how rifle scopes work in general, reticle color selection, durability, engineering tradeoffs, and more. I'm also posting the audio-only version of this as well.
Are Prism Scopes Due for a Big Comeback?
I'm making a casual bet that the market for compact prism optics is going to heat up soon. Low power variable optics (LPVO) have been king for the last several years, of course, but I'm noticing some trends and techniques that I think will lead us in a different direction.
Rifle Marksmanship Standards for Everyday Marksmen
Today we're defining the Everyday Marksman minimum rifle standards. This is a two-part test of both speed and marksmanship fundamentals. I want to outline the test itself, why I defined this requirements, but also what I left out.
