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
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.
Baseline Medical for You and Your Group
In this episode, we build on the concept of the minimum capable citizen caught in Scenario X by talking about medical. Both what you need to know, and what you should always expect to carry. I also discuss some of my favorite first aid kit pouches for good measure.
What I Learned Moving from Glock to a CZ 75
MLC recently stared migrating from striker fired pistols to hammer-fired CZ pistols. He's learned a few lessons on the way. In this post, he does a mini-review of his CZ 75 SP01 and how it what to look out for when comparing it to the ubiquitous Glock.
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.
