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
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.
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.
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 ...
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.
Exploring the Road to Handgun Mastery
In this session of Marksman Live, I talked with Josh Shaw of Green Ops Inc about handgun skills. Josh is a USPSA Grand Master and teaches courses for Green ops in the Northern Virginia Area. We cover the importance of handgun skills, misconceptions, gear selection, and a training plan to propel your success.
