I have long had a tendency to tie marksmanship to morality. The essence of good marksmanship is self-control, and self-control is the essence of good citizenship. It is too easy to say that a good shot is automatically a good man, but it would be equally incorrect to ignore the connection.
Marksmanship is the heart of everything we do here. Through marksmanship, we learn and practice discipline, focus, and self-control. As one of my podcast guests once put it over a couple of beers, “Marksmanship is the American Martial Art.”
Here you will find all of my articles, podcasts, and marksman challenges relating to the study and practice of good marksmanship. If you’re specifically looking to learn the fundamentals, be sure to check out my article series on how to shoot a rifle. I’ll soon be working on a series for pistol marksmanship as well.
If you haven’t tested yourself against a Marksman Challenge, be sure to check one of them out and lets us know how you did over in the community forum.
/// Marksmanship Archive
Pistols and Patriotism: Project Appleseed Pistol Clinic AAR
At the start of October, I went to a Project Appleseed Pistol Clinic to get a refresh on my pistol skills and see what the new program was all about. I came away both satisfied with my performance and appreciating the hard work that the Appleseed folks put into developing this new curriculum. Let's dig in!
Martial Marksman Drill #2: The Modified Jason Drill
Marksman Drill #2 stems from the work of John Simpson, a sniper instructor and author I've interviewed several times. The goal is using a consistent sized target, 5 shots, and decreasing amounts of time. Let's dig in.
The Everyday Gunslinger: Starting the Path to Pistolero
I've got a bit of a confession to make, and it's embarrassing. I'm not all that great with pistols. I'm not a bad pistol shooter, per se. But on balance, my pistol shooting lags way behind my rifle shooting. I think that's a problem, so let's talk about why I'm going to fix it.
Four Years from Friday: Approaching Your Training Life in Seasons
Let's talk long term. Too many people think that success is just a few weeks or months away, when that is far from the truth. In reality, success is a culmination of long term effort often years in the making. In this piece, I take a little known two day challenge and show you how I would break it down into a series of seasons and blocks that could be repeated over and over again, always driving closer and closer to success.
Thinking Beyond the Drill, or the “Teaching to the Test” Fallacy
I've got a little bit of a bone to pick with how a lot of the shooting culture talks about drills. Much like weight lifting and gym bro culture, it seems a lot of shooters are more interested in flexing their egos than actually using drills as a way to improve. But how, exactly, should we approach that?
Martial Marksman Drill #1: Fast and Accurate Enough
This is the first of several "official" drills here at The Everyday Marksman. This one is about focusing on speed while maintaining a minimum accuracy standard at any distance with any weapon platform.
Prioritizing Your Marksmanship Training Zones
My recent post on establishing a fitness hierarchy made me realize that I need to do the same thing for marksmanship training. So here we are. Today I'm discussing my breakdown for prioritizing training distances and my reasoning for them.
The Martial Marksman’s Training Philosophy: Simple, Not Easy
In the last episode, I discussed the Martial Marksman ideal and how it relates to the various topics I talk about here. One of the challenges that anyone going down this path quickly runs into is the fact that there is a lot of “stuff” to learn and practice. It’s one thing for a professional soldier to do these things, but it’s a very different beast for Everyday Marksmen like you and I.
Virtue in the Crosshairs: The Martial Marksman Ideal
Every year, I tend to focus in on a “theme” to pursue. Sometimes it’s personally, sometimes it’s got a bit more to do with the site. For most of 2022, the key phrase was “Minimum Capable Citizen.” The idea was around a set of standards and baseline targets that I think any prepared citizen should strive for. Eventually, the idea fizzled out a bit when I felt like there wasn’t much more to write. I’m not interested in “minimum.” I believe we should strive for excellence, and minimum doesn’t cut it. In 2023, my goals turned personal, with a heavy ...
Introducing the Rifleman Pentathlon: A Game for Martial Marksmen
For a while, I've been kicking around an idea for a new type of competition. I enjoy all the various disciplines I've played in, but also think that each of them in isolation is missing something. Today, I'd like to tell you about my vision for a "complete" type of match that I think covers all of the foundations of Everyday Marksmen, and it does so in a way that lets all of us have an objective to train for. Let's talk about the Rifleman Pentathlon.
Foundations of Patrol Rifle Marksmanship: Know Your Objective!
A while back, while talking about the latest revision to his sniper marksmanship book, John Simpson let me know that he had another book on the way- this one focused on patrol rifle marksmanship. Well it recently hit the shelves and we got together again to talk more about rifle marksmanship, training philosophies, and competition. Let's dig in.
An Introduction to Sniping 4th Generation
The Swiss Sniping 4th Generation, or S4G, concept leverages ballistic arcs and volleys of fire to increase hit probability. It's not as fancy as the American Designated Marksman Program, but it's no slouch, either.
The 2023 West Virginia Gun Run: The Retrospective
Months of prep time, new gear configurations, and a lot of articles. I finally ran the West Virginia Gun Run this past Saturday. Here's some notes on how it went and what I'd do differently in the future.
The Four Corners Approach to Unlocking Peak Performance
Today I'm discussing a concept that's been brewing in the the back of my brain. While working on the book, I've needed a way to illustrate how different things we do relate to improving the whole and take use to new levels of performance. I think I've figured it out, and this is my first go at explaining it.
The Road to Victory: My Tactical Biathlon Training Blueprint
So I did it, I got my ticket for the April 2023 West Virginia Gun Run. On the request of a community member, I want to tell you a bit about how I'm structuring my training for it, and how it's going now that I'm about half way through it. If you're interested, you can also join up to use my full program for yourself.
WTF: You Just Have to Experience It
I sat down with a few of our community members who recently competed in events put on by Waco Tactical Fitness. I'll be doing a similar tactical biathlon event later next month, and I was curious about equipment, training, and lessons learned from the events.
