It’s not about what you have, but what you find along the way.
In this section, you’re looking at all of my articles, podcasts, and challenges related to survival and tactical skills. The more that you know how to do, the less pressure you feel to overload yourself with unnecessary equipment.
From knot tying to survival shelter construction and communications, the marksman’s tactical skillset is broad. I suggest picking a topic and diving deep into it to learn what you can, share it with others, and then work on the next skill in the chain.
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.
/// Skillset Archive
Mike Green of Green Ops Tactical Talks About Adult Skills
Mike Green is a 15 year veteran of Special Operations who began a training company in Northern Virginia as a bit of a side gig. His school has since grown into quite the training operation spanning multiple states and categories of students. One of the things that stood out to me about Green Ops is their motto, “Why Should Your Training Be Less Special?”
The Marksman’s Trinity: Balance for New and Old Gun Owners
The theme of the month is all about balance, so here’s another one to think about. I thought about the elements that should go into decision making regarding everything we do, and I categorized everything into these three: safety, capability, and security. As gun owners and firearms enthusiasts, we should always be mindful of keeping these things in balance.
A Marksman’s Balance: Making Time for Things that Matter
Today's episode has to do with the theme of the month within our community over at The Marksman's Quarter: finding balance. I thought this was an appropriate topic because I just came off of a month-long break from writing or recording, and wanted to talk a little bit about what led to that hiatus and the things that have been on my mind.
From Here to the Edge of the World: Talking Radio Skills with NC Scout
Today we're sitting down with NC Scout of Brushbeater and American Partisan to talk about radio communications. Scout comes from an Army Infantry scout background, with time served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a variety of martial skills to everyday folks, including radio communications.
Overnight Outdoor Challenge
This marksman challenge is about spending a night in the wilderness. What good are all of the knot tying, fire-making, and other outdoors skills if we don't put them to use. Take this chance to get out there and enjoy a bit of nature.
The Everyday Knot Tying Challenge
This Marksman Challenge is all about the art of tying knots. I've long observed that experienced outdoorsmen learn to tie a few reliable knots extremely well, and use them for just about everything. Knowing knots also means you can carry less stuff. So let's get on to the challenge.
Community Member Highlight: Graveyard Fields
This episode is another in our community member highlight series. Today we’re focusing on Justin “Graveyard” Fields, who is very active in the community and is himself a prolific blogger. Among other blogs he runs, he most recently set up Swift | Silent | Deadly, a blog focused on full-spectrum individual security. In this interview, we talk a bit about how Justin got interested in writing about this particular set of topics as well as his thoughts on the lessons we should all be taking away from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sharpening the Edge: There’s Value in Competition
Life is full of competition. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, all of life is a giant competition for resources and reproduction. Entire species either prosper or go extinct on the macro level due to their collective abilities to compete in an ever-changing environment. Nations, businesses, and people operate in a similar way. And so should you.
Amateur Radio License Challenge
This challenge is deceptively simple: get your ham radio ticket. I've been saying over and over that the time to start learning about radio is well before there's an actual emergency situation where it becomes required. So what better way to encourage you to get started than offering a challenge?
Surviving so You Can Piss Off the Mortgage Company
In this episode of Everyday Marksman Radio, I'm talking to former Army Special Forces SERE instructor Mike Moore about what it takes to survive an emergency. We dig into survival myths, homemade survival kits, and more.
The Survival Fire Marksman Challenge
Building a fire is a fundamental outdoors survival skill. Fire keeps you warm, cooks your food, signals others for help, and purifies your water. But too many of us take the easy route for building one. The survival fire challenge is about doing it the old fashioned way.
Conquering the Emergency Shelter Challenge
For this challenge, we're pivoting to the survival world. With hunting season approaching, or just general outdoors activity in cooler weather, I thought it was appropriate to work on developing and deploying an emergency shelter kit. So let's talk about the Emergency Shelter Challenge.
AAR: GoRuck Active Shooter Intervention
On July 20th, 2019, I attended GoRuck’s Active Shooter Intervention training course, as well as a night fire. I took away a lot of lessons from this one, including a preference for fiber optic sights on my pistols over tritium night sights, as well as the importance of good weapon light usage.
Lessons Learned in the Wilderness
This episode of Everyday Marksman Radio is a bit more improvised than what you’ve heard so far. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, talking, and interviewing about the guns and shooting side of the house. For this session, I wanted to pivot a bit more towards the survival and skillset side of things. In this episode, I’m going back into some of my adventures to talk about two in particular. One was a fantastic three-week canoe trip through Northern Canada, the other was a jaunt along a section of the Appalachian Trail.
AAR: Ham Radio Technician Examination
I recently completed my ham radio technician exam with a score of 100% and received my license. In the end, it wasn't all that difficult, and I'd like to go over my preparation process in case you want to do the same.
Book Review: Total Resistance – A Layman’s Guide to Guerilla Warfare
I collect manuals and books dealing with the Cold War era. Today, I want to take a closer look at one of those books. I find this particular one relevant to the topics of community defense and working with a team to provide security.
