It’s not about what you have, but what you find along the way.
Mike Moore, SERE Instructor
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
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.
Now is the Time to Get a Ham Radio License
Communications is yet another skill that I think people should add to their toolbox. It’s just such a fundamental part of modern society, that I don’t think most people could even begin to imagine what it would look like without it.
AAR: Max Velocity Tactical HEAT 1 Training Course
Most training courses offered to civilians focus on quickly and accurately running a carbine.
This course is all about small unit tactics, and it’s amazing.