Lessons from the Past: 3 Reasons to Carry Backup To some, notorious Old West gunfighter John Wesley Hardin was a psychopathic murderer and racist. To others, Hardin was a genuine American hero. Whether Hardin was a terrorist or a freedom fighter was a question that dogged him throughout his lifetime. Now, 150 years after…
Category: Pistol Corner
Shooting Mechanics: Cooper’s El Presidente
Classic Combat Pistol Drill: Cooper’s El Presidente When my father first started teaching me to shoot a handgun around nine or ten years old, he used Cooper’s Modern Technique to cement the fundamentals and then a few years later the El Presidente to combine all of these skills together. One of the things I distinctly…
One-Handed Survival Shooting Techniques – Necessary or Fluff?
One-Handed Survival Shooting Techniques – Necessary or Fluff? Training with one hand is often referred to as “wounded shooter training”. Is this always the case? Read more to find out more. Last week’s Facebook LIVE discussion covered one-handed survival manipulation; a subject I took a liking to long ago. When I was instructing with the Federal…
Combat Shooting 101: The Zipper
From the Archives, 2013 The armed civilian, like the LEO, needs to evaluate his Course of Fire and Firearm Drills frequently to make sure they stay current with the times. The best example of this is the increased use of Body Armor by thugs. Looking at history, one could expect your “higher class”…
The Average Civilian Pistol Permit Holder is Better with Their Weapons than Most Cops
The Average Civilian Pistol Permit Holder is Better with Their Weapons than Most Cops New York State, with its liberal politics and highly restrictive gun laws, might be the last place you’d expect to have a sheriff who actively encourages private citizens to get trained, licensed, and armed in order to help counter the nation-wide…
The Bad Ass Files: Robert “R.J.” Thomas – The Story of a Real American Gunfighter
A REAL AMERICAN GUNFIGHTER AND HIS GUNS When those who grew up in my era hear the words “gunfight” or “gunfighter,” we immediately get a vision of something that never existed. Spending many of my Saturdays in the late 1940s at the West Theater to watch western movies with the likes of Roy Rogers,…
Know Your Ammo: The Rise and Fall of the .45 GAP
The Rise and Fall of the .45 GAP Let’s go back to the year 2003. The .40 S&W cartridge introduced in 1990 skyrocketed to first place in popularity among American police service pistols. The almost decade-old .357 SIG cartridge also seemed to be ascendant. It was clear that law enforcement wanted something more powerful…
VP-22 – A Disposable Plastic Welrod
VP-22 – A Disposable Plastic Welrod The VP-22 is an almost entirely 3D printed .22lr VP9 (a copy of the WW2 British Welrod) type bolt-action pistol featuring a 12-shot magazine and screw-on suppressor. This design comes via FOSSCAD (Free Open Source Software and Computer Aided Design).
Stupid Hand Shooting Drills
One Handed Pistol Shooting Drill Practicing shooting a pistol with your non-dominant hand (aka weak or stupid hand) is something we all need to practice more often. Why? Well, because Mr. Murphy is always lurking to kick your ass and the chances of something happening out on the street where you are either shot…
Spaulding’s Rules of Conflict
Spaulding’s Rules of Conflict Operational rules are a sound practice and, over the years, I have created some I use in my classes. Recently, a student said, “You should write those down and give them out to students.” As I sat down to create the list I thought, “Maybe others would like to read…