Today I’m going to turn the instructorship articles around and talk a bit about the other half of the student/instructor equation: the student. I honestly don’t know what I’ve done more of in my adult life: teaching or being a student. As an adult I have spent thousands of hours in the student seat, and my learning has never stopped. It has slowed down significantly, and the chances I get to be a student these days are precious. Below are some tips on how to be a good student. This might be a standalone, or it might be a Part I….we’ll see.
Dry Practice Tools: A-Zoom Snap Caps
One of the best things about dry practice is the very minimal equipment demands and non-existent consumable demands. Dry practice doesn’t consume ammo, destroy targets, or require a lot of expensive tools. It is a very inexpensive training methodology – anyone can afford to dry practice. One thing you do need, however, is a good set of snap caps. Today I’m going to talk about A-Zoom snap caps.
The ‘Real World’ Bachelor’s of Tactical Science
Recently I wrote about my “perfect world” Bachelor’s of Tactical Science. When it came to obtaining my “bachelor’s” equivalent of tactical science, I did a lot of things right. I joined the military which gives some training away for free. I got myself into a special operations outfit, which gives a lot of training away for free. As a civilian I’ve been a little lazy at times, and a little time- or cash-strapped at others, but I have still managed to chip away at it over the years in a more “real world” fashion. Today I’m going to talk about what a more realistic version of the “Bachelor’s of Tactical Science” may look like.
Know a Knot! Figure-8 Loop
Welcome to the first article in my “Know a Knot” series! There’s little that tells me more about a man that his ability to tie a knot, or not. Knowing how to tie a knot or two means you’ve taken the time to learn how to tie a knot, when it is useful, and when it isn’t. If you’re stuck at home, learn to tie a few knots over the next few weeks. This knowledge will serve you well (to steal Jack Spirko’s line) if times get tough, or even if they don’t. Today we’ll start with a very important knot: the Figure-8 loop.
Why the 9mm 1911?
I recently received the following question from a reader: “How about a blog post on what led you to your current EDC handgun? A 9mm 1911 isn’t the most common choice, and I know you had been working with revolvers for a while there.” He’s absolutely right; a 9mm 1911 is a pretty unconventional choice for several reasons. Let’s take a look at them, and the gun itself.
Digital Security Primer Part III: Cloud Stored Data
In my last post in this mini-series, I talked about Step 1 in my Security Framework: Malware Resilience. The steps there are all designed to minimize the chances of contracting malware. There are other steps, more advanced that can be taken, and maybe I’ll cover those in the future. They get much more technically demanding and time-consuming to implement.
Dry Practice Function Stacking: Targets
With a lot of you working from or otherwise hanging out at home, I hope a lot of my readers are using their time to learn some stuff. One thing I hope everyone stuck at home is doing is dry-practicing. Another thing that might nudge some into dry practice is the current ammo shortage. Today I’m going to talk about some very simple, low-cost things you can to do increase the value of your dry practice time.
Your Dry Practice Plan 4: March 16 – 31
If you carry a gun, you do so because you believe you might be in a gunfight. If you knew you were going to be in a gunfight tomorrow, would you spend some time dry practicing today? We all waste countless minutes per day mindlessly scrolling social media or watching TV. Take just ten of those minutes each day and better yourself. Here is your dry practice plan for the next two weeks.
Adjusting Your Safety Margins
I could have also titled this article, “Two Places I Don’t Want to Be Right Now.” We haven’t been out much lately. We were about a week ahead of the curve on “social distancing;” we stopped eating from restaurants, going to the gym, and going to BJJ. My girlfriend works from home and my work is travel-based, so naturally that’s shut down right now. As a result we’ve been pretty isolated.
My Thoughts on Military Service
This is the answer to a question I’ve gotten twice from the same reader. The first time was a couple years ago on another platform. He recently got back in touch and said he’d be interested in hearing my thoughts on military service. I’ll give you my thoughts and my biggest pros and cons. Keep in mind these aren’t in order of importance, I just wrote them as they occurred to me.