The Everyday Marksman

More than one time, John Simpson mentioned to me that you don't prepare for the test by practicing the test. It's a bit of a call out against shooters who think that the path to improvement is merely about faster times on their drill of preference. My observation is that a shooter's preferred "game" usually dictates what drills they care about. Bill Drills, classifiers, 1-5, dot t

I've been seeing a question going around forums and social media for the last week or two. The gist of it is, "What would you suggest as a solid basic armory for a serious new gun owner?" The context usually a friend or young man coming of age into the world of firearms ownership and training. I've found the answers to be both entertaining and enlightening. You see the obvious bia

I'm going to ruffle some feathers today. In fact, I'm highlighting something I've been doing poorly for years. While I was putting together the hierarchy of physical fitness for the Martial Marksman, I realized there was a need to do the same thing for firearms training and marksmanship. We tend to focus on the things we're already good at, or at least the things we most enjoy. Fo

I was reflecting on something Lanny Bassham wrote in his book, With Winning in Mind. It's something that I reference a lot, and definitely suggest giving it a read. When discussing selecting the right goal, Lanny says that you should pick something that you're willing to trade your life for. He doesn't mean that in the literal sense of dying for your goal. Rather, it's a figurativ

When I re-launched the Everyday Marksman site in 2018, I thought it was important to have a core topic area around Mindset. Inspired by the work of Lanny Bassham and others, it's important that I kept at least some focus on the idea of training the mind to perform just as much as practicing marksmanship and buying gear. Over time, many of the interviews I've done and books I've re

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

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

Note: Image credit for the cover photo goes to Run-N-Gun Nation, who took it at a recent Tactical Biathlon match at the Sawmill Complex I recently introduced the concept of aretê and agon. The former is an ancient Greek concept of excellence, typically demonstrated through contests (agon) of strength, skill, and combat. I've latched tightly to this concept and how it can help ou

Today is a bit of a philosophical post. As I've been [slowly] working on the book, I keep circling around how to explain my "why." Being a history nerd, I recently came across the Ancient Greek concept of aretê, and I've latched on to it ever since. The point of today's post is to dive into this philosophy and some of the finer points around it. You'll be seeing a lot about this i

A little while ago, John Simpson released an updated edition of his book, Foundations of Sniper Marksmanship. I did an update post as well as an interview, which drove home the idea of cheating in training is essentially stealing from yourself. Though I didn't publish it, John let me know that he had another book incoming- this one targeted at regular patrol rifles as opposed to pr