Category: Target Shooting & Marksmanship

Pat’s Product Review: Springfield Armory 5.25 XDm

Today I’m reviewing the new Springfield Armory XDm 5.25 9mm Competition handgun. I carried a Springfield Armory XD .40 S&W handgun for close to two years, and I found the gun utterly reliable and very accurate. The only drawback was that it was an early-production XD, and the finish wasn’t very durable and tended to easily rust if you didn’t pay attention and kept the gun clean and with some kind of preservative on the metal parts. The XDs made today have a very durable “Melonite” finish on the metal parts, and it really holds up extremely well.   The …


Letter Re: Learning More Than Just Weak Hand and Shooting

Mr. Rawles,  In many of your posts, and the posts on other sites, I see a recurring theme to practice with weapons using your “off-hand”, but I don’t see this same advice put out for any other activity. All right, so a bit of background: I’m a pretty hard-wired preparedness guy, I prep, I practice, and I thought I was pretty well covered for just about anything until just recently.   I was at work and while transiting from one area to another I slipped and slammed my hand in a large steel latching mechanism on one of the blast …


Budget Prepping in the Suburbs, by Kevin from Tennessee

Even though the idea of prepping “on a budget” or “in urban or suburban areas” may be common themes, it seems (to me, at least) that more often than not, the lovely people that contribute their knowledge, advice, and expertise to the topic of prepping seem to, somehow, have more capability than most when it comes to logistically and financially supporting these ventures. They may have lived on a farm for most of their life, they possibly inherited land from a relative, they may be able to work from home and have time to spare, they may be older and …


Pat’s Product Review: No-Name AR-15s

Over the past several months, I have been asked by many SurvivalBlog readers which AR-style rifle is the best. And, many readers mistakenly believe that some civilian brands of ARs are 100% “mil-spec.” When I explain to them that their civilian ARs, no matter who made them, are NOT mil-spec, and the facts to reinforce my argument, I don’t hear back from them.   So, let me explain why civilian ARs are not 100% mil-spec. Some AR makers mistakenly (intentionally?) advertise their ARs as being mil-spec, when in fact, they are only partially made up of mil-spec parts. Even Colt, who makes …


Letter Re: Guns for a Tight Budget Minimalist Survivalist

JWR: Regarding to the recent post by John concerning tight budget armaments I have a few suggestions. Over the past year I have acquired a small collection of Hi-Point weapons and I absolutely love them! They are american made, reliable and oh-so economical. Mother’s day before last I was looking for a unique gift for my wife (who also happens to be the mother of our five children!). I began thinking handgun. But, with the five kids and an aspiring 40 acre farm/retreat, budgets are almost always tight. Add to this the fact that my wife is a new shooter …


Letter Re: Guns for a Tight Budget Minimalist Survivalist

James Wesley: I agree wholeheartedly with your recommendation to seek affordable training through the Appleseed program. My wife and I were privileged to participate in the Appleseed event presented at the NRA Whittington Center a couple of years ago, and found it to be excellent marksmanship and safety training as well as a wonderful historical learning experience. At the end of the program, the range master told the story of a “dangerous old man” in the Revolution, and presented Rifleman patches to me and another “seasoned citizen”. One of the many Boy Scouts in attendance blurted out: “Wow, look, two …


Letter Re: Guns and Combatting Home Invasion Robbers

Hello Captain, Greetings from one of your neighbors in the American Redoubt. I couldn’t help but be bemused when I read the article about the elderly couple being beaten and robbed of their gun collection. Not because they got hurt or robbed of course. But because of a couple other points:   She yelled for her husband to "Call 911!" I guess that goes to show that wisdom doesn’t always come with age. Were that scenario to happen at my home, my wife wouldn’t answer the door. And I can’t remember the last time I answered the door without my …



Pat’s Product Review: ISSC M22 Pistol

I think many of us grew-up, with a .22 caliber rifle of some sort, as our first gun. I still remember getting my first .22 rifle when I was down in Kentucky, back in 1967. My grandmother took me down to Sturgis, Kentucky to visit her sister, whom she hadn’t seen in 40 years. I met all manner of country cousins that I didn’t know I had. I remember walking through the tiny downtown area of Sturgis, and I stopped in the Western Auto store. I was surprised to see that they carried all manner of firearms. I was literally …


State Defense Force Service as a Preparedness Training Resource, by M.K.

I advocate that you seriously consider incorporating state organized militia service as a key element of a developing or ongoing personal preparedness strategy.  At this time, twenty-two states have some form of active state sanctioned/sponsored militia organization, all of which are incorporated into each of those states’ military organization.  Generally, these state organized militias are collectively referred to as State Defense Forces (SDFs), though the various states refer to their organizations within a narrow range of naming conventions.  Some examples include, the Texas State Guard, Virginia State Defense Force, Ohio Military Reserve, etc. Though state defense forces are official elements …


Letter Re: Survival Aspects of Cartridge Reloading

Jim: In a recent article, Jerry M. mentioned: “One more thing worth mentioning is the small rifle and small pistol primers are the same size cups, same as the large rifle and large pistol primers are the same size. The cups on the pistol primers are a little thinner than the rifle, for obvious reasons, most rifle firing pins hit a lot harder than pistols do. I have used rifle primers in pistol rounds, and they seem to work fine. You might run into problems on S&W revolvers, using rifle primers, if you have the spring tension screw backed off …


Survival Aspects of Cartridge Reloading, by Jerry M.

Having spent my teenage years in my dad’s commercial reloading shop, circa 1955 to1958, I learned quite a bit about reloading ammunition. Back then we loaded mostly .30-06, .30-30 Winchester, .270 Winchester, .300 Savage, 250 Savage and other old calibers that were excellent deer and elk rifles. Long before the magnum mania came about, these rifles were killing big game, and doing it quite well. Many today find this unbelievable, but back when the silver certificates were money, and fiat currency was only a dream of the globalist bankers, you could buy a pound of DuPont 4895, a box of 100- .30 caliber JSP bullets, and …


Pat’s Product Reviews: Bassett Machine M1A/M14 Scope Mounts

When I entered Basic Training at Fort Ord, California, in August 1969, we were issued M14 rifles. I was a wimpy 17-year old weighing 135 pounds. I found the M14 was extremely heavy for me to carry, but I learned to love that rifle, and I still do! The M14 fires the 7.62 NATO round – it’s akin to the civilian .308 Winchester round. It’s a great all around caliber for (most) big game hunting, as well as defending your home or retreat. When I left Basic Training, and went on to my Infantry school at Fort Lewis, Washington, I …


Help For Those Who Have Recently Awakened, by Mike H.

Many SurvivalBlog readers have been prepping for awhile and are comfortable with their plans.  However, the process can be overwhelming for people who have recently “woke up” or who are trying to convince loved ones who aren’t sold on the need or desirability of prepping. This shouldn’t be minimized or downplayed.  It can be very disturbing when you first realize you aren’t   self-sufficient.  It is easy to become overwhelmed with the scope, cost, and time necessary to prepare.  The concept of TEOTWAWKI can be troubling and concerning even to completely self-sufficient preppers.  Even the possibility of angry mobs trying to …


Pat’s Product Review: Black Hills Ammunition

Twenty years ago, when I first started writing about guns, I also edited and published a rag called “Police Hot Sheet.” It was a pull-no-punches magazine reviewing firearms, ammo and gear. The very first companies to supply me with their products were Black Hills Ammunition and Taurus Firearms and to this day, both companies keep samples of their products coming my way. Over the past 20 years, I have easily fired hundreds of thousands of rounds of Black Hills Ammunition, and not once did I have a problem with any of their ammo – reloads, factory seconds or their brand-new …