Category: Target Shooting & Marksmanship

James: That was a great article on marksmanship and very relevant for me as this last weekend I participated in an Appleseed shoot.  The instructors are volunteers who did a great job (and refused any monetary tips).  It is a great organization!  They covered many of the topics you mentioned in this article.  For the first time in my life I feel like I finally have the fundamentals necessary to be a skilled shooter. I’ve grown up plinking with BB guns and .22 rimfires all my life and have always been a decent shot.  Assuming 95% of your readers will …

I also thoroughly enjoyed The Art of the Tactical Carbine DVD as an instructional video to become more proficient in carbine operation.  I also agree, Chris Costa’s drop pouch explanation is hilarious but at the end, he makes a more important point: “You, the shooter, have to determine what you want to do.” In most of the training I’ve taken with tactical carbine and pistol operation, the emphasis has generally focused on winning the fight without much consideration for long term logistics.  This has given much credence to the practice of emergency reloads – dropping the mag to get the …

I’m writing to contribute my first hand experience to the recent review of the Para USA P14.  After desiring one for 20 years, I became the very disappointed owner of a US-made model nine months ago. First,  P14s for the last few years have the Power Extractor (PXT), which is a non-standard 1911 extractor. This means you’re stuck with it. You can’t readily replace it with off the shelf 1911 extractors and you can’t tune it.  Mine broke at under 200 rounds.  Although Pat summarily dismisses this as mere ‘Internet lore’, where there is smoke, there’s fire – and there …

Dear Sir, I’ve been a fan ever since I read your novel “Patriots” a couple of years ago.  I’d like to point out that with regard to the “Making Your Range Time Real Time – Train as You’ll Fight!” post, the ability to shoot and move and to shoot while moving should be included in your training.  Furthermore, the use of cover versus concealment should be included.   I bring this up because for years in federal law enforcement we qualified every three months, we did use silhouette targets, but all the shooting was done from a static position at varying …

When you go to the range, whether it is in your or a friends backyard, at a local indoor or outdoor range how do you practice?  What do you practice?  Do you just put lead downrange as fast as you can in hopes that it hits the target because people are around and you want to sound like you know what you are doing (this is way more common than you might think)?  There are some things that I would like to put out to everyone that I hope can help you out in your range training. There are many …

I am getting along in my years but, I recognize that I may need a high power Main Battle Rifle  (MBR) in the future if significant issues surrounding our standard of living within the US remain unresolved. So, what rifle should I choose Let me start by saying that a 5.56/.223 in a AR-15 or any other light caliber rifle does not qualify as a MBR with me. The 5.56/.223 55 grain round requires 2,800 fps at impact to produce a large wound cavity. When shot from a  20″ barreled  AR-15 the round is below that impact velocity at about …

Jim, First, thank you so much for such a worthwhile resource for prepping and other useful information.   Regarding the recent article on M1911 series pistols, I could not help but cringe when I repeatedly read to release the slide and let it slam on an empty chamber.  It is my understanding that there is no better way to mess up a trigger job than repeated slamming the slide forward on an empty chamber.  The action of releasing the slide without a round being stripped off of a magazine to buffer the force will cause damage to the surfaces of …