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The Everyday Marksman
Matt Robertson
95 episodes
6 days ago
The Everyday Marksman teaches regular people just like you how to live a more adventurous life through the study and practice of martial skills. We focus on marksmanship, survival, fitness, winning mindset, and equipment. Join us every other week as we talk to experts in the field and inspire success.
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The Everyday Marksman teaches regular people just like you how to live a more adventurous life through the study and practice of martial skills. We focus on marksmanship, survival, fitness, winning mindset, and equipment. Join us every other week as we talk to experts in the field and inspire success.
Show more...
Wilderness
Leisure,
Hobbies,
Health & Fitness,
Fitness,
Sports
Episodes (20/95)
The Everyday Marksman
The First Block: Six Weeks Into Project Hoplite

Back in April, I told you that I was embarking on a 25-week program in preparation for a Spartan Race Super 10k. I dubbed this plan "Project Hoplite" and it covers many aspects of physical success done in a progressive manner. My "why" boils down to a belief in the value of doing hard things. For my family, it's important that I'm seen as an example, particularly for my son to see an active dad who puts in hard work. I want my coworkers to respect my discipline and ability to put in serious effort. As for myself, I want to be as mentally and physically capable as possible, despite not being as young as I once was. For everyone else, I want to be perceived as physically capable (if not dangerous). That's a conversation for another day, though.



I've completed the first six-week block of training. This week is an "easy week" of reduced training load before going into the next six-week block. As promised, I wanted to give you an update on how training has gone so far and any lessons learned.





























A Short Review of the Training



The overall plan is 25 weeks long. It's comprised of several six-week blocks that progress from general strength and conditioning to sport-specific training for the obstacle course race. I officially started the plan on May 5th, 2025.



The first and second blocks look more or less the same. I believe consistency on your lifts is important to actually drive adaptation and see progress. Rather than going entirely on my own for the programming, I've been blending three different programs from different coaches.



My StrengthLog App's depiction of weekly work report



Strength Work



First is Tactical Barbell's "Fighter" template, a minimalist program based on barbells (duh, it's in the name). These workouts consist of flat bench presses, squats, weighted chin ups, and I've also added in weighted dips. These are the "A" workouts, and they're pure strength work.



Next is Geoff Neupert's "Giant X" program, which is a double kettlebell clean and press density system. Every session is 30 minutes, and the goal is completing as many times through the prescribed "ladder" as you can with good technique and a controlled heart rate within that time. A ladder is some varying number of repetitions done sequentially.



For example, a 2/3/5 ladder means you do two repetitions, take a short break,
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4 months ago
17 minutes 33 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Project Hoplite: Introduction to a Tactical Fitness Experiment








This article contains affiliate links.



What does that mean?










In my Q1 update and retro, I mentioned that my team at work cajoled me into leading a them through a Spartan Race Super 10k at the end of October 2025. As part of the effort, I put together two physical training plans. One was for everyone else who signed up to do it with me. The other plan is for me specifically, based on what I have access to in the garage and enjoy doing. My plan runs for 25 weeks, starting on May 5th, 2025 and ends on the day of the race, October 25th.



To both keep myself accountable and share some thoughts on the training is going, I'm making a regular update to you. There's value in that experience and what lessons I'm learning along the way. Why is that? Well, 25 weeks would be the longest I've consistently run any single program. Usually I start changing things up every 8 to 16 weeks. Actually, in that regard, it would be 20 weeks because the last few leading up to the race do change things up a bit- I'll get to that in a minute.



Requirements for Success



I've never done a Spartan Race. The closest thing was a Tough Mudder 5k back in October 2023. I suspect the requirements are roughly the same, but given we're doing a 10k this time it will just take longer. I think obstacle course races present a nice all-around physical challenge in line with my thinking about tactical fitness. From that article years ago, one of the oldest on the site, I highlighted these qualities:




* Speed and Endurance – You need to be able to run, ruck, and sprint depending on the situation. You will continue doing this for hours to days if needed.



* Strength and Power – You need to be able to carry gear, drag or carry your buddy, pick yourself up over obstacles, or move things out of the way



* Flexibility and Mobility – You need to move over uneven terrain, without injury, drop into awkward or tight positions, and quickly get back out again to sprint to the next position



* Muscular Stamina – You’re going to have to exert muscular force again and again and again. Bad things don’t stop happening just because you’re tired. 




This list still seems extraordinarily relevant, especially for a Spartan Race.

























Now, in all honesty, I'm not trying to be competitive in this event. If it was just me doing it myself, I would probably be trying to get in the top 10% of my age bracket. But, in this case, there's a team of about six other people who signed up to do it with me- each have different levels of physical capability and training backgrounds. If they followed the plan that I wrote for them, they'd be very well prepared- but that's a big "if" and I'm aware that most people simply aren't like me and willing to commit up to an hour per day six times per week to training.



My plan, really, is to have fun and set a positive example to the group as a forty-something corporate mid-level manager.



That said, success in this race involves endurance to run the race,
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6 months ago
15 minutes 51 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
State of the Marksman: Q1 2025 (and Other Housekeeping)








This article contains affiliate links.



What does that mean?










At the end of 2024, I gave you an update on how I thought I did throughout the year across a few different areas. I also laid out a few goals for myself in 2025. You can can go back and read that update for yourself, but here were the main things I was looking to work on:



2025 Targets




* Compete in 4 to 6 competitions with pistol components



* 12% to 15% body fat percentage



* Earn radio general ticket and do three POTA activations



* Learn more gunsmithing skills



* Finish writing the book




So Let's Talk



First off, let's talk pistol shooting. My range sessions so far this year have all been pistol-focused. Be it testing different optics, as with the Shield AMS I reviewed a couple of months ago and the Shield RMSx I'm testing now (and quite enjoying). I've also participated in two of the Everyday Marksman postal matches. You can go back and look at the course of fire for the first one a few posts back, and the second one's write up will hit after the match concludes at the end of April.



In all, while my practice and shooting sessions aren't as frequent as I'd like, they are happening and I'm getting a good workout on my pistol shooting.

















I've also been spending a good bit of time with my Beretta 92A1, recently back from Allegheny Arms after an extended stay in the hands of their gunsmiths. The end result is just beautiful, and easily makes it my favorite pistol in the safe. As for my latest purchase, the Springfield Armory 1911 Operator AOS, I've been experimenting with different grips to find a preference, and installing parts as they come in (like a Stan Chen SI mag well).



I'm not counting the postal matches towards my target matches this year, so it's about time to get on that goal and go sign up.



Body Composition & Fitness



The goal at the start of the year was to drive down body fat percentage from ~18% to ~13%. I thought I would start the year off strong with a cut and make relatively short work of that. Unfortunately, I've had an unusually busy travel schedule for work and many social events that kept derailing me.
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6 months ago
15 minutes 13 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
2024 Retrospective & Review; Updates for 2025

There's always value in pausing for a moment to think about your performance and evaluate where you stand. 2024 was an interesting year for many reasons. I hit several important personal milestones, but also fell behind in other areas. Along the way there were several unexpected challenges that added constraints to my time. Let's go through where I'm at on several aspects.




* Marksmanship & Firearms Skills



* Physical fitness



* Other Skills



* The Everyday Marksman



* Personal




I'll also give myself a grade on each category.



Marksmanship & Firearms Skills: Grade B



This year felt a bit unfocused. I entered 2024 without any particular shooting goals in mind, so I did the natural thing and started emphasizing gear and buying new guns. This started with the GHM9 project early in the year as an experiment with the PCC/SMG format. It's been interesting, and I'm glad to have gone down that path- but it ultimately felt a bit like I was doing something because I was bored.







A lot of it was the impulse to explore my own pontifications about marksmanship training zones. I've grown more and more focused on that 0-50 yard "critical zone" of skill. The PCC, as I've continued to find, is amazing for the job.



In July, I commented that I would begin the path to pistolero. The idea, again, was that 0-50 critical zone of skill. To support this, I bought a few more books focused on pistol shooting (which I have shamefully neglected), bought a 22 LR Mark IV pistol for additional inexpensive practice, attended an Appleseed Pistol Clinic, and set a baseline of competition performance by competing in a pistol match in December. Most of my range time in the second half of the year, sparse as it may have been, focused on pistol shooting as well.



To that end, I've also committed to "amping up" some of my existing pistols. My long-serving Beretta 92A1 is currently with Allegheny Arms & Gun Works in Pennsylvania getting the royal treatment, and I'm likely to send my 18 year old Springfield 1911 Loaded off to a gunsmith early next year to do their magic. The intention for both of these is to be my primary competition pistols in their respective divisions. This gives me the option to compete in Single Stack (1911), Carry Gun (CZ P07), Production (Beretta 92A1), Production Optics (CZ P10F), and Rimfire Optics (Mark IV)- or at least rough equivalents to these divisions. Yes, I know using four wildly different platforms with different operating mechanisms complicates training.



Oh well.



While I'm not unpracticed going into 2025, I would benefit from at least some form of regular practice sessions during the week. I'll figure that out soon.








Show more...
10 months ago
21 minutes 38 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
State of Play: Political and Legal Trends to Watch For

I am not a political blog or podcast, so I typically stay well away from the topic. That said, I also realize that participating in and advocating for positive "gun culture" is an inherently political activity to begin with- so the topic of politics is not entirely avoidable. I first started drafting the idea of this post in the wake of the first assassination attempt on President Trump during the campaigns, then left it to rot. Interest picked up again after some more high profile shootings, and I convinced myself to keep sitting on it. Well, now that the election is over I think there's a clearer path for what's to come in the next several months and years.



To start off, I reiterate that this is not a political post. I'm not going to discuss the reasonings for who won and lost the election. Rather, I'm focusing on what's been happening in the gun control sphere over the last several years, where the momentum seems to be going, and what I expect to happen soon.



A Pinch of History



I've been involved in debating gun control in some capacity since about 2007. That's before I was even seriously into shooting, and at the time I considered myself someone who was interested in guns but not really an enthusiast. Still, I spent many hours going back and forth on various forums and social media of the time (which, at that time, was MySpace). Honing my arguments there, when I started getting much more serious around 2010-2011, it was just in time for the debate to dramatically pick up at the end of 2012 when Sandy Hook happened and we all thought there was going to be a dramatic push for more gun control in President Obama's second term. Frankly, I lost a lot of [casual] friends during that time when they realized I was on the other side of the issue from them and didn't just nod along in agreement and actively pointed out the flaws in their thinking.



I kept that momentum up for a few years. Through all of it, I saw the cycles of arguments that would gain popularity and then fall to the wayside (on both sides). I knew the core tenets of the Heller and McDonald SCOTUS decisions- and pointed out every time they were getting twisted by the other side.



The most common examples of that twisting, by the way, are muddying of the "dangerous and unusual" standard to instead be "dangerous or unusual" as well as "commonly owned for lawful purposes" getting twisted to "commonly used for self defense."



While my enthusiasm for the debate diminished over time, I still find myself sometimes wading into the fray over on Reddit. I'd say that I've got a really good track record there of winning debates in the eyes of the audience, even if the discussion usually ends with the other side hurling insults at me rather than arguing the points.



In any case, I just wanted you to know that I've been around for a while and have a long memory on this.



The [Coming] End of Hardware Restrictions



Since Heller and McDonald, we've also gotten the Bruen case through SCOTUS. My understanding is that Bruen didn't actually say anything new, but it put a serious exclamation point on the Heller opinion. A bit like SCOTUS saying, "Did I stutter?" It forcefully laid out the standard of review for how second amendment cases needed to be reviewed, and I think it was very clear about that even if lower courts in anti-gun districts still try quibbling over it.



In my view, they only quibble over Bruen being "vague" because they know that applying the standard as written to their pet laws would make their laws unconstitutional.



What I see happening now is a bit of a cultural divide where the traditional anti-2A courts like the 9th, 7th,
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11 months ago
17 minutes 7 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Pistols and Patriotism: Project Appleseed Pistol Clinic AAR

Way back in 2014, shortly after starting the first iteration of this site on a free Wordpress blog, I attended a two-day Project Appleseed event. It was a hot August weekend in the hills of Santa Barbara, California. While most people brought along Ruger 10/22s or something similar, I showed up with an iron sighted 20" AR (that eventually became my M16A5). While I came up a few points short of earning my Rifleman patch that weekend, I still think it was the best introduction to rifle marksmanship that anyone can do. The fact that the instruction intertwines with a good bit of Revolutionary War storytelling is a cherry on top.



Not long ago, I told you that my focus for the rest of this year and probably next year shifted to pistol shooting. With that, I've been working through dry fire and reviewing several books on the topic. One day, I discovered that the fine folks at Project Appleseed put together a pistol training course to coincide with the excellent rifle training I did ten years ago. Even better, I looked at the schedule and saw that there was a one-day pistol clinic scheduled for October 1st at the NRA Headquarters Range in Fairfax, Virginia. So I signed up back in July and started the wait.



The rest of this post walks you through the program and my experience with the pistol clinic. Enjoy!



Note: I borrowed photos of the actual event and instruction from the shoot boss, Bill. He posted them to the official Appleseed Forum and his Flickr account, so hopefully he doesn't mind me reposting them here as part of my report.



Project Appleseed



Just about every story within Project Appleseed revolves around the events of April 19, 1775: the battle of Lexington and Concord. This was, more or less, the official start of the American Revolution. Back in the late 1990's, Jack Dailey wrote a series of pieces for Shotgun News under the pseudonym "Fred." While the articles were partly an advertising bid for Jack's business, Freds M14 Stocks, they contained bits of history and a call to develop basic marksmanship skills.



Eventually, this spun off into a CMP-affiliated group known as the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, who went around the country teaching rifle clinics called Appleseeds. Like the namesake Johnny Appleseed, the goal was planting the seeds of patriotism and the tradition of marksmanship in participants.



Without going into detail, know that every Appleseed event involves telling the three strikes of the match. Each part of the story occurs during breaks in between blocks of marksmanship instruction. The three strikes story involves many real historical figures such as British General Thomas Gage, British Major John Pitcairn, Militia Captain John Parker, Militia Colonel James Barrett, and more colorful figures. The stories track the events of the day from the Lexington green to the North Bridge of Concord, then back to Meriams Corner and the retreat back to Boston.



By the end of the day, the British officers realized they had greatly underestimated the skills and fighting spirit of the colonists, and the Revolution was afoot.




<...
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1 year ago
15 minutes 9 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
The Everyday Gunslinger: Starting the Path to Pistolero








This article contains affiliate links.



What does that mean?










I have a confession to make, and it's rather embarrassing. I'm not all that great with pistols. That's not to say I'm a bad pistol shooter, but it definitely lags behind my other skills. As much as I enjoy marksmanship and shooting, my focus always trends back towards rifles. This was never more apparent to me than my first review assignment writing for a print magazine.



The assignment was a 1911. In particular, it was an Iver Johnson Eagle LR Special. One of the writing guidelines for the magazine was that a 5" pistol had to be shot for groups at 25 yards. Without going into details, let's just say that I had a hell of a time trying to use pistol sights for groups at 25 yards. It was such a challenge for me that I tend to decline reviews for pistols unless I can mount a dot to them. Even then, I'm simply not as stable with a pistol as I am with a rifle- regardless of the position.



In January 2022, I thought I was going to address this. I had a good interview with Josh Shaw (USPSA Grand Master and instructor for Green Ops Training), and I had in my mind that this was my time to become a pistolero. Well, that ended up not happening. Life and interests went elsewhere.



Back to the Training Zones



As a refresher, I recently talked about a Martial Marksman's training zones. I dubbed the space between 0 and 50 yards to be the "critical zone." In the grand scheme of capability, it's this space that a marksman must be absolutely capable. It is, by far, the zone where we are most likely to engage a threat in the real world, whether it's a home defense situation, concealed carry, or even Scenario-X.







You can cover this 0-50 zone with a variety of tools. Rifles are an obvious choice, especially at the back half of the zone and beyond. Shotguns also stand out as a particularly powerful tool. This zone was also a big driver for my own foray into the PCC/SMG format. The humble handgun seemed mundane in comparison.



But I have to be honest with myself...that line of thinking that pistols are "mundane" is my own bias at play. In fact, when you dig into it, pistols might even be more interesting.



The Case for Handguns



This is every bit a justification for myself as it might be for you, so bear with me. For at least a year, now, I've been planning and pining over a new semi-custom precision bolt action project chambered in .223 Remington. The goal of the project is a rifle that works well enough out to 600 yards that I could use it both for competition purposes as well as a trainer for larger calibers. .223 is certainly cheaper to shoot than large rounds, and a .223 bolt action has a huge fun factor to it.







However, I couldn't get around my current circumstances. The reality is that all of my local ranges only go out to 50 yards,
Show more...
1 year ago
14 minutes 42 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Four Years from Friday: Approaching Your Training Life in Seasons








This article contains affiliate links.



What does that mean?










Recently, the American Pioneer Corps wrapped up their 5th annual Warfighter Challenge. I'm not actually a member of the American Pioneer Corps, and I should probably rectify that. Their mission is very much in line with my philosophy here at The Everyday Marksman, and I even think a lot of their founding members are local to me. But that's besides the point. What sparked this post had to do with the planning cycle for someone who might want to attend next year's Warfighter Challenge, or maybe one several years down the road.



So what do I mean by planning cycle? More importantly, how might we organize our training into different "seasons" that support success in such an event? So let's dig in.



Long-Term Thinking







One of the five principles of the Martial Marksman training philosophy is "Play the Long Game." There were two key points to this. One was that we should always prioritize mental and physical health. Sometimes that means holding back from pushing the edge in training in order to prevent injury and ensure we can train again the next day.



The other point had to do with the fact that we cannot improve all aspects of our capability at once. Rather, we need to focus on one or two areas at a time, then shift emphasis on to the next weak link.



This is not a new thing. In fact, the other day I was reading John Jesse's 1974 book, Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia, and there was a small excerpt that resonated with me. It was a quote from Jesse Owens, who took home four gold medals during the 1934 Olympics. In it, he's discussing his first coach, Charles Riley.



He first told it to me when I was a rusty grammar school kid who'd just been convinced by him to come out for the track team and who wanted to quit because my legs looked like pieces of straw next to other guys'."I'll never make it this year, Mr. Riley." I said to him dejectedly."Who says we're trying to make it this year?" he answered. "You're training for four years from next Friday, Jesse."It was fine in high school when I started breaking records, except the time soon came when I couldn't improve on my past performances and even dropped down a bit. I was like the show business star who has nothing left for an encore, who's afraid of today because of yesterday's success."Where do I go from here?" I finally asked Mr. Riley."Keep training," he'd answer."For what?""Why, for four years from Friday, of course."I took his advice. Four years from Friday turned out to be the Olympics.



Where We go Wrong



The problem that so many of us run into is treating everything like a sprint. We tend to act as if success with anything is achievable if only we buckle down and work hard enough for six to eight weeks. The world is so full of these kinds of Couch-to-5k programs and bootcamps that we balk at the the mere idea that a particular capability needs practicing for six to twelve months before we move on to the ...
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1 year ago
31 minutes 47 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Thinking Beyond the Drill, or the “Teaching to the Test” Fallacy

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 torture, and many more track against defensive, competition, handgun, long gun, and other disciplines. These shooters then post their scores and compete against other enthusiasts to see who is the "best."



There's a rub, though. Being good at a particular drill does not automatically translate to being particularly good at all the related skills. It's merely a point-in-time indication to compare yourself against. Take the Bill Drill, for example. The entire drill consists of starting from the draw and firing six shots as quickly as possible at an IPSC target placed at 7 yards. It's a sort of "maximum effort" test.



I take issue with the idea that the drill teaches anything in particular. Six shots isn't enough to teach anything. Using strength lifting as an example, nearly everyone understands that you don't prepare for a one rep maximum test by only training at maximum weights for one rep at a time. I saw the same kind of thing in the military where some guys would "prepare" for their upcoming PT test by doing it once or twice every week leading up to the actual test.



You must identify and target weak points, build volume of practice addressing those weak points- often at weights far less than the maximum. With time and effort, your ability to display maximum strength improves.



Another Example



A significant portion of my day job involves developing technical certifications. Another huge part of it is developing the training programs teaching the knowledge and skills required to pass those certifications.



When we develop a certification exam, it's a all a process of compromises. We bring in a team of industry subject matter experts and have them work through a process of documenting the skills and knowledge required to be successful at the level of the test we're creating. This list usually ends up being dozens of items long, with each item having several sub components to it. We then go through another process to prioritize which items are more important than others. By the time we're done, we have a ranked order of skills and knowledge.



If the test is only 60 items long, but the team wrote 70 objectives, there isn't enough space to evaluate everything. Even at a 1:1 match, that would mean that there could only be one question per objective. One single metric is far from enough to comprehensively evaluate what someone knows. That usually means that we have to select the top 20 or so objectives deemed "most important." After that, we still probably won't evenly distribute the questions. The top five objectives might get 5 questions each, while the least important ones might get one or two. Keep in mind that the "least important" were still in the top 20 out of 60 to 70 objectives.



In the end, you end up with a certification that provides an objective standard to compare against, but it's far from a complete picture of someone's knowledge and capabilities.







Preparing for the Tests



Most people are lazy. When someone asks for help with passing the exam, they almost never want to know what skills and variations they should practice to improve- they want to know the questions ahead of time so they can study the answers.
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1 year ago
18 minutes 46 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Starting From Scratch, a Beginner’s Guide to a Basic Armory

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 bias of the authors and their personal preferences for using firearms. Some people veer towards the outdoors and suggest hunting rifles and big bore revolvers for backwoods protection. Others went right towards the tactical realm.

So today is my personal answer to this question, and I'm couching it in terms of the Martial Marksman and Scenario-X. I'm not leaning purely on the tactical, though. Rather, my preferences for someone starting out is thinking in terms of versatility and reliability. Too many marksmen, including me at times, go needlessly deep into "optimization." By that, I mean we think of a possible situation and then work backwards to build a rifle or collection tailored to that situation.

But, as the Martial Marksman principles dictate, there is no such thing as optimum. We are, in fact, better served with a tool that does many things pretty well rather than a tool that does one thing exceptionally well at the expense of usefulness elsewhere. Sure, there's a time and a place for specialist tools once you've established your foundations- but this post is about actually building the foundation.

So let's dig in.

Amory Prioritization Tiers

Much like the "gearamid," I'm break my starter arsenal down into a series of levels. The most important and highest priority items being at the bottom, and the least important specialist items being at the top. This isn't to say there isn't a reason you might skip a level, but you should do so understanding that you're probably neglecting something important in the process.

Tier 1: The Martial Marksman

As far as I'm concerned, this is the starting point. If you're at all serious about defense of self, home, and community- then this is the core of it. A beginner's top priority falls along two things: a common and reliable semi-automatic pistol, and a common reliable semi-automatic rifle in an intermediate cartridge.

I have some important additions and caveats to go along with this, as well.

The Starter Pistol

I said that a beginner Martial Marksman should have a common and reliable semi-automatic pistol. That's not terribly specific. I know a lot of readers and listeners want something more specific and concrete. The thing is, I've found that handguns are a personal preference. Once you find one that you like, or even a particular family of them, it ends to become your default suggestion going forward. You can tell when other writers go down this path by only suggesting something like a Glock 19 or 17.

I think that's a mistake, though.

So here are guidelines for a Martial Marksman's first handgun:




* Proven track record of reliability

* Compact sized (i.e. about a 15 round capacity of 9mm)

* Currently for formerly issued to police departments, government agencies, or military units

* Comfortable to hold and shoot in your hands


Reliability is #1, here. This isn't your weekend match gun that only costs you the win if it goes down. You may very well stake your life or your family's life on this gun going bang every time you pull the trigger. Don't skip this point.
Show more...
1 year ago
23 minutes 44 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Prioritizing Your Marksmanship Training Zones

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. For me, that tends to be scoped precision rifles and relatively long distances. That's fine for a general interest, of course, since fun is allowed. However, if my focus was on cultivating the Martial Marksman skill set, the priorities would look very different.



So here's the challenge: can we establish a standard set of training priorities for the average person preparing for Scenario-X? I think we can.



Setting the Boundaries



First off, my goal is less about dictating what weapon to become proficient with than it is about establishing what distances you should focus on. In some cases, the distances involved naturally lend themselves to specific weapon types. Rather than force that on you, I'm stating the range bracket and letting you decide what weapon platform makes the most sense for you and your circumstances to meet the requirement.



Second, most marksmanship training standards focus on an angular standard like 4 MOA (minutes of angle). This works ok, honestly. It's rather convenient to tell someone to always train for a 4 MOA standard, and then adjust the size of the target based on the range they have access to. At 100 yards, that's a 4 inch target. At 50 yards, it's 2 inches, and 1 inch at 25. Or if you shoot at 200 yards, the target is 8". However, when you think about the context of a Martial Marksman, targets stay the same size regardless of the distance. This is something I picked up from John Simpson's latest book, and it's an important point to consider.







Example Time



Here's an example. Let's say the target is a circle eight inches in diameter. The target is always 8" regardless of the distance. At 200 yards, that target is about 4 MOA. However, at 50 yards, the target is still 8" and is now approximately 16 MOA. Your perception is that the target is now much larger even if it's the same size it always was. What does that mean in practice? It means that your priority should be hitting the target even faster, not necessarily "more accurately."



In the Martial Marksman's world, there are not bonus points for hitting the 1" x-ring if any hit on the 8" black would have done. Taking the extra time to hit the x-ring might mean losing to the opponent who sought to be just fast enough to hit you first. In the real world, that means coming in second place during a gun fight. For our purposes, the goal is hitting a target of set dimensions at a variety of distances with as much speed as possible.



Establishing the Target



Training principle #1 for the Martial Marksman is train for the target. So what is it that we're looking to hit? I've theorized on it before, and now it's time to make it official.



The target of a Martial Marksman is a 10" circle. For practice, you could go as low tech as a common 10" paper picnic plate, but I'll get a little more specific and say that the official training target is an Show more...
1 year ago
20 minutes 43 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Transformation Requires Sacrifice and Other Uncomfortable Facts

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 figurative statement about giving up the life you lead now for the attainment of that goal. If it's not powerful enough, then you won't do it.

In the last episode, we talked about the Martial Marksman mindset, I had an aside about homeostasis. The context was that driving change in your life means introducing some stress. That stress could be physical, mental, or something else. The point was that introducing sufficient stress signals to your mind and body that something must change in order to make the stress less impactful the next time.

While writing all of that post, I had a very long aside about how difficult this actually is. Eventually, I decided to break it off into its own article- which I'm sharing with you today.

I don't want to undersell just how difficult it is to make this process happen. Part of it is that change happens slowly. You will not get the kind of improvements you want to see after just a handful of exposure to the right kind of stress. It takes hundreds, if not thousands, of exposures over time to make this happen. Eventually, and probably a lot sooner rather than later, pursuing this kind of change runs into the homeostasis problem.

The Homeostasis Problem

If you recall, homeostasis is the tendency towards stable equilibrium between interdependent elements. When it comes to driving change, you might think of this as a "status quo bias." We tend to want to keep things as they are because it's familiar and comfortable.

This all makes sense when you're thinking about introducing stress by lifting a weight, or building a habit for dry practice.

But here's where the problem comes in: usually, the "interdependent elements" part of the equation include more than yourself. Humans are social creatures, and we tend to surround ourselves with people "like us." Your lifestyle, as it exists today, is probably organized in a way to best support the current status quo.

For example, let's say you get back from a long day at work to have dinner with the family. After the kid(s) go to bed, you and your wife have a ritual of talking for a while then watching something on Netflix for a bit. After that, you scroll social media and trade a few posts, then go to bed. Both of you probably view this as "together time." So what happens if you decide that you want to spend 30 minutes per day practicing rifle drills by yourself, and the only time available is when you would be watching Netflix together?

That's the challenge. When you introduce stress to drive a change, you're not just pushing against your own willpower. You're pushing against your entire lifestyle and social circle, elements that have little to no reason to challenge the status quo.

If you aren't aware of this problem, then it's easy to abandon the new habit and any change you were hoping to develop out of it. It's easy because everything else in your life is literally organized against you.

Working the Problem

Going back to the "together time" example. At first, you probably won't think this is an issue. You feel good about doing something more productive with your time, and you start picking up little wins and showing progress against the clock. Not long later, though, your wife starts getting upset that you never spend time with her anymore. She misses hanging out with you and watching shows together.
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1 year ago
11 minutes 36 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
The Martial Marksman Mindset: A Deeper Dive

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 read also referenced the importance of mindset.







I've gone as far as making sure that "mindset" is one of the primary corners within the pyramid of performance. It's every bit as important as physical capability as well as technique when it comes to success.



But, to date, I've yet to actually dig in and provide a thorough definition of what I mean when I talk about mindset. Today I'd like to rectify that oversight and plant a flag in the ground of what I mean when I start talking about the mindset question.



Before I begin, I'll point out that I'm keeping my scope narrow. There is a lot of fantastic work out there regarding things like growth mindset, habit formation, and other important aspects of a healthy mental state. These are all great concepts, and I encourage you to look into them. For simplicity sake, I am focusing down to only the aspects that most impact performance of a given task. That's not to say that those other aspects don't impact performance, they do, but those effects are tangential compared to the ones I actually want you to focus on.



All good? Sweet, let's get going.



It Starts With Three Circles



I recommend reading Lanny Bassham's, With Winning in Mind. It's a book that changed my perception of training and development. One of the core tenants is this interlinking of three circles: the conscious mind, the unconscious mind, and the self-image.



The Conscious



Per Lanny's definition, the conscious mind encompasses everything that you are thinking about while performing the task. For beginners and novices, their minds are busy considering every aspect of the action they're performing. It's all new to them, and nothing is automatic. The novice focuses on making sure they grab the magazine correctly, inserting it into the well without missing or getting hung up, and must look down to find and actuate the release controls. When aiming, they mentally think about every step of the firing cycle including breathing, sight picture, trigger control, and position. Step-by-step, they think about everything they were taught they had to do to succeed.



The long-term goal is reaching a point where the conscious mind is silent and focused only on the outcome (i.e. "hit the x ring").



The Subconscious



The subconscious mind encompasses what you might call, "muscle memory." It's the stored motor pathway within the brain that recognizes the pattern and requirements, and executes the task without any further consideration. Lanny says that you build the subconscious mind through repetition, practice, and visualization. This is important: it means practicing a task the exact same way every time to build consistency.







After all, consistency is accuracy.



Like a champion power lifter or Olympic weight lifter, every repetition looks exactly the same. Regardless of the weight, the setup is the same, the approach to the bar is the same, grip is identical, and the mechanics of the movement are all exactly the same every time. This is the result of thousands of hours of practice doing the same thing over an...
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1 year ago
18 minutes 21 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
The Martial Marksman’s Training Philosophy: Simple, Not Easy
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 and I.

Military members have the benefit of government pockets paying for training, equipment, travel, and the like. In a perfect world, professional military members make their living pursuing the Martial Marksman ideals, and don't have to worry about competing day jobs and other obligations. Of course, I know that it's not realistic, given the number of "additional duties" and superfluous other stuff they have to do. That's besides the point.





So the non-professional aspiring Martial Marksman must play within a different set of boundaries. It's not that they can't have it all, because they can achieve everything we're setting out to do. But they cannot have it all right now.

Chasing every scenario and capability at the same time is a bottomless pit of spending money, stress, and neglect of our day-to-day lives.



Today I'm introducing the Martial Marksman's training philosophy. These are not so much laws as they are guiding principles to help us stay within the bounds of budgetary, time, and training restraints. As we explore more aspects of the Martial Marksman's capability set in the future, I'll refer back to these principles over and over.



So let's dig in.


The Big Picture Training Principles


I've spent a lot of time writing and talking about different ways to approach Marksmen problems. What I have thus far failed to do is tie them all together into a repeatable methodology. Today I'm changing that. Here are my five training principles from here on in. I'll break each one down a little further as we go.



* Train for the target

* There is no such thing as optimum

* Embrace simplicity

* It's training, not entertainment

* Play the long game



If you've been a long time reader and listener, then I bet you'll recognize a few of these themes. They've showed up again and again throughout my writing. Each one might be worth it's own article or podcast episode on its own.


Training for the Target


A good training program is intentional, not arbitrary. In practice, this means that the training objective is based on something real and tangible rather than something that sounds good in theory. This came into focus for me the last time I talked to John Simpson when he released his book on patrol rifle marksmanship.

To illustrate a marksmanship example, if you ask most people what their personal rifle accuracy standard is, I bet 8 out of 10 will tell you that it's 1 Minute of Angle (MOA), or about 1" spread for every 100 yards of distance. If you follow up with, "ok...but, why?" then you'll get some variation of, "because that's what everyone says."





While we hope not to do it, a Martial Marksman is prepared to fight against human adversaries who wish to do harm. At 300 yards, the outside edge specified by Trainfire, a human is not 3" tall or wide. Since a human is roughly 19" wide (shoulder to shoulder) and 10" deep (sternum to spine), the actual accuracy standard is closer to 3.3 MOA at the minimum.
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2 years ago
18 minutes 20 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Virtue in the Crosshairs: The Martial Marksman Ideal

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 more to write. I'm not interested in "minimum." I believe we should strive for excellence, and minimum doesn't cut it. In 2023, my goals turned personal, with a heavy focus on my health and fitness. Now, coming out of my annual break, I've settled on an idea that's worth exploring with you: the Martial Marksman.



The philosophy and capabilities of the Martial Marksman is the focus of the book I've been working on. The book itself won't be ready for a while, I've still got more to do, but I'm happy to start talking about the ideas stemming from my effort so far. I credit the seed of the idea to two places: John Simpson's latest book, and Jeff Cooper.



A Means to an End



In my review of John's book, I quoted something that needs to be said again. Bold emphasis mine.




The audience that this book is written for has already made the decision to deploy patrol rifles, so I don't need to talk you into it. They've picked the manufacturer and model of the rifle they'll use, so I don't need to sell you a particular product. And they've picked the ammunition design, so I don't need to make recommendations. The point is that you've got your patrol rifles and you want to know how to train with them. That's why you're reading this book now.Keep in mind that the type of marksmanship we'll be discussing here has nothing to do with shooting bull's-eyes for score or seeing who can shoot the smallest shot group. Those are fun sports and have their place, but always keep in mind that in patrol rifle training, shooting on the range is a means to an end and not the end in itself.
John Simpson



This sentiment is not new. Several of my previous guests said variations of the same thing. Time on the range and in competition is not wasted, so long as you're doing it with the right motivation. You must keep the end goal in mind. Your goal is building proficiency with the rifle and its employment. If your goal shifts to competing and winning as your primary purpose, then your training and practice change accordingly, often for the worse. Eventually, you're more "gamer" than "Martial Marksman."



This was the first impetus. John put it clearly and concisely in a way that I could chew on ever since reading it. Now let's look at Jeff Cooper.



A Good Shot



Years ago, early in my marksmanship journey, I picked up a copy of The Art of the Rifle from the now defunct Paladin Press. Published in 1997, it predates my serious interest in shooting and marksmanship by nearly 20 years. Jeff opens the book discussing "The Queen" and about finding a why. Rather than summarize, I'm just going to quote some relevant excerpts.



Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons. The possession of a good rifle, as well as the skill to use it well, truly makes a man the monarch of all he surveys. It realizes the ancient dream of the Jovian thunderbolt, and as such it is the embodiment of personal power. For this reason, it exercises a curious influence over the minds of most men, and in its best examples it constitutes an object of affection unmatched by any other inanimate object

The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power,
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2 years ago
18 minutes 19 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Introducing the Rifleman Pentathlon: A Game for Martial Marksmen
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 our community grow and become better citizens. To support that, I felt we needed some kind of standardized competition format that covers a range of important skills and attributes required of a martial citizen.

Yes, there are already many competition formats and organized bodies arranged around shooting sports. No, I don't think any of them quite meet the intent I'm going for. So let's set the foundation for why the Rifleman Pentathlon is different and necessary in a world of matches.
The Origin Story
My experience running a tactical biathlon, learning about the Tactical Games, and watching people's experience in the myriad of Brutality matches has been educational. There is clearly demand for shooting competitions that combine physical fitness with marksmanship. There's something primal about it, the gritty reality that maybe this is closer to the "real thing" than a pristine square range shooting high power or a high speed USPSA match. I particularly think the addition of team events is noteworthy, and shows some creative thinking going on.

In ancient Greek athletics, there were no team sports. Every competition was individual as a way to demonstrate one's prowess in combat. The events themselves were directly lifted from warfare: javelin throwing, discus throwing, boxing, wrestling, pankration (essentially ancient MMA), and running were all part of it.



The ancient pentathlon was consistent. Every athlete knew what they were getting into when they signed up. They knew their skill level in each component, and also understood who their competition was likely to be and their capabilities.
The Missing Ingredient
Where I think modern competitions have erred is the very thing that makes them interesting: the unpredictability. You never really know what you're going to face until you show up. At my recent race, for example, there was no stage briefing at all until you arrived at the stage to shoot it. The Tactical Games are somewhat similar in that they are like doing Crossfit workouts with shooting mixed in.

USPSA, PRS, and similar matches send out stage briefs ahead of time. Nearly every match has some different element to it than previous matches. This keeps things interesting for the competitors who show up consistently.

This is fun, of course, but it's not ideal you're the kind of person who wants to consistently work towards excellence and compare yourself to a known mark. You can't set up a quick match some buddies and run through the stages, or approximations of them, and trust that it reflects how you'll do at the real thing.

Contrast that against Olympic events which you could train for year round to the exact rules and conditions of the event.

So I asked myself a question: what would modern Greek games look like for everyday marksmen? What events could we pick that everyone knew would always be there, which meant they could train for them specifically. Furthermore, what events would have a passing carry over to success in a Scenario-X, training courses, and even other competition formats?

In short,
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2 years ago
16 minutes 51 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Agon and Aretê: A Foundation for Life
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 in the future. The concept will weave into many upcoming posts, but also appear across informational pages. In all honesty, you're probably going to get tired of hearing me talk about it.
The end goal is to drive home the idea that The Everyday Marksman is about more than guns, gear, and shooting better. It's about a bigger picture and a better class of citizen.












Defining Aretê








Prounced ahr-i-tey, there are many ways to view this ancient phrase. Some historians translated it to mean "virtue," but that view has slowly been fading away. Instead, aretê is best thought of as a way to describe someone's excellence. Specifically, it's excellence across a series of traits and characteristics valuable to the citizen warriors of Ancient Greece.








One book I've been reading on the topic discussed the connection to the Ancient Greek word, aristos, meaning "best," and the root of modern words like aristocrat and aristocracy. In this sense, you could think of aretê as meaning a state of "bestness" for yourself- though not necessarily the best overall.









Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon described aretê as such: "Generally, aretê means 'goodness, excellence, of any kind, especially of manly qualities, manhood, valor, prowess."








For my purposes, I'd like to key in on this last definition and refer to Jack Donovan's tactical virtues of masculinity from The Way of Men: strength, courage, mastery, and honor.
To say that you have aretê is saying that you demonstrate excellence in each of these qualities- particularly in service of a greater good than yourself. There's an important element to definition: to demonstrate.








Aretê is not something that you believe about yourself like some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. The Greeks did not put much stock into how people felt about themselves. Instead, it's how others perceive you based on your behaviors and actions.
I'll emphasize behaviors and actions. Owning the tools and implements of a skilled warrior alone only shows that you have means and resources, not that you are skilled yourself.
You must demonstrate aretê to the world from moment to moment throughout life. To achieve this, the Greeks had another word: agon.
The Great Contest
Agon, pronounced ag-ohn, roughly means struggle or contest. It's the root word of modern phrases like agony. Or, better yet, protagonist and antagonist- a hero and villain of a story struggling against one another. Agon is the test of one's aretê, and it's a lifelong endeavor.
In modern life, your personal agon takes many forms. It's the weight you struggle under at the gym. It's your competition to win a match, the things holding you back from a dry fire routine, succeeding at your job, or even winning against the negative voice in your head. Agon is your life struggle. The concept runs as deep as you wish to make it, and your ability to overcome these struggles is what defines your excellenc...
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2 years ago
12 minutes 26 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Foundations of Patrol Rifle Marksmanship: Know Your Objective!
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 preparing for police sniper school.
The impetus for this book, Foundations of Patrol Rifle Marksmanship, is largely the same. When a new law enforcement officer arrives on the job, the only experience you can guarantee they've had with firearms is that they qualified with a handgun. The further and further away our culture gets from mainstream rifle marksmanship as part of competition, hunting, or other recreational pursuits, the more likely that a new patrol officer simply does not have sufficient experience with a carbine or rifle.
This very challenge is among the reasons I began the Everyday Marksman, though with a slightly different audience in mind.
John sent me a copy of the book ahead of time to read and digest. His underlying goal is providing the basics for a patrol rifle training program for police departments, but the content is relative to just about anyone. We then got the chance to talk again, and whenever we talk I end up walking away with a lot of lessons learned and context for future exploration.
Here's what I learned this time.
Defining Your Target
This was a recurring message throughout our discussion, and I want to put emphasis on it here because you're going to see this idea more and more in  my thinking.
Last year, I put a lot of time into thinking about "minimum capable" standards for everyday marksmen. I interviewed a bunch of folks to try and assemble an "average" of what they all said and thought. But the truth is that the line of thinking was flawed from the beginning.

What I lacked was an actual vision for the outcome. Of course, talking to competitive shooters yields minimum standards of a-zone sized targets at quick speeds from the draw.
John pointed out that if you ask a bunch of experts without providing any additional context, they tend to make it up arbitrarily. Instead he offered that we should be thinking in terms of the desired outcome against the target.
Outcomes
The example he used went back to the Trainfire program introduced in the 1950s. After years of research, they published a series of guidelines for the standard an infantryman should be trained to for marksmanship. Among those standards was an outside edge of 300 yards.
Lets arbitrarily assume a 12" vital zone at 300 yards. If you do the math on that, it's about a 4 minute of angle standard (MOA). From here, it would be easy to simply state that every infantryman should be trained to a 4 MOA standard of accuracy. In fact, many militaries have done just that.
However, John's point would be that the target is always 12" regardless of distance. At closer distances, say 50 to 100 yards, your goal shouldn't be to produce 2" or 4" groups, but to still hit the 12" vital zone even faster. Otherwise, you're training yourself to slower than you should be for the sake of more accuracy than you needed.
The Simpson Drill
One of my favorite parts of the book, and I'm not shy about it, is something I'm henceforth calling the Simpson Drill. We talked about this quite a bit during the interview, but think of it as a bit of a head-to-head competition between two shooters.
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2 years ago
1 hour 9 minutes 49 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
Radically Simple Strength Development: Consistency, Not Variety
Somewhere during 2022, I was browsing social media discussions between strength coaches. The goal was to see what I might have been missing from the stuff that I was already "bought in" to doing. One coach, a gentleman named Paul Horn, mentioned that he had an upcoming book. I liked what he was saying, so I found his site and signed up to be notified when he released it. Later in the year, I received notifications that the book release was imminent, and I grabbed it on the first day it was available. Titled Radically Simple Strength: A Practical Plan to Help Average Guys Build Awesome Bodies, I figured it was worth at least a read.Paul began putting out videos explaining his goals, organized a Reddit community, and did all of the "go to market" things I would expect leading up to release. I received the book, read it, digested it, and even suggested it to a few people I was having conversations with. Eventually, Paul sent me a message in when he saw that I suggested his book to others and we had a short conversation. That resulted in him agreeing to come on for an interview.Getting the interview scheduled ended up taking a few months, way longer than expected. Then I spent another good chunk of time with editing. I'm happy to post it today.This article is a little strange in that it's both a podcast interview with Paul, but also my review of his book. Obviously, I wouldn't go to this level of effort if I didn't think it was a good product, so let's just get that out of the way up front.Bottom Line Up FrontRadically Simple Strength is a good book. It's not ground-breaking by any means, but few things are in the world of strength training. Steeped in the Starting Strength tradition, Paul's book takes an approachable angle that is both clear and easy to follow.Paul goes a step beyond to define a complete progression from novice to intermediate lifters. He also touches on advanced lifters, but admits that they aren't his primary audience. It's a very prescriptive model organized like, "These are your first 12 workouts. Then do these until X happens, then switch to these workouts." This is a book to hand the "average guy" and say, "follow this." If they do it, they'll see real results. That is assuming they stick to it (which is one of the big battles, and I touch on it in the takeaways).He also offers a good bit of advice on nutrition, but I'll admit that the approach isn't for everyone. It works, and is similar to what I've done for over a year, but the approach can also be a turn off if you crave a lot of variety.Even if I'm not following Paul's guidance myself, Radically Simple Strength is the book to beat for the uninitiated looking to get started. Once someone has been on the intermediate program a while, the world is their oyster and they'll have a strong foundation to branch out.Paul doesn't talk about conditioning much, if at all. So if you're looking to blend a conditioning program on top of this, then you'll have to add that separately.Who is Paul Horn?I like Paul, and I think you'll hear in our conversation that he's a very personable fellow who is interested in everyone's story. He describes himself as a professional meathead, and has the credentials to back it up.A screengrab from the recording of our discussion. Keep your eyes on the YouTube channel for clips!After an introduction to weightlifting in college, he started as many did with a huge emphasis on how he looked rather than how he performed. After a shoulder injury, he found himself drawn into the world of Show more...
2 years ago
1 hour 5 minutes 48 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
The 2023 West Virginia Gun Run: The Retrospective
Photography Note
Credit to Run N Gun nation for the event photography in this one. He tours around the country helping RO and do action shots of these kinds of events. He told me I could use whatever I'd like for my write up, so I grabbed some great photos from his Flickr album of this event. Give him a follow on YouTube!
Run N Gun Nation

Okay, here we go. Preparing for this event, and others like it, has been a big topic so far this year. I signed up for a ticket to the West Virginia Gun Run as soon as they went on sale about a month before, and I ran an eight-week physical training prep plan running up to the event that a few readers like you also downloaded for themselves.
While updating my gear write-ups, I even put together a specific load bearing harness just for events like this.
So how did it all end up shaking out? I brain dumped a lot of my thoughts in the Discord server a couple of hours after I finished, and now I'm doing the full after action review. This covers both how things actually went for me, which was honestly a mixed bag, but also what kind of changes I'll make for running the event again in the future.
Overall, I finished #31 out of 93. My run time was #13 but my shooting score fell in the middle of the pack. I took a huge hit against my shooting points because I completely (and accidentally) ran past a stage and didn't shoot it at all.
My performance on the remaining stages was still good enough to rank in in the top third, though.
The Gun Run [vs. WTF]
Right off the bat, I want to highlight that the tactical biathlon event I did in West Virginia with The Gun Run was quite a bit different than I expected it to be. Different match directors and philosophies behind them, and I didn't really have a way to know that until running it for myself.

Compared to what I learned from some of our community members about the Waco Tactical Fitness (WTF) events, this session of The Gun Run seemed physically less demanding of strength and focuses more on the running. At my event, held at Shadow Hawk Defense in Hedgesville, WV (great facility, by the way), there were no walls to climb over, trees to scale, or mud holes to crawl through. Even though photos of other Gun Run events in other locations included things like holding cinder blocks overhead and dragging sandbags through tunnels, this one didn't have it. The course consisted of six stages spread over a distance of about 3 miles, and the focus was squarely on running and navigating terrain quickly.
Your final score was a combination of 50% your completion time and 50% your shooting score.
The standard par time for every stage was 90 seconds, with some notable exceptions that I'm sure Ellis (the match director) wouldn't want me to talk about- but I'm going there anyway!
Ellis, the match director
Ellis says that he was inspired by similar tactical biathlon event around the country, and he wanted an environment where armed citizens had a chance to test out there equipment, fitness, and marksmanship in a way that most shooting matches simply do not. It's a very Everyday Marksmen-oriented idea, so of course I'm all over it.
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2 years ago
16 minutes 19 seconds

The Everyday Marksman
The Everyday Marksman teaches regular people just like you how to live a more adventurous life through the study and practice of martial skills. We focus on marksmanship, survival, fitness, winning mindset, and equipment. Join us every other week as we talk to experts in the field and inspire success.