In going through my archive of historical handgun material, I found an old, low quality VHS tape that had video footage of a local club match from 1986. It was shared with me by one of the club members. I didn’t start shooting USPSA until 1988. This was back in the day when everyone shot …
He is a self-taught shooter who recognized that the techniques and lessons he learned could be used to train our war fighters. Accordingly, he founded Mid-South Institute for Self Defense Shooting (MISS), in 1981 just south of Memphis, TN where he developed the most comprehensive firearms training program in the country. For over 41 years, …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Shoot To Win (John Shaw & Bill Currie, 1985)’ »
I recently digitized, cleaned up, and posted John Shaw’s 1984 pistol training video split into 5 segments. Someone else had previously posted his shotgun training video (with Spanish subtitles). All those videos can be found at the links below. My review of John’s first book, You Can’t Miss, can be found here: A review of …
John Shaw dominated the competitive shooting scene during the 1980’s. While being the captain and nine-year member of the World Champion U.S. I.P.S.C. Team, he won, or was the runner-up, in every major shooting competition in the world including: He is a self-taught shooter who recognized that the techniques and lessons he learned could be used …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: You Can’t Miss (John Shaw & Michael Bane, 1982)’ »
At the 2023 NRA Annual Meeting, Claude Werner (The Tactical Professor) handed me a print copy of his edited version of Fairbairn’s famous “Shooting To Live” book. I wrote a full review of the book on this blog (Linked here). It includes his “editor’s synopsis” of the Shanghai police recruit training program. When I get …
Back in September 2022 I was able to get a copy of the carry permit shooting qualification course for Kauai, Hawaii. Penny and I had just visited there and made friends with a couple that owned an outdoor range and taught classes. Here’s the course of fire, with some videos of me shooting it, with …
The pie chart “shooting correction” target has been around as long as I’ve been shooting. It’s widely shared and is used as basis for guidance in some dry fire apps. It’s also widely derided by high skill level shooters and trainers, with this variant on the pie chart being a frequently shared meme: Karen Ziegler …
Back in June 2022 I co-taught a session of my Historical Handgun course with Tom Givens. Tom did a 4 hour lecture, similar to what he presented at the Master Instructor course. Due to summer heat we started the day on the range, shooting courses of fire from the 1910’s to the 2000’s. Bo Wallace, …
Ralph Friedman was an officer with the NY Police Department in the 1970’s and 1980’s, during the gritty, high-crime era made famous by so many movies and TV shows of that era. Friedman was promoted to detective after five years on the job and his extraordinary career has been commemorated with 219 awards, including the …
Very few books have been written about the history of fast draw competition, and the few that have been written are out of print. As part of my research for the Historical Handgun book, I’ve been trying to track down copies. As I wrote in a previous entry about this topic, Bob Arganbright’s book has …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Fast Draw Yesterday Today (Blasgen, 2009)’ »
Retired police trainer Bob Givan shares my interest in the history of target development. He recently sent me some pictures from the Stoeger catalog from the 1930’s-1950’s. During that era, Stoeger’s catalog was the Sears Roebuck wish book for shooters. I purchased a few of these catalogs myself to add to my collection. In the …
Firearms trainer Mike Conti has written a three-book fictionalized history of the life of famous FBI agent and gunfighter Jelly Bryce. “The Legend Begins” was book 1 of that series (reviewed previously), which continues in FBI Odyssey (book 2) and The Man In the Mirror (book 3) Bryce was an influential figure in the history …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Jelly Bryce: FBI Odyssey/The Man in the Mirror (Conti, 2015/2016)’ »
Earlier this year Tom Givens sent me a signed copy of a book published by the Snub Gun Study Group – a group of trainers and shooters interested in the history and modern use of the short barreled revolver. More about this group can be found here. They also have a downloads page, including a …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: The Snubby Chronicles (various, 2021)’ »
This book was recently gifted to me from Gary G – a shooter who has been around the competition and training world since the mid 1970’s. This book, written and published in South Africa by trainer and IPSC competitor Gerry Gore, is a great time capsule of the state of the Gunsite/Jeff Cooper training circa …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Handguns for Self Defence: A South African Guide (Gore, 1981)’ »
In the spring 2021 Historical Handgun course Tom Givens and I co-taught, Tom presented some information about the history and evolution of the B-27 target. After that course, a retired Indiana police instructor named Bob Givan found one of my blog posts about the B-21 target and contacted me. Bob shares our interest in the …
Continue reading ‘Target Evolution: B-21, B-21X, to B-27 and beyond’ »
During the recent Historical Handgun class Tom Givens and I co-taught, Tom mentioned a book I hadn’t heard of: “The Search for An Effective Police Handgun”, by Allen Bristow, published in 1973. This book came out prior to his more complete Modern Police Firearms book (previously reviewed on this blog). It’s basically a collection of …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: The Search for an Effective Police Handgun (Bristow, 1973)’ »
Firearms trainer Mike Conti has written a three-book fictionalized history of the life of famous FBI agent and gunfighter Jelly Bryce. “The Legend Begins” is book 1 of that series. Bryce was an influential figure in the history of shooting training. His techniques became the core of FBI firearms training, which were taught to law …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Jelly Bryce: The Legend Begins (Conti, 2014)’ »
As part of the 6 days of training Tom Givens (Rangemaster) taught at KR Training’s A-Zone Range in April 2021, Tom and Karl co-taught a one day session of Karl’s Historical Handgun course. The course consisted of a 4 hour lecture from Tom, and a 4 hour block of live fire drills from the 1910’s-1980’s …
Continue reading ‘Historical Handgun class April 2021 (part 2)’ »
As part of the 6 days of training Tom Givens (Rangemaster) taught at KR Training’s A-Zone Range in April 2021, Tom and Karl co-taught a one day session of Karl’s Historical Handgun course. The course consisted of a 4 hour lecture from Tom, and a 4 hour block of live fire drills from the 1910’s-1980’s …
Continue reading ‘Historical Handgun class April 2021 (part 1)’ »
In 1917, WWI veteran and British gunwriter Hugh Pollard published “The Book of the Pistol and Revolver”. Pollard wrote for magazines and authored shooting books from 1912-1945. He was a soldier, possible spy, firearms expert, widely published author, sportsman, social butterfly (son of a surgeon), forensics and ballistic expert, historian and collector. This particular book …
Continue reading ‘Book Review – The Book of the Pistol and Revolver (Pollard, 1917)’ »