Harry Reeves Practical Handgunning 1951

Another article about Harry Reeves, from 1951, courtesy of my historical handgun research team. This one is from Handguns magazine. Reeves has the biases against semiauto pistols and 9mm ammunition common to gun writers and gun experts of his era. The discussion of trigger control and shooting fundamentals is great information, and I note that …

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Harry Reeves: Case History (1947)

A 1947 article from the American Rifleman magazine about top shooter Harry Reeves.

Harry Reeves – Competitive Shooting Champion

From my historical handgun research team: this article about bullseye champion Harry Reeves, who was one of the top competitors from the late 1930’s to early 1960’s and continued being active in the sport into the 1980’s.

The Mexican and Yaqui Defense Courses (1964)

Another find from my Historical Handgun research team: a 1964 Guns magazine article written about two self defense shooting drills. Back in that era they were likely shot using the classic Colt target (NRA B-21). Jeff Cooper wrote about both of these drills, and Bill Wilson created an IDPA-ized version of the Mexican Defense course …

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Ronin Colman 1988 class video

When I first got started in USPSA competition, one of the local club members let me copy a bad quality copy of a video he had of PACT timer inventor and firearms trainer Ronin Colman teaching in 1988. Ronin had been an IPSC shooter since the early days, had attended some of the earliest classes …

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FBI Practical Pistol Course (1946)

A definitive article, from the FBI’s newsletter, explaining their Practical Pistol Course in detail. I’ve written about that course of fire in multiple previous posts Thanks to Chris Baker of Lucky Gunner for finding this gem and sharing with me so I can share with you! The FBI PPC course was widely used in law …

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KR Training February 2024 Newsletter

Read about the latest news from KR Training and find training classes to improve your defensive firearms skills.

The Wisconsin LEO Pistol Qual Course

Someone recently sent me a copy of the current Wisconsin state law enforcement pistol qualification course of fire. The summary version of it is here I shot a reduced version of the course and put the videos out on Instagram. Analysis and Discussion I like a lot of things about this course of fire. The …

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The Shirt Target from 1929

Another find from my historical handgun research team. This is an article from 1929 about a “shirt” target designed to look like a buttoned uniform shirt. It’s still a basic bullseye design but with scoring zones having more anatomical relevance than a classic circular style. The 6 point zone in the middle is almost like …

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Moving Targets for Better Shooting (Guns magazine June 1956)

From my historical handgun research team: an article about moving targets for pistol training from Guns magazine, June 1956. The whole issue is still available online here. This article discusses what is essentially a USPSA-style “combat pistol” match in a jungle walk format held in Scandinavia in the mid 1950’s.

1931 S&W Revolver Shooting Tips

From my historical handgun research team (thanks Dwight), two pages from the 1931 S&W catalog, offering revolver shooting tips.

KR Training January 2024 Newsletter

Read about the latest news from KR Training and find training classes to improve your defensive firearms skills.

Sloppy Gun “Carrying” Is A Real Problem

Year end statistics are out on gun thefts from vehicles and guns found in carry on bags by TSA at airports. From TSA: A new record for firearms discovered at TSA checkpoints was set in 2023. This means more people are carrying guns, at least off body, and the 93% loaded means that most of …

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Annual Maintenance Tasks

Each year I like to do some annual maintenance tasks on my guns and gear to start the season off with everything ready to go. Batteries Replace batteries in optics, flashlights, smoke detectors, and anything else that uses batteries. It’s easier to do all of them in one pass instead of being surprised by a …

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1960 Hipshooting Target Design

Another article rediscovered by my Historical Handgun research team. This one, from Guns magazine in 1960, discusses a new target design developed specifically to aid shooters in improving their hipshooting skills. It discusses one- and two-handed hip shooting techniques. While most ranges don’t allow this type of practice, those with laser dry fire gear (SIRT …

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KR Training December 2023 Newsletter

Read about the latest news from KR Training and find training classes to improve your defensive firearms skills.

How Far To Extend Your Arms?

The social media/youTube era has given the average shooter many benefits – specifically free access to thousands (millions?) of videos and pictures of top shooters using match- and gunfight-winning technique. It’s also led to some odd artifacts: behaviors that weren’t common before youTube became the most influential firearms training source. For the past 100 years, …

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The New and Improved New Jersey Carry Permit Shooting Test (2023)

Back in August 2023 I shot the New Jersey carry permit shooting test (aka the “Civilian Carry Assessment and Range Evaluation”, or CCARE), and documented it with video and in this blog post. The test was complicated and poorly designed, including many skills that were essentially irrelevant to concealed carry, with time limits that were …

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1957 Robot Target Article

My historical research team (Craig, Gaston and Jay) recently sent me a scan of a 1957 Guns magazine article about a robot quick draw target that could shoot blank firing sixguns at the human opponent. Spell check tells me that “Dueller” should be “Dueler” but I have used the author’s original spelling and use of …

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1941 Pistol Combat Course

My historical research team sent me this article from a 1941 issue of American Rifleman magazine. It details a “pistol combat course” shot using a silhouette target w/ center bullseye and a scoring system that is a distant cousin to the Time Plus scoring using in IDPA and the Comstock scoring used in USPSA. The …

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