The exhibition target shooters of the 30’s and 40’s would create bullet art, tracing shapes with bullet holes. Texas shooting showman Ad Topperwein would draw an indian head, like this Back in 2002, I created a bullet art “Merry Xmas” sign for my office door decoration, with fake snow as “trim”. If I remember correctly, …
Here’s another historical document from the early days of practical shooting. This is a scanned copy of the original design document for the “Pepper popper” – the most commonly used falling steel target in USPSA, IDPA and other practical shooting matches. The target’s name came from designer John Pepper, who was active in the founding …
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Timers from the Bob Hanna collection: two early electronic shooting timers. Par Timer The first one is a simple par timer with a headphone output. Controls are simple but complicated: start button, headphone jack, and a row of DIP switches you use to set the par time. To get a 1.0 second par time, for …
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I started shooting USPSA competition back in June 1988, with the Hill Country Practical Pistol Club. Since the early 1980’s they had run a statewide match called the “Texas Challenge”. The 1989 match was the 8th annual, and the club ran the match every year into the mid-1990’s. Unfortunately I don’t have any pics from …
The Modern Technique of the Pistol was written by Gregory Morrison, as part of his PhD work. It compiles many of the techniques and concepts taught at Gunsite in the 1980’s. The book is available direct from the Gunsite Pro Shop. The contents of the book are listed below. It covers the standard topics found …
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More from Bob Hanna: a copy of the first draft of the IPSC rules for practical pistol competition, sent to Bob by Jeff Cooper, when Bob was competition director for the Brazos Practical Shooters, a sub group of the Sugarland (Texas) Sportsman’s Club. The rules are interesting, in historical context, as so many of them …
Another artifact from Bob Hanna – notes from classes he attended at the American Pistol Institute (aka Gunsite) in 1980 and 1981. Here’s their recommended twice-a-month practice drill. API dry practice drill. Another practice drill. The advanced practice drill. Turning draws were emphasized a lot more in courses (and matches) in the 1980’s than they …
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Claude Werner, a.k.a. the Tactical Professor, has a distinguished background as an analyst in the military (Special Operations), as a market research director for real estate and major accounting firms, and as a firearms trainer at the elite Rogers Shooting School. Several years ago he began to study what he called “negative outcomes” involving armed …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make (Werner, 2019)’ »
KR Training student Bob Hanna recently gave me his copies of class notes from training he attended with the late Chuck Taylor. Taylor was one of the early traveling trainers who spun off from Jeff Cooper’s American Pistol Institute (Gunsite), bringing that curriculum to a national (and international) audience. In 1980, Taylor had just started …
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Retired Texas Ranger Joey Gordon is a regular contributor to the Texas State Rifle Association monthly magazine. His articles feature stories about guns used and owned by Texas Rangers. Many of his articles have been compiled into a glossy book available from TSRA as a fundraising item. A couple sample pages from the book’s chapters, …
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As part of the ongoing 2020 Virtual Preparedness Conference Paul Martin and I are presenting this fall, LEO instructor and private sector trainer Lee Weems from First Person Safety contributed this video giving guidance for armed citizens interacting with police. Like the other videos in this series, it’s available to stream or download, ad-free, for …
Quick or Dead was published by Paladin Press back in 1978. There are still copies available online, even though Paladin has closed up shop. The title doesn’t tell you as much about the book’s contents as the subtitle on the inside cover page does. Written during the time when the Modern Technique (Weaver stance and …
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Paul Martin and I have been posting new videos as part of our ongoing Virtual Preparedness Conference. These videos are part of the package of On Demand content we have on Vimeo. Each video is a few bucks to stream (3 month rental) or download. The newest video is from retired NRA-ILA researcher, firearms training …
During a recent trip to Gunsite I picked up a physical copy of the Panteao-produced, Gunsite Active Shooter Response video. Since I will be teaching another session of the Texas DPS-certified Active Shooter response course this month, I spent some time watching the Gunsite video as part of my review of class materials. This 3 …
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Research John R. Lott, Jr. has a new book out, “Gun Control Myths”. Like all his other work, it’s fact-filled, with higher quality research than the Bloomberg-funded gun control advocates produce. Since Dr. Lott’s conclusions don’t fit the “narrative” of most media, you won’t see his results reported as widely. If you find yourself discussing …
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Yesterday the news rippled through the firearms training community that Dr. William Aprill of Aprill Risk Consulting had passed away. I’ve known William for close to 20 years, as he and I were regular presenters at the annual Rangemaster Tactical Conferences, and in recent years I had hosted (and co-taught) his “Unthinkable” course. His “Unthinkable” …
I picked up a copy of this e-book recently. Someone I follow online (can’t remember who, sorry) recommended it. The author, Mark Joslyn, is a political scientist at the University of Kansas who does research on voting trends and demographics, including gun ownership. According to the introduction, the author “has never owned or gun or …
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(From Paul Martin): Last week, the Greater Austin Crime Commission released a Crime in Austin report. Download it here. Citywide, aggravated assaults and individual robberies were up last year. Response times are slower, and traffic fatalities increased. Cutting 100 cops takes us back to 2015 staffing levels. Does that make sense in a rapidly growing …
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