Posts about guns and shooting
In the first half of the 20th century, Zilker was home to a police firing range. Built in 1934 near the Zilker Clubhouse along Rollingwood Drive for the Austin Police Department’s pistol marksmanship courses, the range fell into disrepair and stopped being actively used for firearms training in the mid-1970s. This historical photo is from …
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Bob Jewell recently wrote about the updated Bakersfield PD qualification course, and his writeup was picked up by Eric Lamberson of the Sensible Self Defense blog. https://www.sensibleselfdefenseblog.com/2025/02/the-new-bakersfield-police-department.html The original article is here The original target design was tracked down and shared by many with an interest in the history of handgun training. According to Bob …
Read about the latest news from KR Training and find training classes to improve your defensive firearms skills.
The first volume in Colonel Cooper’s series of autobiographical reminiscences, philosophical essays, political observations, firearms instruction, and spiritual appreciation for the grand gift of life. FireWorks, originally published in 1980, includes essays published in magazines like True, Toros, Soldier of Fortune, Guns and Ammo, Guns, Road and Track, and Westways Magazine (a car/travel magazine) from …
On January 11-12, SureFire’s Andy Stanford partnered with Tactical Response to host YeagerFest 2025. Back in 2022, Andy and Tactical Response teamed to host the Surgical Speed Shooting Summit, which brought a dozen trainers together to discuss and teach pistol technique. Andy put together this event specifically to share new ideas with other trainers. While …
Back in the 1990’s a pistol club in Midland, Texas ran a cool match called the Texas Paper and Iron Championship. Like the Steel Challenge and Bianchi Cup, it featured the same stages each time. It had surprisingly strong sponsorship (including Coors), and a great prize table. Penny and I and others from the KR …
Continue reading ‘The Texas Paper and Iron Pistol Championship’ »
Read about the latest news from KR Training and find training classes to improve your defensive firearms skills.
Read about the latest news from KR Training and find training classes to improve your defensive firearms skills.
Read about the latest news from KR Training and find training classes to improve your defensive firearms skills.
Legendary trainer Dave Spaulding recently posted about a new drill he had received from Ken Hackathorn (inventor of “The Test” aka 10-10-10, the Wizard Drill and many other widely known and used pistol standards). Half Cup Drill Stage 1. 3 yards. On signal draw and fire 1 head shot in 2.0 seconds….STRONG hand only. Stage …
I recently acquired an issue of the Thrilling Western pulp magazine from January 1937. I bought it because it featured an article by Col. John J. Boniface (1874-1943), of the US Cavalry, on “How to Be A Good Pistol Shot”. That article was part of a series he wrote called “Straight Shooting”. In the 1930’s, …
Another find from my historical handgun research team: a collection of newspaper articles from the newspaper “The Grizzly”, published in the Big Bear Lake area. The articles are text-only, scraped from Newspapers.com archives. They provide useful information about the early days of the Leather Slap matches, which eventually led to the development of the Modern …
Continue reading ‘Big Bear Gunslingers and Jeff Cooper Newspaper Articles’ »
This is a guest post contributed by one of the members of my historical handgun research team. History of Iron Sights Until the mid-nineteenth century all rear sights were either of the V-notch or the peep type. In the 1880s the then-famous singer and shooter, Ira Albert Paine replaced the typical V-notch rear with a …
Continue reading ‘The Pioneers of Handgun Sight Designs: Ira Paine, E.E. Patridge, A.O. Niedner’ »
On July 27, 2024, Tom Givens & Rangemaster put on a Professional Trainer’s Symposium at the Royal Range in Nashville, TN. It was an invitation-only event. This was the second iteration of this event, with a different group of trainers attending and different trainers presenting. The presenters at PTS II were: The event also included …
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Read about the latest news from KR Training and find training classes to improve your defensive firearms skills.
In the past I’ve written about Col. Rex Applegate, whose “Kill or Be Killed” shooting book was perhaps the most influential handgun book of the 1940’s. I recently shared an article from the NRA’s American Rifleman magazine that provided details about his “House of Horrors” shoothouse. Applegate was influenced by Fairbairn, whose book ‘Shooting to …
Continue reading ‘Col. Rex Applegate: Influence on Modern Handgun Techniques (1944 NRA article)’ »
Patrick McNamara (PatMac) is one of a group of trainers that came from the Special Operations community in the 2000’s and used youTube and social media to market their courses. His youtube channel is here https://www.youtube.com/@patmcnamara/videos This video on pistol fundamentals is listed as his most popular video I have to admit that I watch …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Tactical Application of Practical Shooting (McNamara, 2008)’ »
After learning about this book from a Greg Ellifritz post about books written about or by real old West gunfighters, I found a rare first edition copy signed by the author. The book was published in the UK by Robert Hale. Hale’s company published Westerns in the UK from 1936 to 2020. Many of those …
Continue reading ‘Book Review I’ve Killed Men (Jack Ganzhorn, 1910)’ »
From my historical handgun research team, a 1968 Shooting Times article from Texan Skeeter Skelton on point shooting with a revolver. By 1965, Jeff Cooper had already started the revolution, advocating two handed, aimed fire, but the mainstream writers working for the mass market gun publications were still talking about the old ways. Note that …
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