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)’ »
Back in 2005, the Rangemaster Tactical Conference was featured on an episode of Shooting Gallery. The event was held at “the mothership” – the original Rangemaster facility in Memphis. Back then the event was called the “Polite Society Conference”. Sharing these videos as I and several on the KR Training staff head to Dallas for …
For the first half of the 20th century, exhibition and trick shooting was a common and popular form of entertainment. Famous shooters from Annie Oakley, Ad and Plinky Topperwein, Ed McGivern and Bill Jordan put on shooting demonstrations as part of Wild West shows, circuses, county fairs, and later, on TV shows. In the second …
Bob Hanna provided some better quality copies of some of the essential articles Chuck Taylor used as class handouts. The full PDF file is here for free download. Selected pages are shown below. This material is all from the early 1980’s.
This controversial work of fiction was written in the late 1990’s, after the assault weapon and magazine capacity bans were signed into law by Bill Clinton: after the Waco/Koresh standoff, the Ruby Ridge standoff, and the Oklahoma City bombing. Anti-government sentiment within the gun culture and the right was strong, and the militia movement was …
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Unintended Consequences (Ross, 1996)’ »
During the 1990’s, several schools, including InSights Training, Tactical Defense Institute (Ohio) and Modern Warrior (New York), began offering classes that integrated gun and unarmed skills. In 1998, KR Training hosted the 40 hour Close Quarters Confrontations class taught by InSights Training. It included sessions on groundfighting, standup defense, live fire drills, and several days …
From Bob Hanna about central Texas firearms training history: In 1975 I bought 49% of the Marksman indoor Range in South Houston, TX. That’s when I really became involved with the Houston gun scene and folks like: Fred Rexer – Wikipedia, machine gun dealer, screenwriter, movie consultant (Apocalypse Now, Red Dawn etc.). https://www.joebowman.net/ Joe was …
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 …
Continue reading ‘John Pepper’s original “Pepper Popper” drawing’ »