I recently stopped in to check out Top Guns in Terre Haute, Indiana. Top Guns boasts the largest showroom and indoor shooting range in the Midwest. Steve Ellis, the owner of Top Guns, was kind enough to give us the full tour and show what all Top Guns had to offer.

While many are seen shooting the latest Gucci AR15 or trying out the latest gear, how many are actually taking the time to ensure their gear is properly set up in a systematic way every time before it is used? The gear is an important facet, but ensuring everything is positioned, running properly, has batteries, is properly loaded or even that you remembered to bring it can be an issue. Following a proper Make Ready Procedure can help you avoid many potential problems.

In the early 2000s, after the assault weapon ban was lifted and Kalashnikov rifles started to gain popularity on the US market, a lot of shooters were looking to learn the original Russian way to run an AK.

A couple of cops I know said, “hey let’s take this DMR class together”.  Bros, guns, and a mini-vacation sounded pretty great to me.  To turn down the opportunity would have been foolish.  I actually had no idea what a designated marksman was or what role they play in the military.  I had a broad idea based on my law enforcement background, but I have never been in the military, and this course was being taught by a Navy SEAL.  What follows is my after action report and a few tidbits I learned along the way while at  Designated Marksman Rifle – The Site training facility.

There are a lot of different techniques regarding the manipulation of the AR platform. There are quite a few just dealing with the scenario where you may not have the use of one of your hands or arm. William Petty of @Centrifugetraining has some interesting options for weapon manipulation around law enforcement vehicles. In this example, he uses a thumb trigger press to shoot his AR.

I recently took Small Team CQB with John Chapman (Chappy) at the Alliance Police Range in Alliance, Ohio. Chappy and John Spears are the founders and directors of Forge Tactical. Chappy draws many lessons learned from his career in SWAT and as a Private Military Contractor. John Spears teaches from his extensive military experience as a former 18 Delta Special Operations medic and sniper with 7th Special Forces Group. He also gained valuable instructor experience with Pat Rogers and EAG Tactical. Small Team CQB is a 4 day course open to US Citizens who are graduates of reputable handgun and carbine courses. Eight students attended giving us numerous runs and individual attention from Chappy and 3 assistant instructors. For more information on Forge Tactical courses go to https://forgetactical.com/.

For those wanting to improve their training value through training aids, homemade barricades can be built cheap and easily. This article provides a variation of the VTAC target by Kyle Lamb. With the following list of tools, materials and a little woodworking skill you can build some barricades to expand your training capabilities.

For the 2nd year in a row the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is championing August as the National Shooting Sports Month (NSSM). The purpose of the NSSF’s mission for August being National Shooting Sports Month is to spotlight the fun and safe activity that is shooting firearms and welcome individuals who are curious or may have always wanted to try shooting. Numerous ranges throughout the U.S. will be hosting their own special events to highlight the month of August. The NSSF has established a website – LetsGoShooting.org – to aggregate all of these social happenings for people to check out.

Recent news from the Department of Defense has shown that the 2nd Marine Law Enforcement Battalion, based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina has been working with Marine Corps Systems Command in testing a new target system that the Marine Corps could possibly purchase and integrate into marksmanship qualifications. Although the DOD imagery was very discrete about where the targets were from, not mentioning the company name or showing them up-close, the Australian-based company Marathon Robotics Corporation made it clear that 2nd LEB was indeed testing their moving target systems through a post on their Facebook page.

I attended Practical Urban Carbine (PUC) with Sentinel Concepts in Alliance, Ohio. Steve Fisher, the owner of Sentinel Concepts, brought an incredible depth of knowledge to the course. After realizing many in his carbine courses had minimal understanding of their carbines past 50-100 yards, Steve developed PUC. The US Census Bureau showed 80% of the US population lived in Urban Areas. An urban area was defined as a densely populated environment within an area encompassing 200-300 yards. As carbines are commonly used as a defensive tool, focusing on 50 yards and in makes little sense when the weapon is far more capable and urban areas expand past those distances. Local buildings were discussed that provided shots up to 300 yards, along with parking lots and outside venues we frequent on a regular basis.

Recent imagery of the Latin American-based special operations competition organized by U.S. South Command has shown that some members of the Panamanian contingent were using 5.56x45mm IWI X95 select-fire carbines during the small arms live fire portion of the course. In particular, there were only two Commandos of the Panamanian team that were pictured with the X95s with a tan FDE finish. The other team members ran through the carbine portions with 5.56x45mm NATO M4 carbines as they had been doing every year. However for the competitors running the X95s, it appears they actually came from a different branch of service than the M4 wielding teammates, due to the uniforms (Multicam versus digital) and gear they were donning.

If you watch the news often, in any country, you’re probably used to seeing heads of state doing silly things on camera. Planting trees, handing off food to the children, dancing with people, flying combat jets…

Remember Sulsa Do Corps handgun training? If you missed it, here is a video to refresh yourself. I found another video on Facebook of a Russian Mall Ninja who may have been taught the way of Sulsa Do Corps.

Police in Alvarado, Mexico have been stripped of their firearms and issued slingshots and stones after most of the department failed competency tests. Of the department’s 130 officers only 30 passed the tests.

After a brief hiatus, the infamous Mahama Tactical training team is back in the spotlight again. The group’s former leader, Uzbek national Abu Rofiq was killed a while back and since then the team appears to have lost some key leadership. Since then, a Twitter account under the handle of Salman Belarus started posting older media of the group on April 19th and has continued to grow to include much newer material, in addition to posting about the group coming back into the picture.

I saw this video on Facebook and it is probably the best explanation of how to reload and use the bolt release I have ever seen. Clint Smith of Thunder Ranch is in the below video explaining the relationship between God & Eugene Stoner.

Steel Targets can be an awesome addition to any training regime, whether it be for self-defense, long distance shooting, any sort of competition, or just plain bragging rights at the range with buddies. Due to their reactive “CLANG”, steel targets give shooters instant feedback on whether or not the fundamentals are being properly applied. But with that great training value comes some responsibility. Especially when it comes to safety precautions. Shooting at steel isn’t like shooting at paper or cardboard targets. There are chances of fragments or even whole bullets coming right back at you due to various factors involved. Distance from the targets is one of them, design of the targets is another. Wearing eye protection and having a proper medical kit on standby is certainly good advice when working with any sort of steel.

When obtaining an absolute zero fundamentals are essential. Not fully applying the proper fundamentals will decrease the accuracy of the data gathered through the impact on the grouping. There are also some tips and tricks that will significantly improve the precision of our zero.

At this year’s KADEX 2018 held in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Kazakh state-owned GIS Center had a virtual reality headset that is designed to work with a Kalashnikov-patterned service rifle. The headset portion integrates (and likely licenses) software from a Russian entity called VR Concept, which produces VR solutions for a wide variety of applications.

As a lifelong student of firearms, my belief is that you can never get too much training. Anyone that says otherwise is foolish. That said, the QUALITY of training is very important, as is, to a degree, the legitimate pedigree of the instructional staff (a friend posted an honest rant about this on his blog). I was fortunate enough to be in town when a Precision Long Rifle class was being put on by another buddy (and former team leader of mine in a previous life; I can vouch for his pedigree)…

By the time this article posts, Miles and I will have just finished attending Sentinel Concepts’ Practical Urban Carbine (PUC) with Steve Fisher in Alliance, Ohio. We chose this class due to a realization that many students had issues with practical accuracy with their carbines when forced to shoot past the standard 50 to 100-yard ranges often covered in carbine courses. In this course, we will be focused on shooting between 50 and 300 yards.

On March 31st, there was a very successful event; National Stop The Bleed Day. During this event, 133k students trained in the skill of hemorrhage control. It is no secret that I harbor a long-standing thought that everyone should spend time training in whatever skills are relevant to their personal situation. When ITS Tactical sent me their new TourniQuick product to review, it seemed like a good time for a post about preparedness.

TNVC Night Fighter Armed Professional is a course put on by Tactical Night Vision Company in order to provide vetted civilians and professionals with the tools to fight under varied lighting conditions. Students are expected to already have an understanding of low light and no light operations.

Nestled in small Alliance, Ohio is the Alliance Police Training Range. One of the main attractions at the Alliance facility is the 8,100 square foot 360 degree shoot house. The Alliance PD Range was established to provide quality training to military, law enforcement, and responsibly armed civilians. Many engagements happen in or around structures, but few ranges have the facilities to train for these encounters.

After travel, lodging, ammo and course costs, taking a course can be expensive. However, continually learning and moving down your martial path are important for continued growth. To make the most of your courses these quick course tips can help you shorten your learning curve and get the most out of your investment.

A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League (AG & AG) is welcoming 350 participants, 100 instructors and staff, and more than 50 vendors to its 6th Annual National Training Conference, which begins Thursday in Burnet, Texas. The Presenting Sponsor of the event is CZ-USA Firearms. This marks the second year of
the partnership between these two respected brands in offering this annual training conference.

Pictured here is another apparent bonehead doing stupid things. It is vital to maintain composure and practice firearm responsibility regardless of outside forces affecting you. In this guy’s case, he does the ‘hot brass dance’ with a loaded weapon in his hand. Muzzle awareness and trigger discipline is crucial to avoid negligent discharges. Watch the cringe worthy video below: he performs double negligent discharges.

Žiga Polajnar, more commonly known as the face of Polenar Tactical (although many would argue  that title belongs to Manca) will be crossing the Atlantic from his home in Slovenia to teach two small one-day AK courses in Texas the week before NRAAM. Žiga is both a good friend of mine and one of the most talented tactical shooters I’ve worked with. His technical knowledge of the AK platform is top tier. Additionally, everyone knows that – all other things being equal – you get a 10-12% skill bonus when you are learning the Kalash from a genuine Slav, especially one who comes from a family of WWII and Slovenian Independence War vets. I’m upset that I won’t be able to attend personally, if only to prevent Žiga to tell drinking stories about me (if he does, I guarantee that they are somewhere between minor exaggerations and complete fabrications, including any pictures or videos he may have).

In June of last year, we published a short post on the odd story behind the current Diplomatic Security Service’s qualification target known as the DSQ-1A, or colloquially as an “Izzy” target. The long and short of it was that the figure holding an AKMS in the post was a former DS Firearms Instructor whose image was made into a target. However, we got some details wrong in the initial post. One of the rumors was that it started out as an office joke or prank, some colleagues having fun and making a paper target of their buddy. Somehow higher-ups saw this and actually thought that this was actually a decent target for the service. The true story as it turns out is very far from this one. In fact, the “Izzy” target was very much a calculated process. It was picked from a number of potential target ideas.