I guess it is only natural after a horrific event like the Islamic terror attack in San Bernardino last week that people gather in their enclaves and prattle back and forth over every nuance they can imagine about the event. While I am no psychiatrist—or even pretend to be—I’m sure th

Last week I sort of got into the weeds on properly gripping a handgun. When I realized my bloviating had swelled to more than 1,100 words I sort of cut it off at the primary hand. Today I’ll look at the support hand more thoroughly. As we saw last week, the purpose of gripping a handg

Those of us who have been shooting, even for a relatively short time, (should) have discovered that good shooting is entirely dependent upon consistency. One reason why the military is so inextricably wedded to regimentation is that it enforces the notion of consistency—dependable res

I am continually amazed at how few shooters handload ammunition. A box of 50 rounds of practice .38 Special ammo can easily lighten your wallet by $30 or more. Even 9mm full-metal-jacket ammo can go for 30 cents a round at the budget store. Add a jacketed hollow point (JHP) bullet, an

About a month ago my friend and fellow writer Jim Wilson wrote a piece for AmericanRifleman.org entitled “Failure Drill.” Jim recounted the origins of what is known variously as the Failure or Mozambique Drill. There is no need for me to repeat what Jim wrote; he did a fine job of des

Recently I did an “A Look Back” retrospective on the Smith & Wesson J-frame series of revolvers for AmericanRifleman.org (http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2015/8/10/a-look-back-at-the-smith-wesson-j-frames/), and it sort of got me wool gathering. I bought my first J-frame,

Were I more disciplined like Jim Wilson or Richard Mann, this little admonition would not be necessary. But I have learned that I am not all that unique, so if I screw up like I’m about to divulge, maybe you do too. Oh hell, let’s just get it out: Sometimes I get a bit lackadaisical w

Enthusiasts are wonderful…sometimes. It really doesn’t matter whether they are hot rod gear heads, shutterbug junkies, paragliding thrill seekers or gunners, enthusiasts help drive the marketplace. Enthusiasts tend to be opinionated, and it is there where their enthusiasm can be a pro

Everything old is new again. And, as always, there are those who viciously fight for what is old and new. I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that many people just enjoy being contrary, and the anonymity of the Internet makes that unfortunate characteristic even more prevalent tha

One of the things old flatulents like me love to do is bore the hell out of younger folks with what they should—and sometimes shouldn’t—do. The reason we like to do this is because we want to help those younger folks not make the same mistakes we have made. As I look back on my life,