The Everyday Marksman

When I started the podcast, I didn’t ever expect that I would have interviews with renowned snipers, SERE instructors, or Olympic Shooters. Yet, here we are. I had the pleasure of spending an hour talking to Amanda recently, and I’m sincerely glad I did.

What sparked the interview was some posts she made on her social media about her blog, Winning Insights. Of course, my own curiosity spurred me to go check out what an Olympic shooter would write about. As it turns out Amanda is not only a world-class shooter, but an aspiring performance coach for business and personal growth.

So, to me, that’s a double win for an interview. Not only could she speak about good marksmanship fundamentals, but also a winning mindset and what it takes to be the best. And that’s exactly what we talked about.

This episode is another in our community member highlight series. Today we’re focusing on Justin “Graveyard” Fields, who is very active in the community and is himself a prolific blogger. Among other blogs he runs, he most recently set up Swift | Silent | Deadly, a blog focused on full-spectrum individual security.

In this interview, we talk a bit about how Justin got interested in writing about this particular set of topics as well as his thoughts on the lessons we should all be taking away from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Life is full of competition. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, all of life is a giant competition for resources and reproduction. Entire species either prosper or go extinct on the macro level due to their collective abilities to compete in an ever-changing environment.

Nations, businesses, and people operate in a similar way. And so should you.

Mike Keenan is a professional shooter sponsored by Alpha Munitions. I first got connected with him via Jeff Gurwitch, who I recently interviewed to discuss the link between competition and tactical shooting. I mentioned to Jeff that I was very interested in pursuing PRS-style precision rifle competitions and asked if he knew anyone I could talk to.

Mike was the answer.

My goal for this interview was adopting a beginner’s mindset, which wasn’t all that difficult seeing as I’ve never actually competed in a PRS event. I wanted to suss out tips, tricks, and “ah hah!” moments that might help someone like me just getting started into the sport.

I think it was a success. We focused our conversation on two primary areas:

The biggest benefits of competing in PRS

The baseline equipment to get started and have fun

Mike was very generous with his time, so I want to throw a shout out to him as well as his team, Alpha Munitions.

It's Episode 25 of Everyday Marksman Radio! That's a bit of a milestone, as we're one-quarter of the way to 100 and most podcasts don't make it past 7 episodes.

To do something a little different, we've got an ask me anything episode, with questions supplied by you guys and asked by my wife, Allison. Be sure to check the full show notes at everydaymarksman.co!

I hope you enjoy it!

Jeff Gurwitch served in the US Army for 26 years, with 19 of those being in Special Forces. Jeff has multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and has seen the gamut of fighting styles from close quarters to long-range mountain fighting.

He's also been a competitive shooter for over 15 years, competing in USPSA, IDPA, and PRS. On top of that, he also publishes articles for Defense Review and SWAT Magazine.

While his tactical credentials are certainly impressive, I wanted to use this interview to instead talk about competitive shooting and its relationship to defensive and combat shooting.

Have you ever been frustrated by not achieving your goals? It doesn’t really matter what the goal itself was. Perhaps it was [another] weight loss target, or putting in some extra hours on a hobby. We’ve all had that moment where it just fell apart.

It sucks.

Today I want to talk about the number one reason than this happens. It’s not going to be some quick fix that anyone can sell you, it’s not a book, or some slick goal-setting method. Nope, it’s just good old fashioned accountability.

This is a solo episode, so there’s not some in-depth discussion with an expert. But I wanted to leave everyone with a few thoughts about the importance of accountability and how e can regain it in our lives.

I attribute a lot of our problems to three main factors:

-Cultural acceptance, and even promotion, of weakness

-Short-term thinking

-Normalcy bias

< a href="https://www.everydaymarksman.co/support/">Support This Podcast

Rate This Podcast

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I’m a pretty big gear nerd. I’ve got more backpacks than I have places to put them, enough load-bearing equipment to supply a fire team, and a large crate full of survival kit. On top of that, I’ve always had a passing interest in learning to “roll my own” equipment with a sewing machine and raw materials.

A while back, a comment popped up in one of my articles about load-bearing equipment. So I clicked around his website and Instagram page and decided that I had to know more. Call it a drive to get the stories of everyday people trying to do cool stuff. Kody Hamel runs a small sewing shop making custom nylon gear for whoever needs it.

I wanted to know his story.

But aside from that, I also wanted to get a craftsman’s perspective on what actually makes quality gear as well as some tips and tricks about getting started doing it myself.

Summary

Kody grew up in Minnesota and was destined to work in the logging industry. But along the way, he happened to do a sewing project in school. He fell in love with the process of making things, of taking an idea and turning it into something real.

So he eventually found himself following some friends to San Fransisco where he got a job working at a bag company. From there, he honed his skills in producing quality items.

Kody eventually moved back to Minnesota where he developed a taste for the shooting sports. In a fateful decision, he decided to start making custom gear for the tactical and outdoor world and founded Sewjourn Gear.

During the interview, Kody goes over what he thinks sets quality gear apart and why people should invest in it. We also talk quite a bit about how he got started, the machines he uses, and tips for anyone out there looking to get started making their own gear as well.

Support this Podcast: everydaymarksman.co/support

If you aren’t familiar with the famed military SERE school, it stands for Survival Evasion Resistance & Escape. It’s the school they send people to when there’s a higher than normal chance they might be caught behind enemy lines. Today I’m talking to Mike Moore, a former SERE instructor for the US Army Special Forces SERE school. While we don’t get into the evasion, resistance, and escape portions, we do spend a lot of time talking about survival.

Key Takeaways

There’s a lot of knowledge bombs in this episode, so it’s hard to narrow down to just a few. But if I had to pick, then it comes down to two main items.

Not Everyone is Going to Make it

This was a harsh truth, but one that I’m honestly glad Mike made. He’s trained a lot of people and been part of a lot of search and rescue operations. The bottom line is that not everyone has the proper mindset to be a natural survivor. That’s not to say that people can’t develop those skills, but it comes down to practice and building confidence. That doesn’t happen by accident. If you want to develop a survival mindset, then it starts with getting out into the kinds of places you need to survive and practicing. The most important things Mike things people need to learn are land navigation, basic fire craft, and learning to recognize wild edibles in their region.

Something else he mentioned was that poor survival attitudes are contagious. If even one member of your group begins complaining and panicking, then it will spread to others. It’s best to shut it down as soon as you start hearing it.

It’s About What You Find Along the Way

Mike is big on teaching yourself to recognize multipurpose items. A trashed tin can is not just any old food container, but something you can boil water in, cook with, and use for storage. A discarded plastic bottle is a water container or can be fashioned into a basic water filter. A lot of people think that they’re going to get by only on the “two is one and one is none” mentality, but that ultimately leads to unsustainable ruck weights. In truth, it’s not about thinking of all the possible things you can carry with you, but knowing how to do enough things with the basics that you can utilize whatever you find along the way.

We also go into a good conversation about building your own homemade survival kits with common items all-around your home. I’ve never thought about it, but picture-hanging wire is great for building snares, shelter construction, and even fabricating basic weapons. Another key point here was not to take anything you don’t know how to use. It becomes more of a liability than an asset.