The Everyday Marksman

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"Vanity. It’s possible that one of the reasons you got on the path of mastery was to look good. But to learn something new of any significance, you have to be willing to look foolish. Even after years of practice, you still take pratfalls. When a Most Valuable Player candidate misjudges a ball and falls on his duff, he does it in the sight of millions. You should be willing to do it before your teacher and a few friends or fellow students. If you’re always thinking about appearances, you can never attain the state of concentration that’s necessary for effective learning and top performance."

-George Leonard

Despite the title, this episode is not really about cardio equipment or the many benefits of cardio training, that you already know. Instead, this is a short episode discussing a thought I had while exhausting myself on my rowing machine a couple of weeks ago. The seeming slog of cardio is a lot like the path to mastery.

Episode Summary

This is a short one. The bottom line is that I really dislike cardio training. I find that it’s often boring and I don’t like how drenched in sweat that I get from it. It’s hard for me to stick to a routine because the results seem so far away. It’s not until after months or years of consistency that you really see any benefit to a routine. Sleeping in seems like the more comfortable option right now.

This is a great analogy for life, or really any worthwhile pursuit.

We live in a society obsessed with the quick fix. We ride a neverending series of rushes as we jump from new thing to new thing to learn. But mastery doesn’t work that way. It’s not a get rich quick scheme.

Like the cardio machine, mastery takes time. The payoff isn’t going to be immediately after a single training session. It’s not even going to be there after ten, twenty, or maybe even more than a hundred sessions.

In fact, the gains that you’ll see are so small from session to session that you’ll probably never see them unless you can take a good look backward.

This kind of commitment to riding the plateau is difficult. It’s boring, and it feels a lot more like work than any actual progress. But that’s the game of mastery.

Perhaps even worse is what happens when we “arrive.” We stand triumphant only to realize that there’s only more work in front of us. Mastery is not a destination, it's only a journey.

In this episode of Everyday Marksman Radio, I interview Derrick Bartlett. He has an incredible history with law enforcement sniping and now serves as the director of Snipercraft and President of the American Sniper Association.

This is just a short snippet from his biography at the National Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors Association:

Derrick Bartlett is a twenty-eight year veteran of law enforcement. In Illinois, he spent eight years on SWAT, both as an entry operator and sniper. As a member of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, he served as a SWAT/Sniper for over sixteen years, and was responsible for sniper team training. Over twenty years in special operations have provided him with unique opportunities to travel, work and train with a number of elite tactical units and renowned instructors.

Derrick is a state-certified instructor in firearms and SWAT-related fields. As Director of Snipercraft, Inc., he has provided instruction for snipers and supervisors for nearly one thousand law enforcement agencies, throughout the United States and Canada. In addition to numerous magazine articles, he is the author of the books, Snipercraft: The Art of the Police Sniper, Riding the Recoil and Staring at the Crosshairs, and is a contributing author to the training manual, Police Sniper Training and Operations. He is also the President of the American Sniper Association, and serves on the advisory boards of several other tactical organizations. He is the editor of SNIPER, which is Snipercraft’s quarterly newsletter, and has written articles for all 89 issues to date. He is an original member of the Editorial Review Board of Tactical Response Magazine.

Key Takeaways

We cover a lot of ground in this episode, with almost all of it focusing on the selection and training of law enforcement snipers. It’s all very interesting, but not everything applies to someone like me who is not in law enforcement.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some key lessons to learn from Derrick. The first of which is that you need to know the mission you’re trying to accomplish and then focus on it. He uses the example of many departments that invest in equipment or ammunition that is inappropriate to the mission in front of them. For example, there’s a lot of influence from the military and competition world to buy gear suited to 500-1000 yard engagements, but there isn’t a law enforcement agency in the country that will approve of taking a shot at those distances.

In fact, nearly all law enforcement sniper engagements happen at less than 100 yards, and definitely less than 200. That means commonly accepted long-range choices do not apply. 6.5 Creedmoor vs .308 is a good example, with Derrick saying that the .308 is a fantastic law enforcement sniper round.

He also cautions against using match bullets for tactical situations. At these shorter distances, precision is nice but having an immediate effect on the target is more important.

Another key takeaway for me is the discussion on ancillary skills. A lot of people focus only on the shooting side of things while neglecting the other skills. This speaks to the mission of The Everyday Marksman, where it’s not just about guns and gear, but the totality of your abilities across a variety of areas.

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Today I want to talk about the idea of being armed in modern society. Too many of us think that owning guns and being armed are the same thing. But they aren’t. Being armed is a choice that comes with a very different set of responsibilities, mindset shifts, and expectations. This episode is at least partially inspired by the ongoing events here in Virginia. By now you’ve heard of the lobby day rally, where over 20,000 citizens assembled to let the state government know that their draconian laws would not be tolerated. Many of those people openly carried arms and gear as a show of force for the “or else what” effect. I’m proud of their actions that day, and the fact that there wasn’t a single incidence of violence speaks well of their character.

But what I also noticed, as usually happens at these things, is that many protesters didn’t quite look the part of armed Americans. From poorly-fitted equipment to poor weapons handling and discipline, there is a lot of room for improvement. And that’s where the mindset of the Armed American must come into play. I spend a good portion of this episode discussing the governmental philosophies of Max Weber and John Locke (linked above). Weber is a 19th-century German philosopher who founded the modern idea of “bureaucracy.” He’s one of the progenitors of the idea that a marker of civilization is that only the state has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Locke, on the other hand, espoused the power of the individual. In his view, each person is imbued with rights as a matter of natural law, and that governments exist to protect those rights at a large scale. Governments only have power insofar as the individual consents to be governed.

These two philosophies are sometimes at odds with one another, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that Weber’s ideas underpin a lot of modern European culture while Locke provided the inspiration to the Founding Fathers of the United States. I find it interesting that so many on the political left, who seek to remove individual power also simultaneously want to model our nation after that of Europe. I’m not one to give in to conspiracy theories of communist box cars waiting for gun owners someday, but I do think that there is a fundamental difference of opinion on how things should be run.

But that discussion is for another day.

Becoming an armed citizen means accepting the responsibility for your own safety and destiny. That also requires becoming proficient in defending your life and liberty at a personal level. The idea of only relying on the state, i.e. the police, to provide safety is not really compatible with our founding ideals. The trouble these days is that while there are many millions of gun owners, only a small percentage actively pursues the Marksman’s Path. How many actually attend competitive events and test their skills? How many seek professional training beyond the minimum safety rules?

The answer is abysmally low.

So what does that mean? It tells me that it’s up to us to encourage a culture that values the mental, physical, and emotional ideals of being armed. The acquisition of “stuff” is fun, and easy, but it is not the path to improving our culture. The next time there is a rally, how much more of an impact would it make to see thousands of disciplined American’s wearing their gear professionally and demonstrating great discipline? It would be subtle, for sure, but I think it would make a difference.

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I have used this quote in my signature block for years. The context of the statement is interesting because he made it in reference to the importance of physical fitness and high morale, both things that I also prioritize, but I’ve always thought it spoke to something a little deeper.

Today’s episode is about the tactics of AR-15 marketing in particular, but what I’m saying applies just as much to all firearms and tactical marketing in general. The simple truth, albeit a harsh one, is that you are best served by ignoring the ads and influencers out there.

Getting lost in the noise will only serve to harm your efforts to become a better marksman and follow the marksman’s path.

Put simply, gun companies aren’t interested in helping you become a better shooter. There’s no money to be made in telling you to keep shooting what you already own configured as it is. So rather than encouraging you to get out there and practice, they want to sell you another solution to make things “easier.”

It’s a lot like the medical industry in that way. There’s not a lot of money to be made with healthy people, so all of the emphasis goes towards developing ongoing treatments that keep sick people under the care of physicians and buying drugs. In a lot of circumstances, the same result could be had just as permanently by switching to a healthier lifestyle.

But I digress.

The hard part about this is that people have truly come to believe that “success” is always right around the corner if they could only afford the next widget.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a custom action, a special barrel, optic, trigger, or something else. They just know that it’s the ticket to reaching a new level of ability and they will finally be happy. So here’s my advice, and it’s the same advice given to me by many experts: stop.

Stay out of the caliber wars. Buy something that’s good enough to be reliable and shoot it so much that it becomes second nature. Buying a gun capable of 1/4 MOA does you absolutely no good if you are an 8 MOA shooter. All the accuracy in the world doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if you can’t make a wind call to save your life.

Take the time to truly master your basic weapon. Ignore the influencers, gatekeepers, and the ads trying to tell you that you just aren’t going to be happy or competitive otherwise.

Allison didn’t grow up around firearms. In fact, she never even thought about them or noticed them, save for the occasional action movie.

By the time we met when I was on active duty, I had a small collection that I generally didn’t talk about with anyone except for showing off at social gatherings. I certainly didn’t tell her about it for fear of scaring her off.

It all came to a fateful head one night while she was tending to our newly adopted puppy and sleeping on the floor next to the crate. Allison happened to roll over and saw my M1A tucked rather casually tucked under the bed.

Yes, I didn’t have any proper storage at the time. We’ve since rectified that problem.

Allison found herself needing to make a decision: how was she going to handle the discovery? She ultimately approached me and recognized that if she was going to be part of my life, and that life included firearms, than she should at least learn to be safe around them.

Learning to Be Safe

The first order of business for Allison was learning to be safe. I taught her the basic safety rules, as well as another personal one of mine regarding checking chambers. Soon after, she began thinking that I was out of town enough that she should probably learn to defend herself, and Hera, if needed. So she wanted to learn how to shoot.

The first experience was negative, which was entirely my fault. Rather than keeping it as a dedicated 1-on-1 learning session to build trust, she was thrust into the middle of a social situation with several people we knew all shooting firearms. Not all of them were being safe about it.

Luckily, that first experience didn’t sway her from continuing to learn. Her second session focused on pistols, and then on to the first AR-15 I owned,

That experience stoked her enthusiasm, and she demanded her own AR-15. That rifle, which I dubbed “The Wifle” is otherwise known as the Minimum Capable Carbine that I discuss in my article on choosing your first AR-15.

From there, Allison grew to enjoy the art of marksmanship and ringing steel at 300 to 500 yards.

Where We Go From Here

The demands of family life meant that Allison hasn’t gotten to stay practiced on her skills. But she’s interested in learning more about long-range shooting and ballistics.

Her background as a professional musician and marathon runner instilled a strong sense of discipline and willingness to “do the grind.”

She’s also interested in learning survival skills, especially those surrounding bushcraft and the outdoors.

Allison will be back on the show from time to time to explore the things she’s been learning. Or maybe she’ll make a great co-host for certain topics. In all, she really enjoyed discussing her experiences and providing some advice for those of you looking to introduce your wives, girlfriends, or anyone else to shooting.

Ididn’t want to record this episode. As you know, I try to keep my opinions to myself when it comes to politics. But, sometimes the very thing you are interested in becomes political. With everything that is going on with the recent special elections in Virginia, I can no longer avoid the topic.

Today I’m touching on gun control. But this isn’t the same rant you see all over gun boards everywhere else. I want to touch on how this happened, and what you should keep in mind for your own battles in the future.

Let me be brief. There are not detailed show notes or crazy history lessons here. Just a call to action.

Virginia has fallen to some powerful political forces who are not on our side. They did it with dirty political tricks, and they are not going to play nice in the future.

I don’t want to lament over anything. It’s done. What I’m interested in is the root causes and what you and I can do in the future to stop this from happening in your state.

And make no mistake, this is coming to your state. They have a strategy and process down, now, and they want to keep the momentum going.

The thing to take away from this is that the forces arranged against us are using the ignorance of the general population to their advantage. And we’re letting them do it.

By staying quiet, keeping to ourselves, and not making our interests known, we are ceding the message to the other side.

An Appeal to Heaven

…where the body of the people, or any single man, is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven, whenever they judge the cause of sufficient moment.

John Locke

The founders were no stranger to John Locke. In fact, he was the inspiration for much of the Declaration of Independence. The phrase, “Appeal to Heaven” means that when the mechanisms of man are no longer providing justice, there is always a higher authority.

I propose that we use the old Pine Tree Flag, originally commissioned for George Washington’s cruisers, as the symbol for our resistance.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Ireally enjoyed this interview with Linda Miller and Keith Cunningham. Together, they wrote Secrets of Mental Marksmanship, How to Fire Perfect Shots. In full disclosure, they sent me a copy of their book well ahead of the interview so I could review it and ask questions.

Linda was a member of Canada’s National Shooting team and won medals in the Mexico World Cup, Commonwealth Games, Cuba world cup, and later became the first woman to win the Ontario Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for full-bore shooting.

By 2002, she became the top-ranked female competitor in F-Class shooting, and in 2008 became the National Sniper and Precision rifle Champion.

Linda also volunteered as a director, manager, administrator, and consultant in the Canadian provincial and national shooting sports organizations, and currently designs courses for competitive and professional marksmen.

Keith served as a Canadian military officer with more than 25 years of experience including a combat tour in Vietnam, peacekeeping and counter-sniper operations in Cyprus, and many large scale military exercises throughout North America and Europe.

He is an internationally-certified shooting coach who has taught marksmanship courses at the Canadian Forces Infantry School and to many police services throughout Canada.

Linda and Keith's book, Secrets of Mental Marksmanship, which I heavily relied on for this interview

He’s also a member of the Canadian Forces Sports Hall of Fame and the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association Sports Hall of Fame.

Together, these two hold many provincial and national titles and records, winning international championships throughout the world in sniper marksmanship, service rifle, and three-gun competition.

Today’s episode is simple: I wanted to talk about a recent experience taking two new shooters to the range for the first time. I think this is one of those pivotal moments in peoples’ lives, and we should strive to get it right for their first time.

I know I’ve made mistakes in the past, and I’m sure you have as well. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying your best to make sure that others have as an incredible experience as you can deliver for their first time. In this episode, I share the story of Shane and William, two friends of mine who had never been to the range.

William, interestingly, was visiting from France. He realized that an opportunity to shoot AR-15’s at a rifle range was something hey may never get another chance to do, so he lept on the opportunity.

Summary

This episode doesn’t have a lot of technical details or things to really focus on. It’s really just the story of taking these guys to the range for the first time.

The big takeaways are about my personal process for introducing new shooters to guns. It basically follows the same sequence every time:

Motivation

Safety

Familiarization

“The First Shot”

Range Time

Debrief/Remotivation

To be honest, this is very similar to the pattern I use for teaching classes in the professional world. It just works.

For the 10th episode of Everyday Marksman Radio, we’re starting something new. From time to time, I want to bring on members of our own community that you see posting in the comments or in the forum. One of the most rewarding things I've gotten to do while running this site is have conversations with a variety of people. And while interviews and discussions with the experts is always fun and interesting, it’s the conversations with readers like you that really excite me.

It doesn’t matter if it’s via email, the forum, the comments section, or even a phone call. It’s the community aspect of all of this that really motivates me.

So let’s get into things.

Finding The Everyday Marksman

The interview starts off with Mark describing how he came across The Everyday Marksman and why he stuck around.

In fairness, it was several years ago and the exact article has since been lost to the sands of time, but the important part is that he stuck around because of the message. The point of all of this is not about shooting fast and expensive gear, but about building a solid base of skill.

Shooting Community Observations

During the discussion, Mark relayed some observations about the kinds of people involved in the shooting sports and tactical training.

The hazard is that there’s a lot of ego that gets wrapped up into things. Guys want to shoot faster, louder, and have better gear. For a lot of people that can’t keep their impulses in check, there is a real risk of spiraling down a financial rabbit hole.

Training Experience

Mark found himself involved with Asymmetric Solutions down in Farmington, Missouri. As part of a training subscription, he had the opportunity to take a lot of tactical and medical training from some serious professionals over time.

During that, he learned a lot about weapon handling, situational awareness, and saving lives.

One of the highlights here was talking about the importance of medical training. He relayed a story from a former special operations combat medic discussing blood loss and just how much the human body can lose before it becomes a problem.

I’m sure I’ve heard that number before, but it was the visualization in his story that stuck with me.

We also discuss how force on force training will often be a humbling experience for even those who have a lot of training under their belts.

During those force on force scenarios, Mark learned a lot about situational awareness. The story he tells reminds me of a great book i worked through in 2017, Left of Bang by Patrick Van Horn and Jason Riley.

Current Goals

Our conversation pivoted towards Mark’s current goals. Aside from shooting goals and working on the plate rack, he is working on survival skills. Some of the highlights he discusses are primitive skills and wild edibles in his region.

Knives

I knew I wanted to venture into this territory because Mark was one of my sources for my article on field knife selection. Mark runs a small business crafting quality knives.

We discuss what he looks for in a good outdoors knife, as well as some things to keep in mind when shopping around. We also derail a bit talking about people who unnecessarily abuse their equipment.

Wrapping Up

After listening to the episode, be sure to leave a comment down below and thank Mark for participating in the very first Community Highlight. I look forward to doing more of these from time to time, and I think Mark was a great first interview.

Take care!