Are You Ready?

[Elderberry]

Outdoor Hub by Terry Nelson 11.04.20

Are you ready? That question was the theme at this year’s shooters retreat, held at the Felix Canyon Ranch in southeastern New Mexico. The annual event is held for the benefit of our students that have an ongoing interest in maintaining shooting skills. Many of these students have been attending for the last eight to ten years. On top of that, most have been regular students throughout the years. Our goal this year was to put the past defensive training and taught shooting skills to the test, along with other lifesaving knowledge, tourniquet use for example.

With the current state of affairs around the country, the quest of readiness is or should be on everyone’s mind. I would challenge you to ask yourself, am I ready? It is a bit perplexing to me, that dedicated students continue to train, and agree that training is beneficial and should be done. But when the time comes to actually put some of that training or doctrine to use in a course that is reality based it would appear many have not kept up with taught skills since previous training sessions. In many cases those training sessions were literally months or even a year ago.

All defensive and preparedness skills are perishable and should constantly be updated, practiced and refined. Keeping your skills honed in the skills of defensive living may well be worth your time in today’s world. Let’s take a look at some categories of training for the everyday defensive lifestyle.

The gun itself

No surprise here. Shooting skills, to include concealed carry methods and options are under constant refinement in my realm. Developing and maintaining good concealment techniques and efficiency of drawing your handgun takes continued practice. Drawing from concealment and making defensively accurate hits on target with your handgun in quick times is the goal. Do you ever train in dim light conditions and do you carry a flashlight? You should. Do you carry a carbine style firearm in your vehicle on a daily basis? Is it accessible and ready within the confines of your local laws? I believe in carbine carry in a vehicle on a daily basis, something you may want to consider.

Emergency medical

I like the phrase “last ditch medical”. This training is intended to deal with grievous bleeding events no matter the cause. Most often we are talking a situation where emergency services cannot reach you or others in adequate time. This skill set teaches the use of tourniquets, pressure bandages, occlusive dressings for penetrating chest wounds, and establishing an airway. It is not your everyday basic first aid or CPR, although you should include those topics in your training regime as well. I carry a tourniquet every day, you should too.  A discussion of this topic is included in all gun courses I provide. A more in-depth course on this critical topic is available in many locations around the country.

More: https://www.outdoorhub.com/stories/2020/11/04/are-you-ready/

[rustynail]

Nice article but soon to be obsolete.  There will be no concealed carry in the Harris administration.

[Elderberry]

Nice article but soon to be obsolete.  There will be no concealed carry in the Harris administration.

So Open Carry then.

[LegalAmerican]

So people are just accepting a communist America?   Where are all the patriots? 

[Elderberry]

What type of Patriot would you be if you don't prepare?

There was nothing about surrender in this article at all.

[mountaineer]

Thankfully, I've learned some of these skills in our church security training (our trainer is ex-law enforcement, and he really put us through the paces).

As noted elsewhere, the hard part is finding supplies, especially ammo. I visited a gun shop in Pennsylvania today. There were signs all over the store "No ammo without gun purchase." Yikes, I really wasn't planning to buy another gun today, so I walked out, emptyhanded.

[libertybele]

Thankfully, I've learned some of these skills in our church security training (our trainer is ex-law enforcement, and he really put us through the paces).

As noted elsewhere, the hard part is finding supplies, especially ammo. I visited a gun shop in Pennsylvania today. There were signs all over the store "No ammo without gun purchase." Yikes, I really wasn't planning to buy another gun today, so I walked out, emptyhanded.

The time to buy ammo was right around the time Trump was sworn in and buying some here and there over time in prior years  Good luck trying to get ammo from this point forward.

[mountaineer]

That's the truth, especially with President Cameltoe and the gun czar Robby O'Rourke planning to eliminate private gun ownership.

[Elderberry]

Thankfully, I've learned some of these skills in our church security training (our trainer is ex-law enforcement, and he really put us through the paces).

As noted elsewhere, the hard part is finding supplies, especially ammo. I visited a gun shop in Pennsylvania today. There were signs all over the store "No ammo without gun purchase." Yikes, I really wasn't planning to buy another gun today, so I walked out, emptyhanded.

I haven't seen any .380 for sale at any price and the only 9mm I've found is now 3X what it used to be. So I put in orders for reloading supplies for 357 Sig, much of it back order. I then was able to get  a few hundred rds of .40 and 357-Sig at not too bad of a mark up. I now have enough reloading supplies for abt 1K 357-Sig. I was lucky that I had primers. They are very hard to get now. Most of my handgun reloading has been 38 Special. I've probably made 10k using my now ancient RCBS Junior press. Its much easier to save brass with a revolver. I've also loaded lots of 45Colt. A while back I helped my son cast up lots of 9mm bullets. I guess I need to set up to reload 9mm now too.

[GtHawk]

I haven't seen any .380 for sale at any price and the only 9mm I've found is now 3X what it used to be. So I put in orders for reloading supplies for 357 Sig, much of it back order. I then was able to get  a few hundred rds of .40 and 357-Sig at not too bad of a mark up. I now have enough reloading supplies for abt 1K 357-Sig. I was lucky that I had primers. They are very hard to get now. Most of my handgun reloading has been 38 Special. I've probably made 10k using my now ancient RCBS Junior press. Its much easier to save brass with a revolver. I've also loaded lots of 45Colt. A while back I helped my son cast up lots of 9mm bullets. I guess I need to set up to reload 9mm now too.

I have plenty of cases in .380, 9MM, .357 and .38, that’s all the fire arms I have. Somewhere at the BIL’s I have a ton of bullets in each caliber but primers and powder?

[Elderberry]

You gotta be Fast!  Today I received an email that MidwayUSA had small rifle primers at 9AM. At 9:50 I discovered the email, logged into Midway, saw they were available, added them to my cart and went right to checkout. By the time I clicked thru shipping location and payment, when I clicked on the last step it said my cart was empty.

[catfish1957]

Nice article but soon to be obsolete.  There will be no concealed carry in the Harris administration.

They'll have to look in Toledo Bend for mine.  My friends boat nearly captsized.

[mountaineer]

They'll have to look in Toledo Bend for mine.  My friends boat nearly captsized.

We live very near the Ohio River. My weapons, alas, probably are at Cincinnati by now.

[txradioguy]

We live very near the Ohio River. My weapons, alas, probably are at Cincinnati by now.

You too?  Imagine the both of us having a boating accident on the same river?  Through mine are a little below yours more towards Brandenburg.

[txradioguy]

I'm not as ready as that article describes, but I'm certainly more ready than your average citizen.  The Army helped with that.  They love to issue things like gauze pads and IFAK's they don't need back because you've been deployed with them.  Comes in handy when you need to have on the go medial supplies.

[Cyber Liberty]

We live very near the Ohio River. My weapons, alas, probably are at Cincinnati by now.

I was ready, until that tragic boating accident in Lake Mead.  Or what it Mohave?