This section is pretty broad and actually covers more than it says. This is a catch all for prepper related gun and weapon things as well as self defense training. If I don’t have a better place to put it and it is dangerous it will probably be found in this section.
So You Want to Be a Firearms Instructor? I can tell you that of all the things that I have done to improve my life, becoming a firearm instructor was one of the best. I have received much more in return than I put into learning the ropes and gaining the certifications.
The only caveat is, that a weekend NRA firearm instructor course may certify you, but you cannot stop learning if you want to a competent instructor.
It took me over a year of teaching to become comfortable, and I have spent many thousands of dollars on books and continuing education courses, and I think that is only a good start. I have been an instructor for more than 15 years and I am still learning.
As far as becoming a firearm instructor, unless you are a law enforcement officer and can talk your way into a FBI or P.O.S.T. class, the simplest way is through the NRA training program.
If you are interested, and want to know more, please feel free to email me directly at [email protected]
There are a few ways of becoming a firearm instructor, some better than others. While I don’t think a 17 hour course on the weekend will prepare you to be a firearm instructor if you don’t already posses the right knowledge, skills, and attitudes. It is a good start if you are serious about the process.
I want to talk about selecting firearms for catastrophic disasters because the Shepherd School, and the Dave’s Homestead website were originally designed strictly for firearm training. I did it that way on purpose. At that time, I felt it was my calling to help train citizen to be able to protect themselves and their families from predators (mostly the two legged kind).
When I started I was still working in the prison and the reality that evil exists was constantly being shown to me. When I began working in emergency management, I grew a softened approach. I have seen the other side of people working together to help each other also exists. I also find that people have the capacity to deal with hardship in either generous and positive ways or negative violent ways depending on the situation and the resources they have available.
Prepping, and living the prepper lifestyle is now starting to become more popular, just like the old “back to the land movements”, but survivalism and survivalists still carry negative connotations. I don’t understand this as they are basically the same thing. People that take extra time to build additional resources and skills as a safety blanket or insurance policy. This idea was recently discussed on an email group I belong to. Basically they said that a “prepper” WAS a “survivalist without the guns”. I tend to agree with that, since to me I don’t care as much WHY I’m stuck in a disaster and to the fact THAT I’m stuck in a disaster.
Disaster Preparedness is More Than Just Buying Guns
One thing I am adamant about in the disaster prep world is that anyone that has all guns and no food is setting themselves up for murder… I will say that again. Anyone that believes that a large scale disaster is possible and takes time to prepare for it, and does so solely by buying firearms and ammunition is either consciously or unconsciously stating that if the manure ever flies they are going to use their guns to take food from people without guns. Those people are the reason people like me spend money on weapon preps.
Personally, I love guns, but at this stage I would rather buy a $500 country living grain mill, or a $600 honey extractor than another AR-15 upper.
But that’s because its our households theory to prepare in depth and balanced. We don’t have top of the line anything until we have quality everything… Meaning, you first have to have 72 hours of gear, food, light, heat, first aid, and defense – Get the bare basics. Then get a month of gear – better quality. I’m not going to spend 4 or 5 grand on a Generation 4 night vision scope to sit on a $3000 dollar M-14 rifle if the only food I have is two cases of Ramen noodles. However, I am not going to try to protect a year supply of freeze dried food with a whistle and a rubber slingshot either.
Weapons Do Have a Vital Role in Disaster Preparedness
That being said, weapons – especially firearms, do have a place in a prepper’s lifestyle. But these firearms need to be chosen with the same care we spend on making sure we get the best quality storage food for our money. We have to compare quality, price, our needs, our wants, and all the added costs to get a firearm that works in our program.
A Gun Needs to Always Go Bang When Needed
To me the most important aspect of a gun is reliability. I know that if I have to use my firearm in a emergency it’s a BAD DAY, and since the statistical probability of a BAD DAY is low, I don’t want to tempt Murphy with a firearm that cannot shoot 3 rounds in a row on the range without a malfunction. Get a gun that goes bang every time with NO exceptions. Cool guns with neat little stories or exotic ammunition is cool to show your buddies, but a disaster gun needs to be practical and reliable.
A Survival Guns Needs to Be Fed Common Ammo
The next is that it needs to shoot ammunition that is common. That means something you can get at the local hardware store or Wal-Mart. Adoption by our military or police is also a good sign that it is a common round. That means 22lr, .38 spl, 9mm, .40, or .45 acp, 12 gauge, .223, .308, 30-06 and the like. We can debate all day long that 10mm or .38 super is the best round for handguns, or that nothing beats a .35 whelen for hunting big game , but if you cannot find any ammunition then your firearm is a unwieldy club.
The Best Survival Gun Is Big Enough to do the Job
It needs to be big enough to do the job, that means at least .38 in a handgun, and .223 in a rifle, and some would consider these to be marginal. While it is true that nobody likes to bleed, and a .22 can kill, I don’t want to have to face off a desperate and starving biker gang with a .22 pistol.
It needs to be cheap enough that you can afford to fit it in your budget, along with ammunition, needed accessories, and training. While I pine over a Barrett M98, it costs more than my last two cars, rounds cost about $2 a shot, and I don’t have a single place to fire it. I don’t own any truck or any gun I am afraid to get muddy and scratched. I don’t beat up my tools, but I bought them for work. If your gun is too pretty, or too costly to use, then lock it up and buy something else that you will use.
Few items in a prepper’s kit is as personal as their choice in (or even to have) firearms. Its worse than ham radio guys and their gear. I am not going to tell you what to get, but if you buy something you can afford, that you will train with, and that you have put some thought into, I am sure you will be fine.
But, just in case you are wondering. We went with common guns that most “gun-people” have, and instead of buying different brands, we have stuck with buying multiples of the same make/models for redundancy. Of course, once you have one of each, guns go back on the bottom of the list until you are buying multiples of the wheat grinders and radios…
Our Picks For the Best Firearms for Catastrophic Disasters
.223 AR-15 with many magazines
12 gauge Remington 870
9mm Glock 19 with many magazines
Of course we do have some revolvers, 1911’s and a odd WWII bolt gun here and there…
As I have said before, I think guns.com has the potential to be a great website. They have some good articles on guns and some pretty cool staff members (besides myself).
I do worry that they are headed toward a little more fluff than substance. However, even if guns.com does go fully entertainment, there is still worse entertainment than gun based reading.
I think that if you want to start writing for a living, this is a good place to start. Guns.com have a pretty easy setup, and a great set of editors.
If you know guns and can string a couple of sentences together, then you can probably get published here.
I mean, I am no Hemingway myself, but I do like to see my stuff in print. Because of this I have also started writing for the Examiner.com for local issues dealing with sustainable agriculture and firearm rights.
However, with the project load I have, as well as the full time job I have, I am starting to feel the strain. I may end up dropping a project or two in the future. Especially if I have to make hard choices about my time.
One of the first guns I ever bought for myself was a Springfield Armory M6 scout rifle. Like almost all owners of the M6 scout, I really like the concept, but I find it needs a sling swivel to really fit my needs.
What is the M6 Scout
For the uninitiated, the M6 scout started life as a survival item for Air Force pilots. It is a hinge action over under that breaks into two parts for storage. The air force version is normally a .22 hornet over .410, but mine is a .22 long rifle over .410. The actual military model’s barrel is shorter than the National Firearm Act allows for unregistered firearms, so the civilian barrel is about 4 inches longer. It has two cutouts on the sheet metal stock that are supposed to be improvised wrenches, but I have never attempted to use them. In my opinion, other than the size and weight of the gun, the best feature is that the butt-stock opens to hold 4 .410 shells and 15 .22 (only 9 if it’s a .22 hornet).
While I am an unreconstructed tinkerer that loves messing with things, I am pretty conservative with my firearms, and do not modify them without having a clear and specific goal in mind. I don’t own any “safe queens” or Barbecue guns, all of my firearms are tools, primarily for my family’s or my own self defense. Over the years I have seen too many overly modified guns lose reliability with each “improvement” to the designer’s specifications.
A Few Nice Modifications
However, there were four areas that my scout needed improvement, and none of them modified the actual mechanical function of the firearm in anyway. Since the purpose of this gun is to forage in a E&E (escape and evasion) scenario its intended use makes it perfect for a GHB (Get Home Bag) kept in a car trunk. My first addition addressed this and was the purchase of the optional blue plastic case to hold both the gun, a 100 round box of .22 long CB caps and two .45 caliber bianchi clips that I stretched and forced 12 .410 shells into (an appropriate mix of 6 #6 shot, 4 slug, and 2 00 buck).
Remove the Trigger Guard and Add Para-cord
My next mod was to remove the trigger guard from the “trigger” which is actually a bar that you can squeeze with you entire hand if needed. All I did was pry the stock apart slightly and pull the guard out (its stamped steel).
Next, I wrapped a long length of para-cord along the barrel as the gun does not have any furniture on it. This provides me with a cool place to put my hand if I somehow shoot enough to heat the barrel, and it gives me some cordage for emergency use. According to some, crewmen were taught to do this using paracord from their chutes if they ever bailed out.
Adding a Sling Swivel
My last modification, and the subject of the video below, was the addition of a sling swivel on the butt-stock. For years I have tried to find a factory sling swivel to attach to my scout. The barrel has a hole at the muzzle for attachment, but the butt-stock does not. The only furniture on the gun is a small rubber pad on the butt-stock, but the screw that holds it in is not substantial enough to do its designed job and hold a sling.
While at the reloading store the other day, I saw a sling swivel for an AR-15 hand guard. I knew immediately that it would work. It was a normal QD swivel on a stud, a round spacer/washer, and an aluminum nut with a round base.
Basically, I used a drill press to drill a hole the aluminum nut could fit into, then screwed the swivel stud into it through the washer. Later I may trim it up a little with my Dremel, but for now it works well enough for my purposes.
I have a new article on Guns dot com concerning the aftermath of a shooting, its the premier of my new shooting acronym ReCASA (for I want to get back to the house….)
I have enjoyed writing this article on guns for guns.com. Additionally, I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts on what do do after a shooting.
Based upon my experience as a firearm instructor, I feel that most people that carry guns are not competent in their use for self defense. Those that are tend to spend more time on how to shoot with little attention on the “when” to shoot, or what to do after.
The article on guns dot com that I listed above is based completely on thoughts about how to interact with the police after a shooting.
I have no tolerance for criminals, and people that use guns improperly are criminals, but I also want to ensure that honest citizens that use weapons for their own self defense are able to go back to their lives without having to fight the criminal justice system.
I have discussed this system with multiple law enforcement officers as well as a lawyer – not to get legal advice, but to see how realistic my plan is.
Some officers said it was a little overkill, others said it would work well – none said it was an unworkable system.
I want to talk about selecting firearms for catastrophic disasters because the Shepherd School, and the Dave’s Homestead website were originally designed strictly for firearm training. I did it that way on purpose. At that time, I felt it was my calling to help train citizen to be able to protect themselves and their families from predators (mostly the two legged kind).
I have a new article on Guns dot com