Firearms Nation Podcast

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FNP 082 : Jacob Hetherington - Junior Shooter goes to the Army Sep 28, 2018

Show notes

"The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) wins national and international shooting competitions, supports Army marketing engagements, and advances small arms lethality to demonstrate Army marksmanship capability, connect America to its Army and enhance marksmanship effectiveness in combat. USAMU is part of the U.S. Army Marketing Engagement Brigade and Army Marketing and Research Group"

This is a quote from the AMU's webpage. In all of the shooting sports we have competitors who are from the AMU that either currently dominate or who graduated and are now shooting for factory teams. What is a factory team? SIG, Glock, Remington and so on. And the names include some of the people I've had on the podcast like Shane Coley and KC Eusebio. Today, my guest is also from the AMU, Jacob Hetherington.

Jacob was known as a top junior shooter not that long ago. It's pretty amazing how a kid made grandmaster at 15 years old and caught the eye of the AMU where he is serving and promoted to sergeant not that long ago. This past year Jacob has been dominating his division in USPSA and is in contention to win this year's National Championship. So how did a such a young man do so much in his shooting career?

In this podcast you'll hear about what it's like to be a part of Army Marksmanship Unit, what "pressure poops" are and what to tell your junior shooter (if you have one) to focus on when coaching them.

I recently interviewed Lanny Bassham in episode 80, who also was a major force at the AMU. It was great to now hear from a dedicated young man continuing that tradition.

FNP 081 : Bob Vogel - It's all in the Grip! Sep 21, 2018

Show notes

This week I bring out a session from the 2017 Shooter's Summit that I recorded with Bob Vogel. Bob is a world champion, national champion and has won 90 plus matches since he started competing. Bob was also a police officer, SWAT team member and firearms instructor. In fact, since he retired from law enforcement, he still makes a living teaching people to become better shooters.

Along the way he's also made several videos on pistol shooting and competition. Interesting enough, Bob was one of the only people to ever beat the world's best shooter (and podcast guest #79) Eric Grauffel in a shooting competition (I was there!) In today's podcast, Bob goes over the fundamentals of pistol shooting, how important grip and grip strength is, why a timer is so important to training and finally, why going fast is the best strategy.

Links mentioned in the podcast:

Vogel Dynamics

Panteao Prod. "World Class Pistol Skills" DVD

Panteao Prod. "Stage Tactics of Practical Shooting" DVD

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FNP 080 : Lanny Bassham - With Winning in Mind Sep 14, 2018

Show notes

95% of all winning comes from the same 5% of the competitors. What makes them different than the rest of us? Their mental game is better than the others. Anyone can practice a sport or hobby and develop skill at that sport, but the ones with a better mental system will always win in the end. How does a person get a better mental game? My guest today started out as the guy least likely to get to the Olympics as a small kid in 6th grade. Fast forward to the 1976 Olympics where my guest, Lanny Bassham took the gold medal in small bore rifle shooting. But it wasn't an easy road. Lanny had previously gone to the '72 Olympics and choked in the gold medal match where he walked away confused and with a silver medal. In the next four years he would develop his trademarked mental management system that in the past 40 years has lead many students to world championships and other victories.

How do we learn about this system? Lanny goes over the highlights from the system and his book he wrote, "With Winning in Mind" today with me. "With Winning in Mind" is mentioned several times in previous podcasts as one of the tools that took good shooters to make them great. This system also has been taught to special operations and Secret Service. You'll learn today why you should value the process and not the outcome, highlight solutions and not problems and finally how to coach your kids to be winners.

I looked forward to speaking with Lanny for a long time.

Here are the links mentioned in the podcast:

Mental Management Systems

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FNP 079 : Eric Grauffel - Lessons From the Terminator (Summit Replay) Sep 07, 2018

Show notes

What if you found out that all the years you've put in your shooting, that you were doing it all wrong…Well that's how I felt after speaking with World Champion Eric Grauffel. I had the opportunity to speak with Eric on last year's Shooter's Summit. The Shooter's Summit is an event I founded back in 2016 where I speak with competitive or tactical shooters on specific topics. Stay tuned to the end of the podcast to find out the date of this year's Summit.

Eric is probably one of the best shooter's in the world. I only remember one time in history where someone actually beat him in competition. We talk about that episode during my interview with Eric. I would easily say Eric falls in line with the Michael Jordans, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzkys, Usain Bolts types of exceptional athletes. People refer to them as machines but it's really us coming to terms about someone who is blessed with both talent and skill. Eric and discuss the basics of shooting and I learn that he does pretty much everything different when it comes to grip, sights and trigger. I don't know what that means but it's worth evaluating for yourself. That's another takeaway from this interview: Learn to adjust your grip and shooting for what works for you, not what someone tells you is THE way.

Eric is a busy man shooting all over the world so I was lucky to get this interview and I'm happy to finally share it on the Firearms Nation Podcast. If this is your first time here, this podcast gets into the minds of all types of people in the Firearms world and please consider subscribing so you get the episodes every week without having to look for it.

Links mentioned on the podcast:

Team Armscor

Eric's Pro Shop

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2018 Shooter's Summit will launch Nov. 25th!

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FNP 078 : Kaizad Hansotia - Cigars with Friends and Guns Aug 31, 2018

Show notes

One of the distinct pleasures myself and a lot of other people enjoy is smoking a cigar while out on the range. I see it a lot at shooting competitions. I've also seen it after tactical classes. There is something about the concept of enjoying the cigar with friends that can't be smoked in a hurry. I really don't know where cigars and shooting came together, but it is something that my guest today knows a lot about. Kaizad Hansotia grew up in India with a love of watches and firearms. He ended up buying a dying cigar company for under $200 and made it into one of the top cigar brands in the world. Gurkha Cigars is named after the legendary fighters from Nepal who fought for the British in numerous wars. Their spirit is what drives Kaizad to constantly make top rated blends that sometime sell for thousands of dollars.

Along the way he made connections to the SEAL Teams and made a special cigar for them to travel with overseas. In fact his passion for firearms paired Gurkha and Grey Ghost Precision (a company who makes high end rifles and pistols) to design a limited edition rifle up to Kaizad's specifications.

In this episode we explore the nexus between cigars and shooting, how Kaizad made his success as well as a primer on how to go about getting into cigar smoking. Granted I know some people hate the smell of cigars, but I have to say, sharing a smoke with some scotch and a group of friends is never a bad thing.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Gurkha Cigars

Grey Ghost Precision

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FNP 077 : Bruce Gray - Shooting with No Emotion Aug 24, 2018

Show notes

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation Podcast. About ten years ago I had the pleasure of being invited to a class devoted to pulling the trigger properly. It was a class on the basics but it wasn't a basic class. In fact it was as someone coined it "..a PhD in trigger management". This class also put me in touch with a renowned gunsmith and competitor Bruce Gray. Bruce and I maintained a friendship since that class and I even call him a mentor. And it was at the USPSA National Championship in 2014 when Bruce reached out to me right after the match with a text "Do you want to shoot for Team SIG?" He didn't have to ask twice. For the next two years I had a blast shooting matches with a great group of guys and gals all running the new P320. That gun is still my competition gun and I also use it for duty.

Bruce has always been know as the go to guy to have your SIG or Sig Sauer pistol worked on to make it shoot even better. But since the P320 came around, his business took off with parts for it as well as SIG's successful LEGION series. His company, Gray Guns, has grown and is in the process of moving to a bigger warehouse. More recently, Bruce dove back into competition and he is revisiting his methodologies that are now over 20 years old. I discuss with Bruce the differences as well as how us, as shooters, can over come our emotions while we shoot.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Gray Guns

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FNP 076 : William Petty - Gunfighting Around Cars Aug 17, 2018

Show notes

Recently there was a video release at a trial in Pennsylvania where two troopers were trying to arrest a suspect and he resisted. The suspect ended up shooting both of the officers and then fled the scene. Luckily they survived. How does this happen? According to a 2014 study, 83% of officers who are killed in the line of duty die conducting self-initiated activity in or around vehicles. That is an alarming statistic as I can tell you from personal experience that 83% of our training is not from a vehicle. So what can a law enforcement officer or civilian do? I include civilians since aggravated assaults and robberies also are around vehicles.

My guest is William Petty from Centrifuge Training. William specializes in teaching close quarter vehicle tactics and his program is a data driven exercise in what works and what doesn't when in a gunfight around a car.

William and I discuss the Pennsylvania shooting with his takeaways on tactics that would have helped the troopers as well as another shooting of cops in Sacramento. William also gives away a list of actionable ideas you can implement into your arsenal and ways for you to win in a vehicle gunfight.

Links mentioned in the show:

https://centrifugetraining.com/

Pennsylvania Troopers Shooting

Sacramento Police Shooting

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FNP 075 : Andrew Branca - Stand Your Ground (Audio Replay) Aug 10, 2018

Show notes

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation Podcast. Do you carry a gun for self defense? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were involved in a shooting? Most people at some point have had these thoughts and usually end when the gun goes off and they win. But, there is a different battle, a battle just as important that happens right after and that's the legal battle. I am a firm believer if you carry a gun, you need to know the law and how to use force when necessary. My guest today is an expert in self defense law. Andrew Branca wrote the book "The Law of Self Defense" and has been a guest before on the Firearms Nation Podcast as well as the 2017 Shooter's Summit.

Recently there was a shooting in Florida in a parking lot that brought Stand Your Ground back on the daily news and internet. But what really is Stand Your Ground and do we not have a good understanding of it. I had Andrew join me for a live stream to discuss the difference of Stand Your Ground and self defense. I bet you have it wrong so please listen to this show so you can educate your friends.

We also talk about a concealed carry shooting and other concepts you need to know if you carry a gun.

Links mention in the show:

http://lawofselfdefense.com/

"Law of Self Defense" book

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FNP 074 : Chad Reilly - No More Tennis Elbow Aug 03, 2018

Show notes

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation Podcast. I've been shooting a gun for over 15 years. That includes time as a law enforcement officer as well as a competitive shooter. Plus, there is the training and dry fire practice. Unfortunately, I've developed time and again, a horrible disgusting pain in my elbow that sometimes is unbearable. And I'm not alone. Millions of people suffer from tennis elbow, golfer's elbow or something called shooter's elbow. This is tendonitis or more appropriately tendinosis.

My guest today is an expert in healing the walking wounded. Whether it's tennis elbow, back pain or neck pain, Chad Reilly has been a physical therapist for over 11 years and he's also a Master class shooter. Chad placed 12th in the USPSA National Championship back in 2011 and has developed a treatment that has cured some of the top professional shooters as well as SWAT personnel.

Chad's approach is not only based in logic but through his clinical studies and evidence based research. He doesn't regurgitate the old treatment of rest, ice and massage simply because science has now shown those techniques will not work for this problem.

As I currently suffer from a severe case of tennis elbow I get evaluated by Chad and he comes up with a plan that I will try and of course, report my results over on the Firearms Nation Facebook page.

This is a fascinating interview with lots of great advice to help all of you or someone you know who has this same problem.

Links mentioned in the episode:

https://www.absolutept.com/

https://spinalflowyoga.com/

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FNP 073 : Hana Bilodeau - Proving hard work pay off! Jul 27, 2018

Show notes

Welcome back to the Firearms Nation Podcast. I've been fortunate in my competitive shooting career to be a part of a gun manufacturer's factory team. From 2014-2016 I was a part of Team Sig or Sig Sauer and from that team I met a variety of folks from the company. One of them was an instructor from the Sig Academy who had a background in the Federal Air Marshal service. Hana Bilodeau started as a local police officer then moved on to become an Air Marshal. Being in that position brought her to the attention of the academy who then hired her full time. More recently Hana was promoted to Director of Training for all of Sig Sauer.

Closer to home, Hana was part of the 2017 Shooter's Summit. She is a contributing writer for RECOIL magazine and now has been shooting videos for shows on some big named cable networks. Hana's specialty was teaching female shooters and we get into some of the obstacles she had to overcome as a female in a male dominated industry.

Links mentioned on the podcast:

Sig Academy bio

SIG

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