Category: Fieldcraft
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Kodiak defence wk180-c
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Recently while I was at Petco, a man walked in, and he was quite a sight to see. This man was in his late 50’s to early 60’s, in decent shape. He wore green Condor BDU pants bloused on his black 511 Tactical boots, a black 2A moto tee was tucked into his BDU pants. On his hip was an openly carried Springfield XDS, with extended magazine, jammed into a Serpa holster. He was buying some dog food.
Immediately after paying, his head dives into his smartphone like his neck is a wet noodle. I watch him as he exits, and he remains like this all the way until he gets into his new Chevy Colorado. The man is almost is struck by two vehicles on his way through the parking lot, with him completely oblivious to the world around him. Bad gun, bad holster, bad outfit, bad mindset. Classic. I’ve seen guys like him dozens of times and it’s always something painfully similar to this.
Open Carry
Open carry is legal in my city. Open carry is your right in much of the country. For places where it isn’t, I think it should be. That being said, open carry is often a sign of incompetence, and I almost exclusively advise people against the practice. I’ve never seen anyone publicly open carry with good equipment, nor with any serious amount of awareness or training.
Time and time again it’s been proven that open carry does not deter threats, does not make you a good ambassador for our rights, and doesn’t give you an edge in a fight.
Open Carry As a Deterrent Against Crime
Open carry doesn’t deter people from attacking cops, and they actually have some level of training to defend against that on top of holsters designed to defeat a gun grab. In addition to training and quality retention holsters, police can call for backup in a jam. I doubt many of you, if any, can say the same thing.
Most people struggle to make effective hits on a stationary target or simply operate their gun under no stress. Trying to incorporate weapons retention, in-fight weapons access, and other skills without training doesn’t go well for the average shooter. Your conceal carry class, “been shooting all my life”, or an enlistment as an 11B/0311/3P0 doesn’t guarantee your effectiveness. Do you have the skills and equipment necessary to fight back against someone trying to take your openly carried firearm?
Fighting on Whose Terms?
Open carry also presents issues outside of the gunfight. Now you’re alerting everyone to the presence of your firearm, threat or not. This means it is automatically in play in any defensive encounter, not something you can choose to reveal or continue hiding based on the situation at hand. With the gun openly displayed, you are now someone who can be dealt with quickly, instead of you waiting for your moment to counterattack.
Before someone says it, I know you’re talking out your ass when you say nobody would ever get the drop on you, or you never let anyone within XYZ distance of yourself. You and your Meal Team 6 ninja friends can go back to the land of Make-Believe to scare the children and soccer moms.
Man with a Gun
Don’t forget the potential for Karens or legitimately concerned citizens calling 911 with reports of “a man with a gun” at the sight of your openly carried pistol or long gun. That’s certainly not a situation I want to put myself in, and I live in a fairly gun-friendly area. Especially in light of recent mass casualty events, from movie theaters to grocery stores, schools, and more, concern for those armed in public continues to grow. Do you know what to do if someone were to call you in for a crime you didn’t commit?
Open Carry Exceptions
This piece is regarding open carry in public, occupied areas. Time spent hunting or on your private land is another matter, and not entirely relevant here. There are pros and cons to situations such as those, which is outside the scope of what we’re talking about today. I know someone would bring this up, which is why I’m addressing it here.
Parting Thoughts on Open Carry
Go get good training, read quality resources, and buy good equipment. If you don’t take my word for it, trust people like Greg Ellifritz, who has an awesome piece compiling over 60 recent examples of open carriers losing their guns or being killed due to carrying openly. He then goes on to link dozens of other articles where various experts like Massad Ayoob, Jeff Gonzales, and others give their opinions on the subject. You can read that >>HERE<<.
If you decide to open carry, do it in a Level 2 or 3 retention holster like those from Safariland, with a service grade pistol, and have significant training under your belt. Go take Jiu Jitsu, jump into an ECQC class, and find ways to enhance your situational awareness. Better yet, continue to study and train, but carry concealed in a quality holster like those from JM Custom Kydex, Tenicor, Raven Concealment, and others.
About Dan Reedy
Dan is an Air Force veteran, avid shooter, and dog dad. With a passion for teaching, he holds instructor certifications from Rangemaster, Agile Training & Consulting, and the NRA. He has trained with Darryl Bolke, Mike Pannone, Craig Douglas, among several other instructors, amassing over 400 hours of professional instruction thus far. In his spare time you’ll find him teaching handgun, shotgun, and less lethal classes.
Dan’s work has been published by Primer Peak, and The Kommando Blog, and he has been featured as a guest on Primary & Secondary.
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How To Field Strip A 1911
Finding a place to hunt can be really tough these days, especially if you aren’t fortunate enough to own or lease some high-quality hunting land. However, public land is another good option that doesn’t cost much to hunt on.
While the quantity and quality of public land varies from state to state, the fact remains that there are millions of acres of land all over the United States on which you can hunt. You’ve just got to find them first. Read on to find out how to find a place to hunt.
While the quantity and quality of public land varies from state to state, the fact remains that there are millions of acres of land all over the United States on which you can hunt. You’ve just got to find them first. Read on to find out how to find a place to hunt.
1. State wildlife agencies
One of the first places you should look on your quest for finding a good place to hunt is the website of your state wildlife agency. Not only will virtually every state wildlife agency provide a good listing of all state-owned public land parcels, but it will also let you know if any special permits are needed or if there are any special seasons that must be followed when hunting on state land.
Unfortunately, the quality of information on public land varies from state to state, so you may have to look elsewhere to get all of the information that you need.
2. Recreation.gov
After checking out public land administered by your home state, the next place you should look is for land owned by the federal government. Fortunately, the website Recreation.gov allows you to search for a place to hunt all over the country on land administered by the National Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management land, and the Bureau of Land Reclamation (among others).
In addition to finding a good place to hunt, you may also use this website to find places to fish, camp or hike.
3. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
When you’re looking for a place to hunt on public land administered by the federal government, don’t forget about the national wildlife refuges that are located all over the country. The United States Fish & Wildlife Service administers millions of acres of public land, and there may be one near you that you didn’t even know about.
Though some wildlife refuges have specific hunting regulations and may require a special hunting permit to use, fortunately, the Department of Fish & Wildlife also runs an excellent website that is user-friendly and provides all of the necessary information in one place.
4. Powderhook
Powderhook is a new resource dedicated to connecting hunters with good places to hunt. They have a comprehensive directory of public land, as well as private land that may be hunted for a fee, all over the United States.
The idea was to compile all of the available hunting land into one single resource. Though they are still building their list of private land, Powderhook’s list of public land is mostly complete. All of their listings (public and private) are compiled on a searchable map.
5. onXmaps
Another method of finding a good place to hunt is to purchase an overlay for your global positioning system that contains property boundaries. onXmaps sells maps for every U.S. state that are easy to use and show every piece of public (as well as private) hunting land located in that state.
These maps may be used on your computer as well as your GPS and are extremely beneficial if you’re looking for a place to hunt. In addition to showing the exact boundaries (and ownership) of all tracts of land in the state, they also contain the location of many small parcels of public land that aren’t widely known.