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1 week ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
When I was a kid just about every country home had what we called a “kitchen-door gun.” That was an old .22 rifle or maybe a single-shot .410. It was used to dispatch unwanted critters from the porch or yard. Poisonous snakes would be a good example. Of course, the kitchen-door gun occasionally came into play when dealing with even more dangerous, and bigger, critters. In today’s society, having a long gun safely stored near your external doors is really a good idea.
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2 weeks ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
Recently, I was remembering an old lawman that I used to know who spent years keeping the peace down on the border. He carried a Colt single-action revolver in .38/40, loaded with five cartridges and the hammer down on the empty cylinder for safety. When I asked him about having only five cartridges in a handgun that was slow to reload, he said that if you put five 180-grain slugs where they needed to go, you could reload at your leisure.
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3 weeks ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
Through good training and then practicing what we’ve been taught, we form the habit of presenting our defensive handgun in a level fashion to the target. Just before breaking the shot, our focus goes to the front sight to confirm that we are properly lined up with the vital zone. This is what Col. Jeff Cooper called the flash sight picture. At close ranges we don’t bother to try to line up our front and rear sights like a target shooter does, or like we would need to do at longer ranges.
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1 month ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
I sometimes think that those of us who teach and write about personal defense don’t spend enough time talking about avoidance. After all, we never saw John Wayne or Clint Eastwood back down from trouble, so why should we? But maybe we should gently remind ourselves that this is fiction, and reality is just a whole lot different.
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1 month ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
From time to time, some less-than-optimal defensive practices become popular. It could be someone posts a new video on social media or a particular topic gets bandied around at the local gun store or shooting range. For whatever reason, it becomes popular without anyone having given it a lot of serious thought. Here are a few, in no particular order, that are really not good ideas. I have a handgun for self-defense and will carry it whenever I think I need to.
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1 month ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
When setting up a personal carry gun in this day and time, the first thing a person notices is the huge amount of accessories that are available. This can be good, and it can be bad. The best rule of thumb for the personal defense gun is to not hang anything on it that is not absolutely necessary. The first thing that I want to do with a new gun is to shoot it a lot, and those shooting sessions will tell me what, if anything, the gun really needs.
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1 month ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
Years ago, I had a friend who was about the best deer hunter I’ve ever known. He nearly always got a deer on his hunting trips; it was nearly always a good buck. When I asked him for advice, he told me that you have to think like a deer. Where do they find the best cover? Where do they find the best food? Where are the paths that they like to travel when going from one place to another? "Think like a deer" was his advice.
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1 month ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
People who are new to shooting and this business of personal defense often wonder if signing up for a defensive handgun school is really worth it. There are also others who have been around firearms most of their lives, hunting, plinking or target shooting, who may wonder if they will actually learn anything new in a defensive handgun class. Let me put it this way: taking a defensive shooting class from professional trainers is one of the smartest things you will ever do.
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2 months ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
The term “snub-nose revolver” is one you seldom hear anymore, but there was a time when it referred to the 2-inch-barreled revolvers that rode on the hip of just about every police detective and investigator in this country. It was on or in the nightstand in a lot of homes, too. I think it is still one of the most practical defensive handguns, especially for deep concealment. The whole concept of the modern, short-barreled revolver actually started in the mid-1920s. A Colt employee named John H.
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2 months ago | 
shootingillustrated.com | Jim Wilson
My experience with two different women comes to mind, and it’s not that I am picking on women; men can make the same mistakes. The first woman is single and lives alone. About a year ago she asked me to come look at a revolver that she had gotten from her grandmother for personal defense. Sadly, the gun was a piece of junk, and it had been a piece of junk when it was new, too; it simply wasn’t safe.
