The accusation that people are "LARPing" gets thrown around a lot these days in the tactical world. It's used to denigrate any training by regular people, who aren't professional military or LE. More broadly it gets applied to various homesteader/traditionalist types on the right. The first thing worth noting is that, in almost all cases, this is a term used by people who don't actually do anything cool in real life, to describe someone who does cool stuff in real life. It's

ONCE EVERYWHERE, NOW FORGOTTEN Radios are sexy, and cool. Very popular to talk about on the internet lately. But as anyone who's ever used them in field conditions knows, they fail all the time. You know what are not very sexy, but are absolutely, rock solid, until-the-heat-death-of-the-universe reliable? Whistles. It's amazing how completely the whistle has disappeared from the fighting world. A hundred years ago, every infantry officer in every military in the world carried

DISCLAIMER: this article is for entertainment purposes only. The Nixie Alarm is a noise making device only, that uses novelty fireworks...

What packing cubes fit my rig? Do I need a packing cube? Why not just buy one of temu? Your questions answered here

How our Spanish Reference Translation Sticker came to be, why it's important, and how it could save your life someday

Why wood stoves are important, and how you can make one light enough to carry anywhere

In America, apples are probably the most prolific food available to forage freely. This is presumably the case in much of Europe too. No...

A $140 tent/cabin woodstove that doesn't suck?

Lessons learned from Shivworks' martial arts-focused vehicular shooting course

Important lessons learned from attending a 48 hour force-on-force training event in the mountains of West Virginia

NOTE: This post has been written by my good friend D Drum over at Thwackster Crafting, and is, I think, some insightful knowledge on a...

TL;DR: buy a Foretrex 601 if you can afford it, otherwise get a 401 or 301. Buy used off ebay or tacswap In almost every photo of me in...

Military surplus has a funny way of breaking the normal rules of economics. If I were to, say, manufacture and sell an exact copy of a...

I've got a lot of hot takes, but so far none have received as much feedback (from both sides) as this. THE TL;DR VERSION Combat boots are a crappy compromise between a work boot and a hiking boot As a civilian, you have free choice of footwear, and should pick a high performance shoe for patrolling (AKA not a combat boot) Combat boots slow you down, wear you out faster, and are more likely to cause foot and leg injury Combat boots are used by civilians because they incorrectl

I recently got back from a double overnighter in snow and cold of january in the Colorado Rockies. Surviving and thriving outdoors in the...

Hoping to make a little series of these deep dives on specific areas of my kit and how I save weight and why I use the gear that I do. Today's topic is water, and we will first go over how much water, then what to carry it in, then how to purify it. HOW MUCH WATER SHOULD I CARRY? I don't intentionally go out of my way to piss off vets, but it inevitably happens anyways so let's rip this bandaid off now: infantrymen carry way too much water. This is a BAD habit that is often b

I get a lot of feedback (some good, some bad) about the things I pack in my LFR. To an ultralight backpacker, some of it seems odd. To an infantry guy, most of it seems wildly unorthodox. So I'm gonna try to explain my reasoning in the hope that you'll see that, within the context of the preparedness-minded civilian, I make a lot of sense. This first post will be about the rations I carry in the field. I hope this is the first post in a series, but only time will tell. THE TL

UPDATED 12.11.2025 Writing this because every time I post what book I'm currently reading, I get questions on reading recommendations. As someone who spends eight or more hours a day in my workshop listening to audiobooks and podcasts, I go through a LOT of content. So here are some books, essays, and podcasts that I think are important for people to read. This will be a living list, and will occasionally be updated with new stuff I find. Where possible, I will post a link to

So fair warning: this is largely copy pasted from a powerpoint presentation I gave in February 2021. So the layout and tone might come...

Since posting your "recce rifle" seems popular at the moment, Much as I hate posting gun stuff, I thought I'd go over mine, since a...