Be Ready to Defend Yourself and Family

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UPDATE: You read back in April of 2015 below that you must be ready to defend yourself and your family. Today’s chaos puts a fine point on that statement. Don’t lose a step on your self-defense skills, practice diligently so you are ready to defend yourself and your family.

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Originally posted April 14, 2015.

You better be ready to defend yourself and your family. Self-defense is a perishable skill. Simply buying a weapon is not enough. It takes practice, practice, and more practice. It is one of the most important takeaways I’ve learned in the shooter training courses I’ve taken at Sig Sauer Academy in Exeter, NH.

Last week, after a long New England Winter, my friend and I hit our local range to work with our rifles. The last time we were there together was in the Fall before the snow. I was rusty to say the least. Shooting is a lot like golf. It takes some time to get back the muscle memory.

Our club is known for its world-class youth precision shooters. Talk about practice. They hit their target, then practice putting the next shot through the hole, over and over again.

You get a feel for the seriousness of the trade in the following article. You don’t need to be world-class to defend yourself and your family. You don’t need a sniper rifle. But you do need to practice self-defense. It is a perishable skill.

Sofrep.com’s Nick Irving writes:

Precision long-rang shooting is an absolute art. Everything has to be perfect in order for the round to impact its intended target. Factors including humidity, barometric pressure, density, altitude, wind, temperature, flight time, etc., are all considerations that the shooter must overcome to place a small projectile onto a target generally the size of human torso.

This is the world with which most military snipers and precision shooters are far too familiar.

Now take a look at the average Olympic shooter, an athlete who typically shoots in ideal conditions and at distances that don’t exceed 50 meters. Comparing the two very different styles of shooting, one may assume from the job description alone that the two have absolutely no comparison, or that military snipers are the best at their craft. This may hold true… to some extent.

Over the course of four days, I had the chance to work with Amanda Furrer, an Olympic Precision Shooter, and wanted to somehow compare the two styles of shooting and shed some light on the art of precision shooting, if it was possible. Amanda’s style of shooting does indeed differ from that of my job and what most military snipers are used to, but the difference was not as drastic as I thought before meeting up.

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.