Saturday Night Survival Theater
Some old government training films for new gun owners.
There’s a lot of new gun owners out there who don’t feel adequately trained or familiar with their new purchases. Budgets are tight enough that spending thousands of dollars on classes is probably out of the question. While old training films like the following are often dated and not a substitute for hands on training it’s the best some of us are going to get right now.
Fun fact for you folks who follow me on Instagram I had wanted to get away from crime and politics and was planning on doing a historical research project on old fashioned shooting techniques that aren’t taught anymore - thus the name OldTimeyPistolero. But I started the project just as Youtube went woke and on a mass demonetization spree so I shelved it. These old training vids were ones I was using to learn how gunfighting was taught in the early 20th century through the 1970s and 80s.
While many of the techniques are considered dated now, the films actual have good information on things like ricochets (bullets don’t bounce like pool balls of surfaces, they travel along the surface they hit) the importance of finding cover and most important to me show techniques developed for the kind of guns lots of you Johnny Come latelys are seeing in stores - surplus double action revolvers, shotguns etc. They’re also a fascinating look into the past where crime was a much greater concern than we’ve had to think about until recently.
Some of the info will be relevant, some not so much but it’ll give you a passing familiarity with firearms use.
First up is an old Department of Justice training film called Shooting for Survival:
Next is a very good documentary on shotgun ammunition called Rounds of Authority. This film is still extremely relevant today.
And finally here’s an old 1950s era training film called Fundamentals of Double Action Revolver Shooting. Skinny jean wearing lurkers on the web call this “Fuddlore” but the people who designed this training killed more people than them in gunfights so YMMV
Do you like old school stuff too? Drop me a line on my Instagram