There are lots of self defense deterrents for one to choose from. For those who are so inclined, a gun is extremely effective in thwarting a home invasion and takes no special permit to keep one in your home. If you plan to carry a hand gun, then you’ll need to apply for and be issued a Conceal Carry permit before doing so.

Guns aren’t for everyone and that’s understandable. There are loads of quality self defense products like stun guns, pepper spray, alarms and more that may be just as effective in stopping an attack.

Finally, we have our own will to survive, as well as any self defense training we may have picked up, to resist an attacker with. I recommend that for beginners, one should not use fists to the face – use your palms, as they won’t be injured as easily and will still deliver a crushing strike when employed.

We don’t want to forget to use our elbows and knees to deliver hard blows – again, these are joints in our arsenal that will generally keep you safe from injuring yourself while striking. Scratching eyes, biting – it’s all good when your life is on the line. There are nor rules in a real self defense scenario. You either win and walk away or lose and well….who knows what condition you’ll be left in.

Remember to keep things simple and tap into your primal survival mode if you’re attacked and you find yourself unarmed!

A lifetime ago, (for some readers) we practiced applying very intricate self defense applications against various punches, kicks and grabs.  My first karate teacher always reminded us that this was good fun, but that in real life we would revert to the most basic maneuvers to abruptly end an attack.

Yeah yeah, we murmured as we strove to get fancier, more spectacular applications under our belts and down cold.  I look back now and of course, as always, Sensei knew best.  Long gone are the days when I could quickly step left to block a right handed punch with my right arm, simultaneously grabbing it, while launching a leading leg hook kick, under ‘n over the trapped arm and to the head of my attacker, then quickly retracting it to a chambered position, and smashing him in the face with the instep of my foot with a round kick.  And all of that, without once letting go of the blocked arm, or dropping the kicking leg.

Last night as I worked on the wooden dummy, I looked at my attacker.  He threw the same right handed punch and what was my response?  It was elegant in it’s simplicity and powerful.  Let’s discuss it.  Pay attention because this is a very devastating, fight stopper!

I stood my ground calmly and lifted my left arm up and blocked or deflected the right hand punch while rotating my hips to my right side. This pushes the attacking arm away while turning your centerline 45* to the right. Then, I simply rotated my hips back to the left, continuing my left (blocking) arm’s clockwise motion, which now is guiding the attacking arm downward and leading it back to my left side / opponent’s right side.  As those hips rotate back to the left, the feet pivot with them and the body naturally torques back into the opponent and I launch a powerful palm strike with the heel of my right hand, to the left side of my attackers face.

Want to follow up?  No problem.  Simply continue pivoting your hips and feet while continuing to smash hard palm strikes to the face or rib cage of your attacker.

In all honesty, one extremely fast counterstrike like this should end hostilities. I personally teach to continue striking until the attacker is down or gone.  More is always better, when defending your life with your bare hands.  Read the 4th paragraph carefully a couple of times and practice with a friend, bag, dummy or a door jam.  You’ll begin to feel the extreme power and simplicity in this most basic of self defense applications – I promise!

When we find ourselves in any self defense scenario, the ability to move quickly, run or strike back is in some cases determined by training.  In others, simply being “physically fit” will help in assuring your of survival.

A physically fit person is usually more alert and avoids or responds to an attack better than the person who is not.  Being lethargic, grossly overweight or having poor muscle tone, will make you more susceptible to becoming injured or victimized in a violent crime.

Of course no one can dodge a bullet, but one can easily duck out of the way of a haymaker or rip themselves away from an attacker’s grip if they are fit and alert.

The more physically fit a person is, their reaction time and strength to perform any task is increased proportionately, thus enabling them to survive a physical encounter with greater assurance than one who is out of shape and has an apathetic mindset.

How many of us have decided that this year we will lose weight, quit smoking, build up some muscle?  Lots of folks have I’m sure, but getting started is the hardest part of any discipline.  Once begun, a fitness program of any type will have a snow-balling effect and build up momentum as time goes by.  Just get started!

Stew Smith is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a former Navy SEAL, and author of several fitness and self defense books such as The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness, Maximum Fitness, and SWAT Workout. His books are available at Amazon and are all 4.5 and 5 star rated by customers who have purchased them.

Stew has released as a gift, in the first week of January, his 45 Day Beginner Plan.  Check it out and see how easy it to increase your energy and drop a few pounds.  Don’t forget his other books either.  If you go to Amazon online, just copy and paste the titles into the search box, or enter his name and you’ll find them!

It was a long time in coming but I managed to swing a sweet deal on a new Spyderco Police tactical folder. It has a VG10 grade, steel blade of almost 4.5 inches, housed in a fully steel lined grip with G10 scales (grips). 

This material is very sticky to the hand and doesn’t come dislodged from one’s hand easily. G10 is the newest and best scale material and makes Zytel and other polymers feel chintzy by comparison.

As an Eskrima / Escrima practitioner, I love the feel of a quality blade in my hand. After a firearm or a baton, the knife is your last “weapon” in a layered self defense carry package.

Of course, there are still martial arts skills behind the blade, but if you need the edge, then the Spyderco Police model affords you a formidable and lethal self defense option.

The knife comes with drilled out holes for left or right hand, tip-up or tip-down carry.  Spyderco’s signature, large 1/2 inch deployment hole in the blade is extremely easy to use by comparison to a thumb-stud.

Mine locks up tight in the vertical or horizontal directions like a bank vault. The blade is flat ground and wickedly, razor sharp.  It’s ideal for both slashing techniques and with the gimping on the blade and contoured G10 handle, very safe for hard thrusts as well.

Having such a long blade this knife affords plenty of room on the handle for use as an impact or kubotan striking device, whether open or closed.

Finally, it has a lock-back with a small depression to insure that a tight grip is not going to accidentally release the blade’s locking mechanism.  A very well made, safe knife for last ditch tactical self defense carry.  I love it, but then again I love all well made knives!

Recently I’ve been digging up all of my knives and getting them together for storage and rotation in EDC.

One my favorites, and no it’s not a Scarab or a  Sebenza – it’s a Cold Steel Ti-Lite!

Extremely lightweight in the Zytel grip and offering 4 inches of “scary sharp” blade, there’s a lot of good stuff to say about the Ti-Lite.

I prefer the Zytel grip since it’s lighter by far, is inexpensive and has a nice grain in the grip.  I only carry a knife for self defense and want a sure grip – if it’s summer and my hands are sweaty or if you hit bone it’s easier to hold onto.

It’s sexy looking – having a retro look of the Italian switchblade knife but using a sharply gimped quillion, it snags against the pocket and opens faster than any automatic knife I’ve ever used.

I made a few minor modifications to mine. I removed the pocket clip since I like to carry my folders inside my pockets and loathe the feeling of a pocket clip in my hand.

It still snags the pocket if I want and pops out.  It also opens via thumbstud and gravity with ease.  Just a flick of the wrist.

Next, I used a dremmel (carefully) and rounded all sharp edges on the hilt (when in the opened position) – it’s now super comfortable to hold with the thumb behind it and doesn’t dig into the thumb.  Plus, I lost nothing on pocket dragging to open it.

It’s a snap and takes about 10 – 15 minutes.  Just be sure to wrap a bit of electrical tape around it, to prevent any dings in the handle.

The 4″ blade Ti-Lite Zytel is my 2nd lightest tactical folder and will be getting it’s share of “carry time.”  One very impressive knife!

These are pics from my excursion the other day to the woodpile.
 
Seeking a good carry round if I pocketed my Beretta Bobcat 21A .22LR, I thought about some things.  I have resolved all stove-pipe issues so I may just grab this pistol if needed for a late night stroll.
 
I had been reading Sniper & Competition forums and there’s much talk about bullet weight, uniformity, brands etc.  What was conclusive, was that there are a few utilities that these folks use to accurize their rimfire ammo.
 
The items, do one or all of these: size the round uniformly (slug & case union), re-shape the bullet to a blunt, hollow point and other shapes, remove waxy buildup on the bullet / case neck area.
 
So, w/o purchasing anything yet, I decided to take my hottest loads out and “emery” 7 rounds as uniformly as possible. 
 
These are Aquila Super Maximums – 30 grain HP’s doing about 1800 fps, + or - 
 
When complete the top circumference of the shell case had a nice smooth rub mark and the slug had no bulky bulge there either.
 
I loaded the 7 re-finished rounds in my pistol and put 7 factory rounds in another magazine.
 
I fired at a light stainless container that we used to keep my daughter’s cat food in.  The distance measured approximately 20 – 25 feet.
 
I just rapid fired – looking down the barrel, not sighting carefully and hit 5 of 7 from the first magazine and 6 of 7 rds from the second magazine.

I forgot to put something in the pictures for scale, but I think you’ll get the idea.
 
The smaller entry and exit holes are from factory ammo and the larger from the sanded rounds.  The holes are easily the size of 9mm HP’s.

Perhaps this was due to the bullet design of the round in the first case and in the second, my sanding may have caused the larger holes to have come as a result of bullets that were beginning to tumble? 

Check out the pics below, very interesting!

In the frantic and ever changing poitical atmosphere that Americans are seeing on the news each night, there is confusion.  Quite honestly, a guy doesn’t know what’s going on from one day to another anymore. There is so much information and media spin that we don’t know who’s running what and what our future may old.

One thing is for sure, the NRA and people who support our rights to “bear arms” believe that this Constitutional right is under heavy attack. One only needs to try and buy ammunition to find out that you can’t find it on the shelf at Wal-Mart anymore.

If you want an Federal Firearms License, I would say to get one now, before they “possibly” become impossible to obtain. You can obtain guns at a fraction of the retail price, or maybe start your own small business from your home or website and have a nifty second income source. They’re for everyone who qualifies as a law abiding citizen.

I’d like to recommend a website that for a few bucks, will put you on the fast track to getting your Federal Firearms License.  They walk you through the process and supply the forms with complete instructions on how to fill them out. This is a very sweet deal and time may be running out on obtaining one. 

Just click any of the links in this article to get your FFL license quickly today!

In another post we looked at the Beretta Bobcat 21A INOX in .22 long rifle. I would like to revisit this little pistol, as it has had about 1000 rounds run through it now and is, as the folks on the Beretta forum say, “just getting broken in.”

I was experiencing some stove-pipes and it was bad enough to not be a trustworthy self defense pistol for a “deep concealment” carry.

With the help of the good folks from the forums, I was able to find out that the problem was not the little gun but the lips of the magazines.  They were too open and allowing some rounds to pop up too high and end up, stove piped at the top of the chamber.

The fix took about 20 minutes and was achieved with a set of needle nose pliers, with a single wrap of electricians tape on each jaw of the pliers.

I bent each side “down and inward” just a bit – problem solved!  I proceeded to fire 100 rounds of CCI Mini Mags, without mishap. To illustrate the effectiveness of this tiny, “built for a lifetime” pistol:

I fired two magazines of 7 from 33 feet. 

I fired two magazines of 7 from 15 feet.

I fired two magazines of 7 from 6 feet.

That is 14 rounds at each distance. All were fired double action on the first round and no aim was taken.  I have practiced “point shooting” for a long time and at these ranges and for it’s use, you won’t have time for careful aiming.

All 42 rounds were fired into a Styrofoam picnic plate with no misses.

I am enclosing 3 pics below to show 1.) the tiny palm sized Beretta. 2.) the size of the plate with a ruler below it 3.) the plate taped over a sleeveless tee-shirt.

These should give you an idea of the accuracy of this pistol, when tuned up a bit and fired by a shooter who practices with it sufficiently.

On Friday, the NRA sent out to releases to members and posted on their website, that they opposed the appointment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court.

Citing that she has shown herself to be hostile to the 2nd Amendment rights of citizens to bear arms, per her past history. 

In another mailing on Friday, the NRA encouraged members to contact their elected officials to encourage support for their rights to self defense, as the Senate considers the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1390). 

Also, Senators John Thune (R-SD) and David Vitter (R-LA) will introduce an amendment on Monday, that will provide for interstate recognition of Right-to-Carry permits.

If you’re one who supports the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear arms, you’ll want to go to the NRA website and read this information. They have the email addresses and some phone numbers of YOUR elected officials. 

It’s simple to find and easy to use their locaters and automated email system to let your elected officials know how you feel!