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While attending the 2025 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Atlanta, GA. A belt company that had been on my radar, Kore Essentials, was in attendance. While talking to them at their booth, I learned that I could have one for $50. This belt at first seemed to be too light and thin on initial inspection to carry my daily carry items, but I soon learned otherwise. I was unable to crush the 1.5” of width in my bare hands. It passed the standard that everyone should use while

From September 5th through the 7th, 2022, I had the privilege of being invited out to Southington Hunt Club in northeastern Ohio by Chris Costa of Costa Ludus for his Handgun Elements Theory 1 (HET1) course. This place is not only a complex full of pistol and rifle ranges, but also has a 1,000-yard range. If you are an off roader, they have many trails to take to test your off-road vehicles of all kinds as well. I encourage you to take a class at this wonderful location. I

On Monday, July 13, 2026 I taught a half day revolver course during a private lesson at Defensive Training Solution’s Range near Troy, Ohio. The student was making a training circuit, and thought he was come see us on his way through. After breakfast where we talked about the role of the defensive revolver, we talked about revolver fundamentals before getting into live fire drills that forced the student to hone their marksmanship and gun handling skills. He brought a Smit

On Saturday, June 20, 2026, I taught Defensive Shotgun to three students at Darke County Fish and Game. All brought a shotgun chambered in 12 gauge. Guns in attendance were a Vang Comp Remington 870, EAA Churchill, and a Beretta A300. I demonstrated drills with my LTT Beretta 1301, the shotgun that I have chosen to teach all of the 2026 shotgun classes with. All ran fine, except for the EAA Churchill. This is an 870-knockoff made in Turkey. This shotgun did not want to

On Saturday, May 1 and Sunday May 2, I taught Defensive Shotgun 1 and 2 to one student during a two-day private lesson. This student has recently caught the training bug in the last two to three years, training with Fortress, DTI, Thunder Ranch, Gunsite and now Surprise Break. He brought a Beretta 1301 with a Holosun 509T on it so I brought my LTT 1301 with Aridus QDC, Surefire X-300 and Aimpoint H2. Neither shotgun had any issues to speak of except when I did not use push

On June 11-12, 2019, Ansonia Local Schools sent me to attend ALICE training so I could bring it back and teach it to school staff there when I was their full time School Resource Officer. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. This doesn’t mean that you will do all of these during an active killer attack, but these are your options. A good plan contains nearly all of them. Obviously, my personal leanings are businesses, schools, churches, etc. not

https://agiletactical.com/ I attended this class in Brookville, OH on April 10, 2021. The title of this course intrigued me for two reasons: one, I have only received training as a police officer on this topic before and two, I highly recommend all serious self-defense practitioner’s carry pepper spray ALONG with a handgun. When Chuck made the comment, “there needs to be something between a harsh word and a gun,” I knew I had signed up for the right class. I am not going

Zendira “The Invisible Holster”: Review by Marie Yount Back in April of 2023, I was fortunate to be able to get a Friday Concealed Carry Bag from the owner of Zendira at the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits. I wanted to take a moment and write a short review of how I feel about this carry bag that, to the untrained eye, is nothing more than a trendy looking cross body purse. Zendira is a company out of Austin, Texas created to help women carry and feel comfortable while carry

On Saturday, April 11th, I taught Defensive Rifle to one student. As this student takes many classes every year, I did not cancel it. Although he has taken the class before, this time he did it with a Winchester Model 94 in .30-30 which he had cut down to make the barrel length 16 inches. I demonstrated with my wife’s Marlin Model 336 also in .30-30. This was the perfect opportunity for me to modify some of the drills when students bring repeating rifles instead of self-l

On Saturday, March 21st, I taught NRA Personal Protection Inside the Home to two students. Four were signed up but two had medical issues pop up causing them to post pone until the next one. Both students and I used Smith and Wesson 9mm pistols. An M&P Compact and a M&P Shield. Neither experienced any issues. My demonstration pistol, my department issue M&P 2.0 Metal with Holosun 509T and Streamlight TLR-1HL, worked fine as it typically does. For those of you that are w

Revolver Fest was a training event that Bruce McCarthy and I attended in Clinton, SC from October 11th through the 13 th , 2025. It was a revolver centric training event planned and well executed by American Fighting Revolver that allowed all in attendance to try out a wide variety of revolver manufacturers revolvers, but also some of the best revolver instructors in the industry. For those of you who do not know what American Fighting Revolver is, it is a website with tons

On January 31, 2026, at Darke County Fish and Game, Jack and Kyle taught two indoor half-day classes. All the students in attendance trained with us before. The first class, AR Technician, was taught to one student who brought and cleaned his Colt SP-1 that he purchased in the 70’s. The gun was very dirty as the student did not know how to completely field strip his rifle to clean it prior to taking our class. Four and a half hours, a Breakthrough cleaning kit, and a Real

Disclaimer: I do not recommend a 2011 style pistol for everyone’s choice for every day carry. 2011’s are what I would consider an experts carry pistol. It is an expert’s pistol because one must always know the status of the safety. Carrying a pistol without manual safeties gives people one less thing to worry about as they are experiencing duress during the literal fight for their life. That is where simple striker fired polymer pistols that lack active safeties shine.

Club 5120 After-Action Class Reports capture key lessons and observations from each completed training session that Surprise Break Staff take as students themselves. Proving that the best instructors are continuing students of our art. The goal is simple: reflect, improve, and reinforce responsible training habits moving forward. It's a great way to see who else you need to train with.

Club 5120 Monthly Training Recaps highlight which classes we taught that month. These short summaries feature lessons learned, students and instructors gear of choice, and class photos. It’s a simple way to stay informed when you miss a training class that you should have been at yourself.

Club 5120 Firearm Gear Reviews is a trusted place for clear, no-nonsense looks at weapons and training related equipment. Each review focuses on quality, reliability, and real-world performance, with an emphasis on the proper and responsible use of the item being reviewed.