Archive for the 'Survival' Category

Clausewitz’s most famous saying about war, that it is the continuation of politics (policy) by other means.

Here is the passage in full:

24. WAR IS A MERE CONTINUATION OF POLICY BY OTHER MEANS.

We see, therefore, that War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means. All beyond this which is strictly peculiar to War relates merely to the peculiar nature of the means which it uses. That the tendencies and views of policy shall not be incompatible with these means, the Art of War in general and the Commander in each particular case may demand, and this claim is truly not a trifling one. But however powerfully this may react on political views in particular cases, still it must always be regarded as only a modification of them; for the political view is the object, War is the means, and the means must always include the object in our conception.

At SurvivalBlog, this is an excellent two-part post. A very brief history of the Boer Wars is offered then it’s almost exclusively weapons, ammo, purposes in use, and personal firearms considerations. Great stuff, tons of data, with much to consider and debate.

Part One

Part Two

Excerpt from Part Two:

Around here, .30-06 is more common than .308 Win.  The second most popular in my neighborhood is 6.5 Creedmoor (6.5CM), then 6.5×55, and lastly a wildcat for the AR platform, the 6.5 Timberwolf. Ideally, we would be best off to standardized on .308 Winchester. Yet .30-06 is still king in these woods. It is time tested and found to be the best all around cartridge CONUS, good for mouse to moose, and the occasional Griz, because it can shoot the heaviest .308 caliber bullets with a 1:10 twist rate barrel.

The .30-06 can also punch out a flat shooting 175 grain bullet at 2,800fps with H4831sc, H4350 powder, or other similar powders. It is appreciable flatter shooting than .308 Winchester, and far flatter than .308 Winchester’s military version, 7.62×51 NATO.  Yet we do pay the price in terms of a punishing level of recoil. Therefore, my ideal long range rifle would be the 6.5×55 cartridge in a modern action capable of 60,000psi with 29 inch bull barrel attached, however that rifle is only a dream rifle.

The Rutherford Institute

“It is the function of mass agitation to exploit all the grievances, hopes, aspirations, prejudices, fears, and ideals of all the special groups that make up our society, social, religious, economic, racial, political. Stir them up. Set one against the other. Divide and conquer. That’s the way to soften up a democracy.”― J. Edgar Hoover, Masters of Deceit

The U.S. government has become a master of deceit.

It’s all documented, too.

This is a government that lies, cheats, steals, spies, kills, maims, enslaves, breaks the laws, overreaches its authority, and abuses its power at almost every turn; treats its citizens like faceless statistics and economic units to be bought, sold, bartered, traded, and tracked; and wages wars for profit, jails its own people for profit, and has no qualms about spreading its reign of terror abroad.

Worse, this is a government that has become almost indistinguishable from the evil it claims to be fighting, whether that evil takes the form of terrorism, torture, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, murder, violence, theft, pornography, scientific experimentations or some other diabolical means of inflicting pain, suffering and servitude on humanity.

With every passing day, it becomes painfully clear that this is not a government that can be trusted with your life, your loved ones, your livelihood or your freedoms.

[…]

Just recently, for example, the Pentagon was compelled to order a sweeping review of clandestine U.S. psychological warfare operations (psy ops) conducted through social media platforms. The investigation comes in response to reports suggesting that the U.S. military has been creating bogus personas with AI-generated profile pictures and fictitious media sites on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to manipulate social media users.

Psychological warfare, as the U.S. Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group explained in a recruiting video released earlier this year, enables the government to pull the strings, turn everything they touch into a weapon, be everywhere, deceive, persuade, change, influence, and inspire.

We’ve argued this before, but about NSA spying on foreign nationals and countries. What the DoD is doing here is legitimate in the national security interest as it stands today. The problems are not this program or the US spying on enemies or potential enemies; there are two problems with this. There is no declared war, and the DoD has been permanently funded to wartime levels for 80 years now under continuing resolutions. It’s silly to argue against this spying while funding the spies like we’re at war. Will all of this be turned against us, surely, and probably already is? But as it stands right now, this is a legitimate use of the funds allocated by Congress for this purpose. We were warned against a standing army, and congress used to have power over that.

It’s a short hop, skip and a jump from a behavioral program that tries to influence how people respond to paperwork to a government program that tries to shape the public’s views about other, more consequential matters. Thus, increasingly, governments around the world—including in the United States—are relying on “nudge units” to steer citizens in the direction the powers-that-be want them to go, while preserving the appearance of free will.

[…]

This Machiavellian scheme has so ensnared the nation that few Americans even realize they are being brainwashed—manipulated—into adopting an “us” against “them” mindset. All the while, those in power—bought and paid for by lobbyists and corporations—move their costly agendas forward.

Read the whole thing.

Outdoor Life.

It’s been a tough year for Chris Landers. The 30-year-old hunter from Strathmore, Alberta underwent four ocular surgeries at the beginning of 2022 to fix a detached retina, the result of a work accident during which some metal shavings flew into his eye. He hunted in 2021 before realizing the retina was an issue and successfully harvested an elk and a black bear. He was hoping to have similar success with his 2022 elk season, but things wouldn’t go as planned.

Landers and his buddies were hunting in the Spirit River valley north of Grand Prairie in the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 15 when disaster struck. As they followed after a bugling elk, some thick brush knocked an arrow out of Landers’ quiver. Somehow, the arrow stuck into the ground with the broadhead pointing up. Landers didn’t see it in time and stepped right into the razor-sharp blades. The broadhead gouged into his shin, soared up behind his knee, and plunged into the back of his lower thigh.

The blades severed his peroneal nerve and nicked an artery. This not only turned his left leg into a fountain of blood, but also rendered it practically immobile and without any sensory function. Extreme damage to the tissue and cartilage around his knee joint only got worse as he fell to the ground.

“[The arrow] went right beside the bone, almost halfway up my leg,” Landers tells Outdoor Life from a hospital in Calgary. “It went past my knee and snapped off somewhere. We found the bottom half of the arrow and another small chunk where it broke, so about 10 inches of arrow were in my leg.”

His hunting partners Devon Spencer and Jared Manuel immediately sprung (sic) into action. They were miraculously in the only spot of cell phone service they’d seen in the two days they’d been hunting, so they called in emergency services.

“We stopped the bleeding so that it wasn’t crazy bad, and I just tried to calm myself down a little bit,” Landers says. “We had STARS Air Ambulance flying overhead about an hour and a half later. They nosed down and one of the nurses came down and put a tourniquet on. She couldn’t get an I.V. in because I was in shock, so she had to do an [intraosseous infusion] and had to drill a hole in my leg to put meds in through my shinbone.”

Pictures at the link.  They were initially using a belt as a tourniquet.  Even if the IFAK contains nothing more than a tourniquet and Quik Clot, carry one in the bush with you.  Virtually anything can happen.

Many Traditional Americans have bought an AR-15 recently but have used it little or not at all. (Ahem, you know who you are!) The first thing to do is read the whole manual that came with your weapon. The manual should have a parts list diagram. This will be important info providing proper terminology. Most say what to do next is to take it partially apart (field strip), clean it, and reassemble it, even before shooting. You should at least field strip it and wipe down the excess manufacturer’s oil.

There is a lot, and I mean a lot, of information about the AR-15 platform on the web. Most of it is useless. It’s super high-speed operators, the bulk of whom are total jerks, trying to impress and one-up each other, whose language and decorum are despicable, which doesn’t help the average family with their homesteading, church, or team-building needs.

The object should be to train with the AR platform to get beyond your hunting knowledge. Your women folk also need to learn to run the gun.

Get very familiar with the weapon platform, how it performs, its capabilities, and its uses. Training with an AR is different than hunting; the platform is designed primarily for defense. That’s why you bought it, right!?!

Well, you need practice in all phases; handling and manipulation, including loading/unloading/reloading mags, safety, sling, sights, how and when to use the “ping pong paddle” – bolt catch/release lever, safety positions, the six-position buttstock, learning/running drills, shooting static/moving targets, shooting while you’re moving, etc.

You can see how this is definitively not a bolt gun and not like hunting! The time to learn your AR isn’t when your family is in trouble but before.

Some background reading is here: The AR15 as the Rifleman’s Weapon.

This video is pretty good at showing terminology and the basics of manipulation.

Next: how to field strip and clean your AR-15.

John Lovell at Warrior Poet Society is the rare exception. Instead of being a rude, know-it-all tough guy, he’s an experienced action guy with the heart of a teacher. Here’s his How To Shoot an AR-15/M-4 Carbine video, including some step-by-step written instructions.

In this video, we learn a wonderful beginner’s shooting drill. The reason for three shots is, again, defense, not hunting. I like that he teaches to get the hits on target first and, with practice, increase the rapidity with which you can run the drill. When proficient, increase the distance from the target. Later, add mag reload. This is also a fantastic handgun basic training practice. Found at this channel with other good vids.

I’m a proponent of the idea that every adult, 12 years and up, should have at least basic proficiency with every weapon type in your household. A father can determine if children are mature enough to begin serious training, but they should be training in their youth, boys, and girls.

Readers, please weigh in with beginner to helpful intermediate knowledge, books, channels, links and etc. Thanks.

The headline is from this article. A better one would be the Reality of Real Profits v. Marxist Ideology Taking Over Wall Street.

The reality is real profits after expenses are what matters, or a business isn’t a going concern. A company must cover production costs, including salaries, and have some cash left (8 to 10 percent is the average target for an S&P 500 company) to reinvest for growth, new products, or expansion into new markets. You can’t structure a business around theoretical returns in feel-good social engineering.

In recent weeks there have been giant strides in the effort to challenge the legality of the “Environmental, Social and Governance” (ESG) construct that has become a threatening obsession of the titans of Wall Street. Though ESG remains a unfamiliar acronym for most Americans, Main Street investors whose pension dollars are funding ESG investments are beginning to ask questions.

ESG is a social construct. The Left always projects.

While constituting competing frameworks, reporting systems, and scoring systems for environmental and social reporting for companies, the ESG construct lacks any quantifiable or worthwhile measurements. Put plainly, it is an entirely subjective scheme, created and funded by political, activists. Under the pretense of environmental protection and social diversity, these activists recognized that they had allies in the financial services and banking sectors who could be incentivized to do via the capital markets that which the activists knew they could never achieve using traditional market forces or democratic institutions. In short, voters would never agree to ruin their own economies, livelihoods and futures in the name of political ideology. To be successful, it necessarily needed to be stealthy and unchallenged.

And neither would shareholders vote to destroy real profits for green projects that have no chance of recouping investment costs, knowing that these schemes don’t make actual profits in free and open markets. By ‘traditional market forces,’ the article means, earn real money or die!

In recent travels, giant windmills stood throughout certain parts of the US west. Where is the study on ROI (Return on investment) for these hideously ugly and mostly idle steel versions of the Dutch windmills from the Middle Ages? Forget for the moment monetary ROI; the Left doesn’t care about that. Let’s talk about Kilowatt Hours of ROI. What is the breakeven for a windmill in terms of energy used to produce it vs. energy output over its installed productive years?

The things are gigantic, made from metals, with miles of wiring for each one, lubrication, transportation and installation, lifecycle maintenance, etc. At what point, having poured millions of kilowatt hours of carbon energy into its production, does a windmill pay for itself in carbon savings by kilowatt hours of energy output? We all know the answer; they take more to produce and maintain in the total lifecycle than they will ever deliver. We’re willing to be wrong about this; dear communist greenies, show us the math, please?

Therefore, if one doesn’t pay for itself in kilowatt hours of power produced, it can never pay for itself in real money!

That’s just one example under the E for Environmental. This is why the Green Energy New Deal is fake. Remember that to implement their Green New Deal completely, they’ll need you to suffer to the point where you’ll accept whatever they plan to implement if only you have enough food for your children. The S for Social is most assuredly destructive to capital investing. But we’re ranting, back to the article.

Recognizing this reality, attorneys general Jeff Landry and Todd Rokita of Louisiana and Indiana issued a letter earlier this month warning their states’ pension boards that ESG investing is likely a violation of fiduciary duty and potentially opens their investment staff and investment advisers to liability if they continue allocating funds to ESG-promoting asset managers such as BlackRock.

The Landry and Rokita letters follow another letter sent last month from them and seventeen other state AGs to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. That letter warns the asset management giant that BlackRock’s ESG investment policies appear to involve what they describe as, “rampant violations” of the sole interest rule, a well-established legal principle. The sole interest rule requires investment fiduciaries like BlackRock, to act to maximize financial returns, not to promote social or political objectives.

Yet, it is clear that BlackRock and industry counterparts are doing precisely that. They are attempting to use the ESG pretext of “protecting the environment” to re-orient trillions of dollars of their clients’ capital toward what are unquestionably their own political and social objectives. This effort is borne out in the companies in which they invest and the trends they curate and then fund. As is repeatedly touted in the literature of the most prolific ESG advocates, they believe that because their asset management partners, including BlackRock, manage such a substantial percentage of the total investment market, their ESG world view is above constraint of law, or beyond the reach of the institutions that have traditionally protected investors from dubious investment schemes.

Dubious is the exact right word. One might be able to make a contrarian investment in the E, but the S and G exist enforced by law under the runaway woke interpretations of the 13th amendment and 1964 Civil Rights Act. It’s not just the most prominent corporations that are involved. Every medium or small (publicly traded in stock) corporation has to sign on to the woke S and G or get shut down by government enforcement. Meanwhile, because of the E, nobody can get funding for projects that make much-needed electricity, such as new nuclear power or natural gas plants.

America is famous for wealth extraction and not just overseas. It’s what government and businesses have been doing to West Virginia through coal for decades. The coal leaves on a train to make power for the big cities, and with it goes the profits leaving one of the most mineral-rich states in the union in poverty. Now, much of that coal goes to our self-declared enemy, China. The Left plans this same thing for Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, North Dakota, Louisiana, and others by destroying the oil industry.

But don’t worry, they’ll take your tax money and put up a windmill, if perchance a breeze comes along, maybe you can have an hour of electricity. I was struck by the fact that there are no substations on large farms with 50 giant windmills or more. Every coal, hydroelectric, and nuclear plant that I’ve seen has electrical substations to concentrate and route the gathered electricity on high-tension wires to population centers. I’ve even seen a solar farm with a small substation. Maybe the windmills are magic?

Here Kitty Kitty:

Wildlife officers on Wednesday were tracking a mountain lion that attacked a 7-year-old boy and prompted the closure of a sprawling Southern California park, authorities said.

The child and his father were walking up stairs at Pico Canyon Park near Santa Clarita around dusk on Monday when a cougar emerged from brush and bit the boy on the buttocks, said Capt. Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

That’s a classic ambush. Walking up steps takes attention and wind; fleeing is also difficult. Smart kitty. The attack occurred at dusk; cats are crepuscular. Though they may hunt at other times they hunt at dawn and dusk almost daily.

Foy said the father, who was walking behind, heard his son cry out and charged toward the big cat. “The lion let go and retreated back into the brush,” he said.

The boy was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, Foy said.

“It was a pretty traumatic episode for him, but he’s expected to be fine,” he said.

Wildlife officials sampled the bite wound to confirm that a mountain lion was responsible and to obtain a DNA profile of the animal.

The father said the cougar didn’t appear to be wearing a GPS collar from the National Park Service, which tracks and studies big cats in Southern California. The park service said it doesn’t have a collared mountain lion in the area and the park is outside its research zone, according to Foy.

You knew it was coming: “rare.”

Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare. Around 20 confirmed attacks have occurred in California in 110 years of record-keeping, he said.

That number of 20 is a bald-faced lie. That’s the “official” “confirmed” by the “Fish and Wildlife authorities” number, is my guess. Note how it wasn’t ‘confirmed’ to be a lion until the saliva sample was analyzed, as though a 7-year-old and his father don’t know what a cat looks like.

Fish and Wildlife officers surveyed the area and set up baited boxes to try and trap the mountain lion at the park in foothills about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The park remained closed Wednesday.

Baited boxes? Wait, weren’t they “tracking” the mountain lion? They have no fool idea where the cat is, and neither does AP, the source of the story, know what words mean.

I still want to see one in the wild.

H/T Instapundit

These are normie web pages, and all of them seem to shy away from food slaughtering and processing specifics. A family I know is researching Kiko’s for food. FYI, goats and dogs don’t always get along; even herding breeds of dogs sometimes maul or kill goats. Does anybody raise goats?

This page isn’t great, but the two embedded videos are helpful.

Raising Goats – A Beginner’s Guide has tons of information. It’s probably a little more in-depth than only for beginners.

How To Shear Goats

1. Wash the goats and treat them for any parasite infestations a couple of weeks prior to shearing the herd.

2. Goats must always be clean and dry for shearing. A wet goat’s mohair or cashmere will get tangled in the shears causing the animal pain and the shearer to spend a lot more frustrating time attempting to get the task completed. Even light rain can cause the goat hair to become too damp for proper shearing. For best and painless results, do not shear a goat that has been wet at all during the past 24 hours.

3. Use an air compressor hose or hairdryer on the lowest heat setting to blow away as much debris and dirt as possible from the goat fleece before shearing. Never position the air straight downwards to the goat but angled at the side to prevent pushing tiny debris deeper into the mohair or cashmere. Blowing air downward or holding the pressurized air too close to the goat will cause the fine hair to tangle and cause problems and potential injury when shearing.

4. Start the shearing of a goat by trimming a single strip from along the backbone onward in the direction of the withers.

5. Now, shear down the other side of the goat along the backbone, as well. But, this time keep the blades on the shearing tool parallel to prevent them from cutting the skin of the goat as you do along the animal’s side.

6. Shear the shoulder area in an up and down motion instead of going from side to side to avoid nicking the thin flesh that surrounds the bones and runs between them.

7. Take special care when shearing the hind legs of the fiber goat to prevent hitting the tendon in the legs.

8. When shearing the underside of the goat, go slowly and pay close attention when trimming hear the testicles, penis, udders, and teats. Before starting to shear near these sensitive areas, make sure you have enough light and have positioned the goat high enough of a shearing – milking stand to ensure you have a complete view of the entire shearing area.

9. If any of the fiber goats possess wattles, use extra care when shearing around the animal’s neck and chest.

This article comes with a helpful video and many great tips, including:

Best Milk Goat Breeds:

• Nubian: This popular breed is a medium-large goat. They can produce up to 2 gallons of milk but average about 1 gallon each day. They have the highest milk fat content at about 5% fat. These goats are louder than other breeds, but their milk is ideal for soaps and cheeses. They can be milked all year long.

• Alpine: From the French Alps, they are very hardy to cold temperatures. These medium-sized goats average 1 gallon of milk a day. They are originally from France and are durable and steady. They have one of the longest lactation cycles. Their fat content is about 3.5% milkfat.

• Toggenburg: These bearded goats are good breeders. It produces about 3% milkfat. It is often bred with meat goats for dual purpose goats.

• Saanan: This is one of the largest milk goats. It produces a lot of milk, up to 3 gallons of milk each day. Average production is around 1.5 gallons a day. The Saanen milk fat content is about 2.5-3% so it isn’t as creamy as other dairy breeds. This breed is very calm and mild-mannered. These goats get to 200 pounds.

• Nigerian Dwarf: These goats are half the size of average goats. They are great for smaller lots. They produce about 2 pints of milk a day, but they have a high-fat content. Their fat content is 6.1% of the milk. They are wonderful breeders and will have many kids. They are also very mellow and often used as pets. They will even be walked on a leash.

• LaMancha: These funny-looking goats don’t have any ears! But, they are very hardy animals and very friendly. They can produce 1-2 gallons of milk a day. Their fat content is 4.2% of the milk.

• Oberhasli: Originally from Switzerland, these goats are well-suited for colder climates.  These goats don’t produce milk year round but will produce about 1 gallon of milk a day. Their milk fat is about 3.5%. They are small and ideal for smaller spaces.

Best Meat Goat Breeds:

• Boar: Native to South Africa. It has a fast growth rate and is very fertile. It has short horns. Boars come in red, red-white, or brown colors. They are disease resistant and used to hot dry areas. They are ready for slaughter as early as 90 days after birth and will grow to around 200-340 pounds for the bucks and 190-230 pounds for the does.

• Spanish Brough: This goat was imported to the New World by the Spaniards. They have been raised for meat for hundreds of years. They do very well in most climates. They also breed more often than annually. They are also called bush goats, briar goats, wood goats, and scrub goats.

• Kiko: This white goat is very hardy. It thrives in cold climates. It is fast-growing and can reach up to 300 pounds. It has spiral horns. The nannies are good mothers and low maintenance.

• Pygmy: These goats are fertile. They breed every 9-12 months, which allows for more batches of kids. They are often used as pets because they are smaller goats. They grow to between 50-75 pounds.

• Rangeland: The majority of the commercial goat meat comes from rangeland goats. They are generally low maintenance and thrive in dry conditions.

• Kalahari: This goat is from South Africa and does its best in dry hot conditions. The meat is more tender than other varieties. They are reddish-brown and can kid multiple times a year. They are also disease resistant and durable.

• Nubian: Good milk and meat goat. The males reach 175 pounds. They can be bred with boars for even larger offspring.

• Black Bangle: This goat is used for meat primarily in Bangladesh. It is easy to feed and care for. It can have kids multiple times a year and usually has 2-3 kids twice a year. They are ready for reproduction at 15 months old. They are dark with medium-sized horns.

• Verata: These goats are found mostly in Spain. They are durable, healthy goats. They do well in hot and cold climates. They are really good foragers and adapt easily. They are ready for meat at about 45 days. The does also provide a good amount of milk.

The headline is a ruse; it’s actually the same this time. The times it was different were in 1987, 2000, and 2008. We’re talking about the economy and stock market crashes, of course. In all three of those recessions, there was a so-called V-shaped recovery in which the economy and the market bounced back fairly quickly. Those times were different and not the norm at all. What’s coming now is much more akin to serious historical economic problems.

In 1987 was the Saving and Loan crisis. Instead of bailing out the failed Savings and Loan banks, the government insured the depositors. That’s the exact opposite of what they did in the 2008 housing crash when they bailed out all of Wall Street. In the 2000 technology crash and in 2008, we had disinflation, the definition for which is not very good. We got disinflation by shipping manufacturing and production overseas; prices on many things stayed flat relative to inflation in domestic items and services. Technology is the best example; computing power has doubled several times in the last 20 years, but the price of a PC is still 600 to 1000 bucks. T-shirts at Walmart are another good example; they are (were) still 7.99 to 12.99 and have been for decades. But those prices are now on the rise.

The point of that boring background is to say this: the economy is in real trouble this time, something America hasn’t seen since the 1970s, two generations ago, and governmental mismanagement is exacerbating the conditions of the setup.

Steve Forbes isn’t wrong, but he is part of the supply-side establishment that got us into this mess.

The ‘real cure’ for inflation has gone ignored, Steve Forbes says

In focusing on raising interest rates to cool inflation, central banks and governments have overlooked the importance of maintaining stable currencies, said Steve Forbes, chair of Forbes Media.

[…]

“Today, unfortunately, not only is the Biden administration putting up obstacles to deal with supply-side problems, but also the Federal Reserve and other central banks think you have to depress the economy to bring inflation down,” he said, disputing the idea that a recession is the only solution to combating inflation.

“They do it by artificially raising interest rates. So they have fewer people employed … that is not the real cure,” he said.

“The real cure is to stabilize the currency. You don’t have to make people poor to conquer inflation.”

The money printing started a century ago, but the profligate printing started by Trump bailout checks and continued by Biden’s democratic policies to “recover” the economy from the “pandemic” is backfiring. There’s no more disinflation to cover the cost of money printing. The lowest practical overseas wage has been realized. Moving manufacturing to Africa is not a viable solution, so there’s nowhere else to seek lower wages. That’s but one set of problems. The war in Europe is another thing. But the worst problem is cutting off domestic energy and food production coupled with hyper-regulation of mineral exploitation and use; those choices will be crushing.

The conditions are not favorable at all for an easy recession that recovers quickly. Those last crashes were sudden; this time, it’s coming on slowly and will likely be long and grinding. Tell your family you love them.

Mr. Weingarten explains several drills that can be used to prepare for a bear encounter.

AmmoLand:

Realistic bear defense drills can help prepare gun owners for actual situations.

The success of Eli Dicken in stopping a mass murder in the early stages, with excellent marksmanship at a claimed 40 yards, has engendered a plethora of people creating and executing some form of a “Dicken Drill” of ten shots at 40 yards.

There have been a number of “bear defense” exercises, usually arranged to simulate a worst-case scenario. I know of one such scenario, as it was related to me, by the inventor/trainer who ran it for a major agency.

The “bear” ran on a cart, as I recall, starting 10 yards away.  Speed was determined by the person who ran away from the shooting line, pulling the bear, which also moved up and down on the terrain, toward the trainee shooter.

I’ve seen a video of a drill similar to this.

The trainer prepped the trainee, to be tested, thus the trainee was armed with a pump shotgun with a sling. There were rounds in the magazine, but none allowed in the chamber. The shotgun had to be slung on the shoulder, with the safety on, and the bolt locked forward.  To engage the target, the trainee had to unsling the shotgun, disengage the bolt lock, work the action, disengage the safety, then shoot.  Alternatively, the trainee could unsling the shotgun, disengage the safety, dry fire the shotgun, which would disengage the bolt lock, work the action, and then shoot.

Once preparation to do the drill was ready, the trainer would engage the trainee with a question or small talk. When the trainee’s attention was off the “bear” the trainer would give the secret signal to start the bear charging at the trainee. Unsurprisingly, few trainees managed to get off a shot and hit the “bear”.

Trainers can create a drill to obtain the effect they want to establish.

A bear’s brain is reasonably close to the size and shape of a 12-ounce beverage can. To build confidence in shooters concerned about bear defense, I suggest these drills, taken from actual bear defense situations. The 12-ounce can should be oriented close to how it would be in a bear.

I have serious reservations about going for a headshot with a grizzly or even a black. Their skull is pretty thick. Large caliber hits at center mass seem like the best option. He explains The Ralph Fletcher Drill, The Dusel-Bacon Drill, The Cecil Rhodes Drill, and The Tanner Allen Drill.