Firearm "influencers"
- Thread starter Sld1959
- Start date
Talyn
SAINT
Clint Smith, you mean? I am not familiar with "Jeff Smith," but I'm not that well-versed/traveled.
If you're talking about Clint Smith, indeed - his "Clintisms" are some of my favorite quotes.
I have yet to be able to get out to him. He's definitely on my bucket list, and I hope to be able to get out to him before he retires.
I have studied under instructors who have, in-turn, studied with Clint Smith. To-a-person, they all spoke very, very highly of him.
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I think that with the state of the industry, now, it's harder and harder to draw the distinction between "influencer" and "plain Jane" instructors.
There's really hardly any of the top-names who doesn't have at least some kind of social-media presence...
Bassbob
Emissary
Yes Clint. The old man at my range I keep running into and learning stuff from is called Jeff Smith though. I would call him an influencer. He influenced me that the 3-9x44 PA scope I put on my last AR build is inadequate for my goals and that I should look into the Bushnell Elite 4500 4-16x50 as a better alternative in the low budget range scope.
BET7
Ronin
And that's just my summer place.
Talyn
SAINT
Yes fixed. I was between Jeff Quin & Clint Smith
Talyn
SAINT
My bad. I forgot they filmed LOTR at your main place - Gondor.And that's just my summer place.
Snake45
Professional
They must have changed a lot. I've subscribed to them twice in the past and both times found them to be almost comically incompetent.
My influencers: Jeff Cooper, George C. Nonte, Skeeter Skelton, Chick Gaylord, Massad Ayoob. These days I really enjoy the writings of Will Dabbs, and Pat Sweeney's usually pretty entertaining, too.
Snake45
Professional
Sld1959
Ronin
Guess I am showing my age, the only two people you mention I know of are Ayoob and Suarez.OK, I'm taking this down a slightly different road.....
I was exposed to Lenny Magill and Gabe Suarez back in the day, as well as Mas Ayoob, via a high-school friend of mine.
After that, despite occasionally going to the range with my friends as I went through college and med school, I really wasn't really in the hobby/sport, so I kinda lost track.
By the time I found my way to armed self-defense in the last quarter of 2010, Magpul Dynamics was big on-scene, which coincided with the rise of the first social-media influencers. In a way, they really preceded the start of the "influencers" movement, but they Haley and Costa certainly both became a part of the scene, once that side of online marketing took off.
I was able to get in a couple of classes with Chris Costa after he split off and hung his own shingle - actually not for the fact that I saw him in those Magpul DVDs, but rather because I'd read about his coursework through various online AARs from other students, and thought that I could benefit from it. I found him to be a very capable shooter and quite effective at knowledge transfer, and I really got quite a lot out of his class. FWIW, he was cognizant of the fact that he had a bit of "star power" in the field at the time, and he went out of his way to make sure that each and every student felt that they were getting their money's worth.
Costa's classes were my first experience with large open-enrollment classes. It was certainly an eye-opener, and I think I got really, really lucky that there were some really good folks involved that made those early classes possible for him in my neck of the woods. Rob from Tac Strike, Jake from Ares Gear, Doug at ATEi, Trek and Mike from Raven Concealment - they all made sure that we got what we needed and, moreover, were safe.
View attachment 23919
[ For anyone who doubts that Costa was an "influencer," let's remember that he was the star of CostaGate - https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/costa-costagate/ and M4C.net thread, with the original video: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?163603-Chris-Costa-Japan-AirSoft ]
I really think it was, for me, a bit of blind luck that my "influencer experience" actually was a great experience. Costa really was a nice dude. He really could shoot (versus some other "influencer" instructors, who won't even shoot demos in front of a live class, because they are afraid of messing up). And he actually could effect knowledge transfer.
My friend Nick Humphries of Practically Tactical started down this path in I believe 2012-2013. His start, unfortunately, was a bit rockier than mine: https://practicallytactical.com/blog/fiveyears
I think that Cory & Erika's "RangeTime" really epitomizes the the kind of danger "influencers" pose to this hobby/sport. It's something that new shooters should be aware of.
Lenny Mcgill was very influential to me at a young ageOK, I'm taking this down a slightly different road.....
I was exposed to Lenny Magill and Gabe Suarez back in the day, as well as Mas Ayoob, via a high-school friend of mine.
After that, despite occasionally going to the range with my friends as I went through college and med school, I really wasn't really in the hobby/sport, so I kinda lost track.
By the time I found my way to armed self-defense in the last quarter of 2010, Magpul Dynamics was big on-scene, which coincided with the rise of the first social-media influencers. In a way, they really preceded the start of the "influencers" movement, but they Haley and Costa certainly both became a part of the scene, once that side of online marketing took off.
I was able to get in a couple of classes with Chris Costa after he split off and hung his own shingle - actually not for the fact that I saw him in those Magpul DVDs, but rather because I'd read about his coursework through various online AARs from other students, and thought that I could benefit from it. I found him to be a very capable shooter and quite effective at knowledge transfer, and I really got quite a lot out of his class. FWIW, he was cognizant of the fact that he had a bit of "star power" in the field at the time, and he went out of his way to make sure that each and every student felt that they were getting their money's worth.
Costa's classes were my first experience with large open-enrollment classes. It was certainly an eye-opener, and I think I got really, really lucky that there were some really good folks involved that made those early classes possible for him in my neck of the woods. Rob from Tac Strike, Jake from Ares Gear, Doug at ATEi, Trek and Mike from Raven Concealment - they all made sure that we got what we needed and, moreover, were safe.
View attachment 23919
[ For anyone who doubts that Costa was an "influencer," let's remember that he was the star of CostaGate - https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/costa-costagate/ and M4C.net thread, with the original video: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?163603-Chris-Costa-Japan-AirSoft ]
I really think it was, for me, a bit of blind luck that my "influencer experience" actually was a great experience. Costa really was a nice dude. He really could shoot (versus some other "influencer" instructors, who won't even shoot demos in front of a live class, because they are afraid of messing up). And he actually could effect knowledge transfer.
My friend Nick Humphries of Practically Tactical started down this path in I believe 2012-2013. His start, unfortunately, was a bit rockier than mine: https://practicallytactical.com/blog/fiveyears
I think that Cory & Erika's "RangeTime" really epitomizes the the kind of danger "influencers" pose to this hobby/sport. It's something that new shooters should be aware of.
Snake45
Professional
Right up there with the work of the late great Andy Sidaris.
HansGruber
Ronin
Annihilator
Emissary
My all time favorite was Skeeter Skelton.
"Clint Quin" has a good ring to it.
---
It's more like both you and I are showing our age-brackets.
And this begs another question - what makes for an "influencer?" Have the always been, but Is it just that they weren't billed as such, in the past?
I think you'll probably know the name Larry Vickers, @Sld1959 -
But how does that characterization, then, make for someone like John "Chappy" Chapman?
....or Kyle Lamb?
I think that these days, the lines between SME and "influencer" gets more and more blended. The latter unfortunately carries with it a certain connotation that is not exactly favorable - but where it comes to the likes of these gentlemen, who are true-SMEs in their respective lanes, with vetted background and decades' worth of high-level instruction and thousands of students under their belts...... That line does get blurred quite a bit.
And of-course this is just from the "tactical" side of the equation. The same can be said for many from the competition/sporting side of the house, too.
Taran Tactical -Taran Butler's outfit- is now practically a household name due to their Hollywood involvement, and coming from the other side of that, guys and gals like Chris Cheng and Gabby Franco each earned their fame through The History Channel's popular Top Shot cable-TV series.
---
^ That's actually where I first saw his name, but later on, when a member on Ohioans For Concealed Carry decided to sell his Magill *_instructional videos_* collection, I decided to pick it up out of nostalgia.
What I received actually wasn't ate all what I had expected, and I was actually quite surprised at just how proficient he was at shooting - and actually his rather personable demeanor, when he wasn't obviously selling something.
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Sld1959
Ronin
Yeppers"Clint Quin" has a good ring to it.
---
It's more like both you and I are showing our age-brackets.
And this begs another question - what makes for an "influencer?" Have the always been, but Is it just that they weren't billed as such, in the past?
I think you'll probably know the name Larry Vickers, @Sld1959 -
View attachment 23952
But how does that characterization, then, make for someone like John "Chappy" Chapman?
View attachment 23953
....or Kyle Lamb?
View attachment 23954
I think that these days, the lines between SME and "influencer" gets more and more blended. The latter unfortunately carries with it a certain connotation that is not exactly favorable - but where it comes to the likes of these gentlemen, who are true-SMEs in their respective lanes, with vetted background and decades' worth of high-level instruction and thousands of students under their belts...... That line does get blurred quite a bit.
And of-course this is just from the "tactical" side of the equation. The same can be said for many from the competition/sporting side of the house, too.
Taran Tactical -Taran Butler's outfit- is now practically a household name due to their Hollywood involvement, and coming from the other side of that, guys and gals like Chris Cheng and Gabby Franco each earned their fame through The History Channel's popular Top Shot cable-TV series.
---
^ That's actually where I first saw his name, but later on, when a member on Ohioans For Concealed Carry decided to sell his Magill *_instructional videos_* collection, I decided to pick it up out of nostalgia.
What I received actually wasn't ate all what I had expected, and I was actually quite surprised at just how proficient he was at shooting - and actually his rather personable demeanor, when he wasn't obviously selling something.
Keystone19250
SAINT
No influencer for me, I started my career in manufacturing firearms in the mid 90’s and although my father was in the navy he was totally against guns. 15 years with Marlin Firearms and I bought one Bolt Action 22 and maybe shot 100 rounds through it. 2010 went to work for Mossberg and around 2014 started buying handguns, that rabbit hole swallowed me whole. After my dad passed I found a SW 38 Special he owned, still have it.
Bassbob
Emissary
I read the first Dick Marcinko book, Rogue Warrior, in my early 20s. Other than that I haven't been much influenced by reading anything."Clint Quin" has a good ring to it.
---
It's more like both you and I are showing our age-brackets.
And this begs another question - what makes for an "influencer?" Have the always been, but Is it just that they weren't billed as such, in the past?
I think you'll probably know the name Larry Vickers, @Sld1959 -
View attachment 23952
But how does that characterization, then, make for someone like John "Chappy" Chapman?
View attachment 23953
....or Kyle Lamb?
View attachment 23954
I think that these days, the lines between SME and "influencer" gets more and more blended. The latter unfortunately carries with it a certain connotation that is not exactly favorable - but where it comes to the likes of these gentlemen, who are true-SMEs in their respective lanes, with vetted background and decades' worth of high-level instruction and thousands of students under their belts...... That line does get blurred quite a bit.
And of-course this is just from the "tactical" side of the equation. The same can be said for many from the competition/sporting side of the house, too.
Taran Tactical -Taran Butler's outfit- is now practically a household name due to their Hollywood involvement, and coming from the other side of that, guys and gals like Chris Cheng and Gabby Franco each earned their fame through The History Channel's popular Top Shot cable-TV series.
---
^ That's actually where I first saw his name, but later on, when a member on Ohioans For Concealed Carry decided to sell his Magill *_instructional videos_* collection, I decided to pick it up out of nostalgia.
What I received actually wasn't ate all what I had expected, and I was actually quite surprised at just how proficient he was at shooting - and actually his rather personable demeanor, when he wasn't obviously selling something.
Sld1959
Ronin
Thinking about this since writing it originally I think Gramps probably had the largest influence in handguns. He carried that PP constantly. I do not think I ever saw him without it. He would let me shoot it and it was simply part of him. He put it on every morning with his pants. He'll he might have slept with it on. I suspect that even 50 plus years ago he wore it on his occasional trips to town.
I believe this is where I got my preference for compact handguns. I have had few what are called full size service models. Even my 1911s have all been commander sized. And he is where I got used to shooting smaller pistols at a bit longer ranges than small "belly guns" are considered useful by many., like the P365xl at 20 plus yards. I remember him many times jumping a beer can along the ground at what was probably 30 yards. Strohs beer to be exact. But never saw him drink one around me.
I believe this is where I got my preference for compact handguns. I have had few what are called full size service models. Even my 1911s have all been commander sized. And he is where I got used to shooting smaller pistols at a bit longer ranges than small "belly guns" are considered useful by many., like the P365xl at 20 plus yards. I remember him many times jumping a beer can along the ground at what was probably 30 yards. Strohs beer to be exact. But never saw him drink one around me.
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