#Podcast

Over the last 5 years of working here at TFB, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of you who are avid readers, watchers, and listeners of what we put out here. Through meeting a lot of you, I’ve also learned a great deal about firearms subjects that I would normally never be able to approach on my own - such as the intricacies of owning a firearm in the state of Illinois. As you’ll hear today, I’m not the only one who is often confused with how Americans get a hold of firearms legally in the state. Today David is going to walk us through what it is like being either a current or new resident of Illinois and what steps you have to take in order to exercise your Second Amendment rights and avoid running into legal trouble with the state.

Westerns are a classic form of storytelling that is almost intrinsically tied to the image of the wheel-gun-toting hero or anti-hero. I’m a strong believer that revolvers in virtually every form are still popular today partially because they’re delightful to shoot, but they’re also strongly tied to the American identity. They evoke not only an aura of rugged individualism and frontier grit but also instantly give a tangible connection to a time when the line between survival and lawlessness was razor-thin. That’s why today TFB Writer Sam and TFBTV’s Hop and I are going to have a nice friendly conversation about some of our favorite wheel guns and their representation in film. We’d be happy for you guys to join the discussion, so leave a comment down below and let us know what your favorite silver screen wheel guns are!

Today on the podcast we’ll be speaking with competitive shooter and friend Wade Reed for an in-depth conversation about the booming world of competitive shooting and its impact on the broader firearms community. This time, we’re diving into some of Wade's latest contributions to the firearms industry, including the development of new rimfire ammunition and fresh variants of his innovative Mark IV Carbine that are set to make their debut at SHOT 2025 which is alarmingly just around the corner. If you’ve ever been interested in getting into competitive shooting, I’ve always recommended starting with rimfire, and in today’s episode, you’ll hear Wade echo that sentiment. He shares his own experiences in shooting sports and as a firearms designer, offering insights into why rimfire is a great entry point for newcomers to the sport.

Most of you know by now that I’m quite fond of firearms competitions in virtually any form. However, my favorite growing style of competition is of course the two-gun competition where the equipment list is typically more accessible to the average gun owner. Today we’ll learn from Matt and Dan of the Proving Grounds Competition that this is actually a key feature for them when it comes to the key goals of The Proving Grounds. According to Dan and Matt, provided you can afford the ammo and get yourself to South Carolina, anyone with an AR and a pistol and any type of plate carrier is welcome to participate and should be able to be competitive at The Proving Grounds. Today Matt and Dan will fill us in on everything you need to know should you decide to take the challenge for yourself at any one of the TPG competitions that takes place throughout the year.

We’re back again with another roundup of fresh firearms-focused podcasts in TFB Podcast Roundup 153. Each week we’re bringing you a new set of podcasts from across the web that cover a wide variety of topics including gunsmithing, hunting, precision shooting, war stories, competition shooting, gun industry news, and much more. In addition, we’re also featuring the most recent episode of TFB’s own Behind The Gun Podcast which airs every week on Thursday mornings. If you’d like to check out the full episode list for TFB’s Behind The Gun Podcast, you can find it here on the TFB website or on your favorite podcast app. Sit back, relax, and enjoy listening to this week’s selection of gun podcasts.

Most of you will know that platforms like YouTube tend not to be so friendly with channels like TFBTV. While it would be nice if we could be treated equally on the platform, the sad reality is that we often just have to adapt to work around the new rules imposed on us. Moving to a new platform is a nice thought, but unless your entire audience moves with you, it’s a more or less fruitless endeavor. Joe of the YouTube Desk Pop has had a lot of struggles with YouTube and his channel lately and today we’ll discuss some of the ideas he has about how to keep his channel alive on YouTube while dealing with the common trends of demonetization and lack of support on the platform form YouTube itself.

With the recent news of Hurricane Helene and talk of another already hitting roughly the same region, natural disaster preparedness has been on virtually everyone’s mind. While there isn’t much that can be prepared for now when it comes to the ongoing disaster situation in the southeast, we can always run our minds through similar sets of circumstances for our own areas to make sure we’re prepared. Naturally, all of us here at The Firearm Blog think firearms should be an integrated part of your natural disaster preparedness plans, and today we’ll hear from Sam and Cameron about what guns they typically have on hand when it comes to natural disasters in their areas.

Today fellow writer Darwin and I dig into the U.S. Army’s new rifle and its strange hybrid-cased ammunition. The NGSW program and the resultant firearms that were selected have been met with both praise and disdain for several reasons. However, today the aim is to discuss some of the positives and the negatives of this platform and its cartridge, from the perspective of civilians, reloaders, and of course, guys who just love guns. We’d also like to hear your thoughts on the XM7 and its new cartridge. Thanks as always for listening!

Most of you here are probably very familiar with Blue Alpha Belts and what they do. For those of you who don’t, Blue Alpha specializes in belts - specifically EDC, and now more recently, battle belts. Kurt and Jesse started Blue Alpha Belts back in 2016 and from the get-go were great industry partners together with TFBTV. Just like any other good business, Blue Alpha arose from a customer wanting something badly enough that they just went ahead and made it themselves. Today we’ll get to hear Kurt tell their origin story, as well as share some insight into another corner of the gun industry that we don’t often get to talk about - soft goods. Please welcome the founder of Blue Alpha Belts Kurt to the show.

Love em or hate em, pistol red dots are a thing and they are here to stay - so which ones are currently the best according to the TFB Staff. While what is “good” means something a little different to just about everyone, I think we can all agree that your choices in red dots should work right out of the box. We’ve come a long way since the early days of frame-mounted red dots and today’s modern slide-mounted micro red dots give handgun shooters a significant advantage when it comes to target acquisition and engagement. While there are a lot of options out there, not all of them are created equally and today TFB writers Darwin, Nic, and I are going to discuss their top 5 picks, what they like about them, and a bit on how they would or currently use them in their daily setups.

We’re back again with another roundup of fresh firearms-focused podcasts in TFB Podcast Roundup 144. Each week we’re bringing you a new set of podcasts from across the web that cover a wide variety of topics including gunsmithing, hunting, precision shooting, war stories, competition shooting, gun industry news, and much more. In addition, we’re also featuring the most recent episode of TFB’s own Behind The Gun Podcast which airs every week on Thursday mornings. If you’d like to check out the full episode list for TFB’s Behind The Gun Podcast, you can find it here on the TFB website or on your favorite podcast app. Sit back, relax, and enjoy listening to this week’s selection of gun podcasts.

We really hope you all enjoyed last week’s episode where we asked TFB writers Paul B and Adam S what their top 3 guns would be for a minimalist setup if you couldn’t have any other guns. However, even with an unlimited budget, and choice of any firearms in the world, both Adam, Paul, and virtually everyone else we’ve asked would have picked the same three guns. So this week I’ve decided to change the game up a bit and give our writers a bit more freedom to express themselves in their firearm choices. This week, and down the road we’ll be doing 5 guns with the aim of getting a bit more variety of firearms in the mix. We hope you’ll join the discussion this week with TFB writers Doug E and Patrik O as they go through their very interesting “minimalist” 5-gun setup.

Have you ever wondered what you’d do if you could only ever own three guns? Let’s suppose you’ve got an unlimited budget, but for some reason, you can only get 3 more guns and you’ll never be able to get new ones again - what would you pick in this scenario? While this is unlikely to ever happen in real life, this simple question often exposes what most of us find important in our daily lives when it comes to guns. For this first round of answers from our TFB writers, I’ve brought on Adam S and Paul B to give their own bids into this fun little discussion. Today I hope you’ll also join us in the discussion (before or after listening to the podcast!) to share with us your three guns and why you picked them! We’ll be revisiting this topic over the next couple of episodes and maybe even beyond that, we’d love for you to join the discussion with us as it adapts with new guests.

This week’s guest is another one of our own, Mr. Zac K. Zac hails from the great white north of Canada, and despite their current restrictive gun laws, Zac has been doing a lot here at TFB to bring you all the latest news for new firearm and ammunition releases, as well as close tabs on current firearms legislation across the globe with an obvious penchant for Canadian firearms law. Today we’ve brought Zac to the TFB podcast to talk a bit more about himself and what he’s doing here at the blog. Today he’ll also give us a very detailed and intimate look into Canada’s current firearms culture, and where he thinks it is going to go from here on out. Please welcome TFB Writer Zac K to the show!

Today we’re bringing on our new editor-in-chief, Mr. Josh Centers, to talk about his favorite firearms, his work history, and some of his thoughts on his first few months with us here at TFB. Josh Centers has a wealth of experience from many other industries that are somewhat, but not entirely related to the firearms industry. However, just like the rest of us, Josh is also a die-hard Second Amendment advocate who enjoys blasting steel and collecting obscure and rare guns. Today Josh and I will discuss how he came to be the new head honcho here at TFB, and what some of his plans are for the blog going forward. Please welcome TFB’s Editor-in-Chief, Josh Centers to the show!