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Friday, July 1, 2011

Podcast of the Week - the Gun Dudes


Carl, Stan, Tom, and Travis are four UPS drivers in Utah who share a love of shooting. They get together once a week and share that love with us as the Gun Dudes Podcast. For me, they are my Tuesday drive to work.

Imagine four good friends at a barbecue, eating meat sandwiches, cutting up, and talking about guns. That’s what this show is like, a sometimes irreverent mix of serious talk and general horsing around. Along the way they share some really good information, things they have used and they know work.

Now, I admit that this podcast took a while to grow on me. Sometimes the fooling around almost gets in the way of the real show, but they always come back to the topic. Somebody is almost always fiddle with a gun, and you can hear them racking the slide, working the cylinder, or handling the guns some other way. Sometimes there is a secondary topic going on with a couple of the guys. And there is always sarcasm and endless needling of each other, especially of the one or two of them who aren't on this week's show.

Because there are things they always do right, I keep coming back. They all shoot IDPA so there is a recurring focus on competition, training, and practice. Some of them are Glock guys, and they actually published the first Gen4 to Gen3 conversion chart I could find. They are also involved in Scouting so they talk a bit about training new shooters.

The show starts with the question, “What did you do this week with guns?” and each of them tells about their week. Then there are segments with news, emails to the show, and “Missfire Awards,” a round-up of miscues and gaffes, usually ending in a bad guy captured or worse. They always urge listeners to join the NRA, Second Amendment Foundation, and US Concealed Carry Association.

In addition to the regular segments, there is always a topic of the show. Some topics have included dry fire practice, IDPA competition, becoming an IDPA Safety Officer, taking new shooters, and various training classes they’ve taken. They also publish some videos of segments on the podcast, and they maintain a Facebook page as well.

I get a lot out of this podcast, and yes, I find myself laughing at a lot of what happens, and wincing at some of it. But despite the shenanigans, there is a lot of good information in this hour, and it’s time well spent for me.