Advertise on podcast: The Brown Duke Gun Show

Twelve guns on the Open podium at the IPSC Shotgun World Shoot. Eight of them came out of one shop in Texas. Lan Nguyen of Dissident Arms is back to walk JP and Brandon through Team USA's run in Corinth, Greece — the medal count, the ammo that almost didn't make it, and the shotgun skills most shooters never think about. Put your headphones on for this one. You'll hear how three pallets of shotshells got from an Athens storefront to a range an hour away in a rental van, why a single stray pellet on a clay painted red costs you the stage, and what "one inch per yard" actually means when a no-shoot is stacked in front of your target. What you'll take away: Gear: why a consistent, reliable gun matters more than the fastest gun at a major matchTraining: pattern your shotgun at real distances — mechanical offset is a skill, not triviaSafety: muzzle-over-berm DQs, fault-line discipline, and why you don't tear your gun down the night before a matchWant JP to review your draw, transitions, or shotgun movement on video? Join the BDGS Patreon at patreon.com/bdgs — there's a free tier, plus paid video-coaching review tiers. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com. 00:00 – Team USA Medal Haul at the IPSC Shotgun World Shoot: Lan recaps Corinth 2026 — ten golds, strong Open men's and women's teams, and the history from Châteauroux 2018 to Pattaya 2023.03:23 – Open Division by the Numbers: 900 Shooters, 8 of 12 Podium Guns: Roughly 300 Open competitors, about a fifth on Dissident Arms shotguns, and why reliability — not speed — is what shooters thank him for.10:53 – Match Ammo Logistics: Three Pallets to Greece: The 11-pound travel limit, choosing SKUs with an ammo partner, and the overloaded passenger-van shuttle from Athens to Corinth.19:12 – Shotgun Patterning and Mechanical Offset: Hull length and crimp in box-fed guns, the pattern cone, the "one inch per yard" rule of thumb, and holding off a no-shoot at distance.22:20 – How IPSC Shotgun Scores No-Shoots and Buckshot: A4 paper scoring, "luck shot" flyers, one pellet counts but a wad doesn't, and working with an ammo maker on 2030 loads.28:24 – Match-Day Gun Prep: Re-Spring, Gas Settings, Don't Clean It: Lan's test-bay fixes and Brandon's rule about cleaning before a major.40:36 – Stage Design, DQs, and Shot Size Strategy: Greece vs. Thailand vs. France stages, red-painted clay no-shoots, weak-shoulder courses, over-the-berm and fault-line DQs, and why European teams run bigger shot.51:50 – Bringing IPSC Shotgun to the U.S. and Reviving 3-Gun: A Houston-area match plan, 10-round mags vs. jungle runs, the shoot-off reload technique, and a BDGS road trip to Texas.

Six USPSA stages, one indoor bay, fifty shooters, done by 4 p.m., and a prize table worth thousands on a $50 entry. How does a local club pull that off? Put your headphones in and sit down with the leaders of Lafayette Practical Shooters as they break down year two of the Sentry Showdown, their one-day indoor Level 1 championship. Dutch, Glenn, and Shane explain what changed after a first year that was mostly a proof of concept. Chad joins later for the story of how they gave prizes away without an hour-long ceremony. What you'll learn: Training: how one big stage split two ways becomes three stages that shoot differently, and why changing the start position forces a new planMatch logistics: a squad rotation where you shoot, work, prep on deck, or take a break, so no one is shooting and pasting at the same timeSafety: why resets happen only when the range officer clears the bay, and why an indoor match's food table calls for washing your hands firstWorth sharing? Clip it for the friend who keeps saying he'll volunteer. Want coaching on your own stage plans? Join the community at patreon.com/bdgs. There's a free tier, and paid tiers include video-coaching reviews. The Brown Duke Gun Show is hosted by JP Garcia with co-hosts Brandon Elias (Sentry Defense) and Austin Menard (Sentry Manufacturing). Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com. 00:00 - Sentry Showdown Year Two: An Indoor USPSA Club Championship. JP introduces the Lafayette Practical Shooters leadership and the second annual one-day championship.01:16 - Match Sponsorship: How a Club Funded a Prize Table Worth Thousands. The organizers paid for year one themselves. Year two ran on member and local-business sponsors, and the sponsor shout-outs are here.05:48 - Squad Rotation and Staff-Reset Flow at a One-Day Match. Five squads rotate between shooting, working, on deck, the VR side match, and breaks.09:05 - Indoor USPSA Stage Design: Split Stages and New Start Positions. How one big stage becomes three different ones, and flowing versus technical design styles.13:33 - Out-of-State Shooters and the Match Food Table. Texas competitors in the top ten, an upcoming road trip, and the jambalaya, cracklin', and homemade baking.17:14 - Prize Wheel and the VR Side Match. Chad joins. Prizes are given out on a wheel during the VR side match, which grew from two stages to six.20:58 - Save the Date: Registration, Squad Caps, and Faster Setup. The match is the second Sunday in September. Registration fills fast, and presetting stages days ahead shortened match-eve setup.22:29 - Why Club Volunteers Keep Practical Shooting Alive. JP's call to volunteer: small contributions keep a local club running.

The guy who's sponsored 540 matches this year says your eye doctor is a piece of shooting gear. He's not kidding. Brian Conley of Hunters HD Gold sits down with JP Garcia and Brandon Elias to talk eye health for competitive shooters — and it gets more useful the longer you listen. Put your headphones on for the moment Brian explains why a shooter who tries a lighter lens at one in the afternoon will hate it, and why the same shooter loves it the next morning. Your eyes are a muscle. Nobody told you that. What you'll hear: whether over-the-counter readers belong behind a red dot, what monovision actually does to your brain, how progressives interact with target transitions, and why a properly made lens should never shift the image on a rifle scope. Plus the business side of the shooting sports — grassroots match sponsorship, why the sport turns over every few years, and how to get started without spending a dollar. Takeaways: get the exam before the lens (gear), train your visual attention because your eyes drive everything downstream (training), and wear impact-rated eye protection on every range even when the rules don't force you to (safety). Find Brian's live streams and podcasts at https://rumble.com/user/HuntersHDGold Want a coach's eyes on your own footage? patreon.com/bdgs — free tier available, plus paid video-coaching review tiers. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com.

Wrong squad schedule. Canceled flight home. No rental car. That was Brandon's first morning at USPSA Nationals — and he still finished top 25 in Open. Put your headphones on for a full Nationals debrief with JP Garcia and Brandon Elias (Sentry Defense). You'll hear the exact mental reset that saved day three, the red dot brightness experiment that quietly stacked alphas, and the honest math on makeup shots — the single biggest gap between good finishes and great ones in practical shooting. Plus: red steel no-shoots, an 18-penalty ruling that got overturned, what real sportsmanship looks like on a squad, and a firearm safety PSA about the battery sitting in your optic right now. You'll walk away with a dry fire and live fire experiment to run this week, a smarter way to plan your match season, and one maintenance habit that matters most on the guns you shoot least. Support the show and get your match video reviewed at patreon.com/bdgs — free tier available, plus paid video-coaching tiers. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com.

Jeff Jones (Split Second Steel Academy) and Steve Foster (Creekside Custom, pro shooter for Ruger) — the voices behind the Steel Target Paint podcast — sit down with JP for a Steel Challenge deep dive that will rewire how you think about vision at speed. In your headphones: the GECKO framework (grip, eyes, core, knees, one-for-one), why "nice reload" is a backhanded compliment on steel, the 405-day project behind breaking the 60-second barrier, and a gear philosophy worth writing down: you can buy reliability, but you can't buy your game. You'll come away with a safer, smarter practice plan, a vision drill you can try at your next range trip, and an honest answer to "am I ready for a major?" Hosted by JP Garcia with co-hosts Brandon Elias (Sentry Defense) and Austin Menard (Sentry Manufacturing). Get your runs reviewed at patreon.com/bdgs — free tier available, plus paid video-coaching tiers. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com.

Filing that lower lug just killed your 2011 — and the builder with a three-year waitlist explains why. Eddie Garcia of EMG Customs hand-builds 25 to 30 competition guns a year, and his philosophy is brutal in the best way: "When I send you a gun, my goal is to never hear from you again." Put your headphones on for a masterclass in what separates a race gun that runs 75,000 rounds from one that eats itself alive: barrel timing by the numbers, the parts a master builder actually trusts, why he refuses to coat barrels, and a barrel-cleaning experiment that might change your maintenance routine forever. Plus the safety talk every shooter needs — trigger weight, grip pressure, and target focus in USPSA and practical shooting — with JP Garcia and Brandon Elias of Sentry Defense. Get your own shooting reviewed at patreon.com/bdgs — free tier available, plus video-coaching tiers. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com. Chapters 00:00 – Meet Eddie Garcia of EMG Customs03:35 – Lower Lug Filing: The #1 Custom 2011 Mistake09:02 – What Is Barrel Timing?16:39 – Barrel Coatings & Comp Fitting22:00 – Parts a Master Builder Trusts25:27 – Barrel Life & Cleaning31:24 – Spring Maintenance Schedule51:34 – The Three-Year Wait: Ordering a Custom 20111:08:02 – Trigger Weight, Grip & Target Focus

This company CNC-cuts custom gear panels for everything from squad cars to military helicopters — and the first thing they tell you to mount is a med kit. 🔊 Dakota Dion of Grey Man Tactical walks JP Garcia and Brandon Elias (Sentry Defense) through gear organization most of us never think about: MOLLE seatback panels that turn wasted space into a squared-away med kit, range-day rig, or duty setup — plus how they design one-off builds from a customer's measurements, and how to secure a firearm in transit, because a vehicle is transportation, not a gun safe. Then Dakota — seven months into USPSA — turns the tables and grills two longtime competitors. In your headphones you'll hear the advice new practical shooters rarely get straight: why "calm down" beats "slow down," the practice-versus-match intensity secret that sounds completely backwards, and the honest math on whether a $10,000 gun buys you a single match point. You'll walk away knowing how to organize a mission-ready vehicle load-out (med kit first), how to keep a firearm secured while it travels with you, and how to structure dry fire practice against your actual weaknesses. Shooters in the free tier at patreon.com/bdgs get the community; paid tiers get video coaching reviews of your match footage. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com.

An optic flew off a shotgun and hit the co-founder in the face. That failure built a company. Put this one in headphones. Lan Nguyen of Dissident Arms (dissidentarms.com) tells JP Garcia and Brandon Elias (Sentry Defense) how a string of spectacular parts failures — flying optics, a launched charging handle, a receiver bowed like a banana — turned a hobby shooting team into the builders behind competition's best-known magazine-fed open shotguns. Along the way: what actually separates 3-Gun from USPSA, how a thumb-actuated mag release makes sub-second shotgun reloads possible, and why the fastest path into practical shooting is walking into a match as a student. Three things you'll take away: a working knowledge of open shotgun gear (compensators, chokes, optics), a healthier approach to firearm training than burning ammo without a plan, and a reminder that safe handling and humility are what keep new shooters coming back. Get your shooting reviewed at patreon.com/bdgs — free tier available, plus video-coaching review tiers. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com.

JP Garcia and Brandon Elias (Sentry Defense) step away from the match results this week and get into the preparedness conversation every gun owner needs to hear. It starts practical: hunting season is closing in, and if your rifle isn't cleaned, zeroed, and dialed, you're about to be number fifteen in line at the gunsmith. Brandon walks through the honest economics of upgrading an old rifle versus buying new, which budget bolt guns punch above their weight, and why a quality optic mount matters as much as the optic itself. Then the episode takes a turn you'll want to hear all the way through. JP tells the story of his niece — a brand-new college freshman — stopping at a nighttime car accident, and what she didn't have on her that night. From there the guys build the everyday carry list that actually gets used: a real flashlight, a knife, a keychain escape tool, a genuine tourniquet, and the training to use them. Three takeaways you'll walk away with: Gear: The bare-bones EDC loadout — flashlight, knife, ResQMe, tourniquet — and how to spot counterfeit medical equipment.Training: Why Stop the Bleed classes and CPR refreshers are the highest-ROI "tactical" investment you can make.Safety: The buy-once-cry-once rule — don't piecemeal night vision, and don't buy offense when your life is built around defense.Get more from every episode at patreon.com/bdgs — free tier available, with paid video-coaching review tiers for shooters who want structured feedback. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com.

JP Garcia and Brandon Elias are recording remote, deep in the misery of a Southern summer, and they're tackling the question every competitive shooter is asking right now: how do you keep improving when it's too hot to train outside? The answer isn't "tough it out." It's smarter than that. You'll hear the complete match-day fueling formula — a bottle of water per stage, electrolytes with real sodium, bananas and jerky over processed carbs, and Brandon's brutal-but-honest take on competitors who load up on the big match lunch. Then the guys walk you through exactly how to train inside a standard indoor range booth: index-card transition drills, bump transitions, step draws, table starts, and the strong-hand and weak-hand work most shooters skip all year. Listen closely to the dry fire movement segment — JP breaks down easy entries and exits in a way you can practice tonight in your hallway, and the stories of hotel-room dry fire before majors are worth the listen alone. You'll also get the 12-week rule for private lessons, a full training-cycle blueprint for your fall major, and an honest audit of Ace VR: what transfers to real shooting and what's just a video game. Three takeaways you'll walk away with: a hydration and nutrition plan that protects you from heat illness, a booth-friendly drill progression that builds real skill indoors, and a focus discipline — phone off, mind on — that makes every round count. Join the coaching community at patreon.com/bdgs — free tier available, plus paid video-coaching review tiers. This week's subscriber exclusive is a full stage breakdown from a match JP and Brandon both shot. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com.

Put your headphones in for this one — Episode 78 is a masterclass in the mental game of practical shooting, recorded raw and remote with JP Garcia on the road in Kentucky and Brandon Elias calling in straight from the range. The core question: why do so many shooters dominate classifiers but fall apart on field courses? JP and Brandon dig into the answer across nearly an hour of unfiltered conversation — the "two games" of USPSA, why you can't talk yourself out of match nerves (and what to do instead), the pre-stage process top GMs like Max Michel run every single time, and how to use real practice data to decide when to shoot on the move and when standing still is actually faster. Listen for these takeaways: Training: build match pressure on purpose at local matches so big matches feel familiarSkills: know your numbers — 5 to 10 practice rounds for every round you'll fire in a matchSafety: JP and Brandon's July 4th PSA — carry legally, stay aware in crowds, and never, ever fire into the airA quick and sincere apology: rural internet gremlins cut this episode short mid-conversation, right as the guys were getting into stage entries and exits. We're sorry for the abrupt ending — that discussion continues in future episodes and on the Patreon. Speaking of which: patreon.com/bdgs is live. Join free to follow the structured training content (including the Path to Your First Match series), or jump into the coaching tiers to have JP and Brandon review your match video. Enjoying the show? Follow, rate, and share it with your squad — it genuinely helps. Gear up safely with Sentry Defense at sentrydef.com or custom parts from Sentry Manufacturing at sentrymanufacturing.com.

Big news first: BDGS is officially on Patreon. Head to patreon.com/bdgs and at minimum grab the free tier — episode alerts, regular posts, and a direct line to JP and Brandon that doesn't depend on YouTube's policy roulette. (YouTube pulled their last episode with no real explanation. Appealed it. Denied in three hours. Patreon is the answer.) If you want more: $10/month gets you one shooting video review per month via their coaching app. $30/month gets you four — one a week. Slots are intentionally capped so everyone who pays actually gets real feedback. Most of Episode 77 is a fundamentals breakdown sparked by a real event: William Wallace's first-ever USPSA match. JP and Brandon walk through their four pillars — grip, trigger control, sight alignment, stance — and make clear which two matter most for beginners: grip and stance. Get those right and the downstream bad habits disappear. Don't, and no amount of trigger control coaching will save you. They also cover what your first competitive match should actually look like. One goal only: don't break a safety rule. Not your score, not your hits, not your placement. LEO or military background doesn't transfer the way you think. You will get beat by a 70-year-old with a hip replacement. That's the game. Get humble fast and you'll get better fast. Mental game closes it out — be 100% present, don't split-schedule a match around your workday, and treat it like the commitment it is. Studio is under renovation. Summer break incoming. Back soon.

We've got a lot this episode. Brandon's AR safety post set Instagram on fire, so we kick things off with the actual conversation: elite-level operators don't all run the same protocol, "big boy rules" are a real thing at certain training levels, and the honest takeaway is to get the training first, then decide. From there we get into the dry fire vs. live fire debate — Brandon's a GM, so he's not just repeating internet takes. We break down the actual training pyramid and why cramming for the match doesn't work. Brandon also debriefs Mississippi Classic, we get into using AI for USPSA performance analysis (it worked), review the Vortex Defender XL, walk through JP's budget Prodigy build, and drop some Sentry Manufacturing updates. Hit play. Let's go.

JP and Brandon are back, and this one's different. Two recent shootings sparked a real conversation — the Press Corps Dinner incident and a 17-year-old girl killed at a Baton Rouge mall on senior skip day. Austin's out on daddy duty, so it's just the two of them, and they're not holding back. This episode is the personal defense framework you need whether you carry or not. JP and Brandon walk through the full picture: physical fitness, situational awareness, teaching your kids to run and hide, the gun vs. martial arts debate ("the gun always wins, man" — Brandon), and why reaching C-class in USPSA is the baseline every concealed carrier should shoot for. They also get into the training pyramid — mindset first, then skill, then tactics, then gear — and why buying more stuff won't save you if you're not putting in reps. Plus digital awareness: what your vacation photos are broadcasting, AI voice cloning, and why you and your family need safe words right now. Not the flashiest episode, but probably the one you need most. Hosts: JP Garcia and Brandon EliasEpisode 75 | The Brown Duke Gun Show

Put your headphones on — this one’s all about what actually makes you a better shooter. In this episode of The Brown Duke Gun Show, JP Garcia and Brandon Elias break down the reality of firearm training, competition shooting, and the habits that separate casual shooters from serious competitors. You’ll hear firsthand insights on why fundamentals never go away, how top shooters structure their practice, and why simply shooting more matches won’t improve your performance. They also dig into real gear talk — including a detailed look at the Staccato XL and the new P 4.5 HD — and what matters (and what doesn’t) when it comes to building a reliable, competition-ready firearm. This episode blends practical training advice, safety-focused mindset, and real-world experience from the range. What You’ll Take Away: How to build consistent, safe shooting habitsWhy tracking performance data mattersThe difference between training and performingSmarter ways to use your ammo and range timeGear insights that actually impact performance