About this episode

John and Kailey discuss high-level practical shooting training with Joe Farewell, exploring competition, real-world applications, and the importance of skill over gear.

Joe Farewell joins John and Kaylee for a conversation about what high-level firearms training actually delivers, and why the answer is rarely what new students expect. Joe is a former law enforcement officer and SWAT sniper team leader who spent seven years in policing in Florida before leaving toward the end of 2018 to teach full time. He's also a competitive shooter who represented Team USA at the IPSC Rifle World Shoot, taking silver in 2019 and gold in 2024. He walks through how competition shooting is structured, from local matches up to nationals and the World Shoot, which he calls the Olympics of practical shooting, and what it takes to travel overseas with guns and ammo through the paperwork each country requires. A through-line of the episode is Joe's training philosophy. He measures everything against three goals: the desired level of accuracy, speed, and consistency. He argues shooting is shooting whether the purpose is competition, self defense, or military use, so the fundamentals stay the same even as the application changes. He built the Dry Fire Mastery programs in 2020 during COVID after learning to improve on roughly 50 to 100 rounds a week by doing…

People in this episode

Hosts: John, Kailey

Guest: Joe Farewell

Topics covered

• high-level training
• practical shooting
• competition vs. real world training
• dry fire
• gear vs. skill

Keywords

• practical shooting
• competition
• dry fire
• training
• shooting skills
• gear

Sponsors

Palmetto State Armory, Ammo Squared, Patriot Mobile, Right To Bear

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the State of the Second podcast page.