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July 3rd, 2014
The NRA National Rifle and Pistol Matches kick off next Monday, July 7, 2014 at Camp Perry. There will be something special this year in honor of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who fought in World War II. Here’s the CMP’s notice of the special event:
First Shot Ceremony at Camp Perry
In recognition of the heroism many soldiers displayed 70 years ago to the day, at the Battle of Saint Lo in Normandy, France, and the Battle of Saipan in the South Pacific, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) will be bringing the sights and sounds of these great conflicts to the shores of Lake Erie at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 7, 2014. Please join us at the ranges of Camp Perry in Port Clinton, Ohio, as we merge the great sacrifices of veterans everywhere with the friendly rivalry of marksmanship competition.
 Scheduled to appear are a WW II Navy Avenger torpedo bomber and the WW II B-25 bomber “Yankee Warrior”. These warplanes will fly overhead as vintage military vehicles parade alongside the ranges towards the crowd. Leading the ground forces will be a fully-operational M-4 Sherman tank. Other vehicles on display will include a WW II AMTRAC and WW II Army Jeeps.
Gary Anderson, DCM Emeritus, has the honor of firing the First Shot at the Opening Ceremonies. A legendary shooter, Anderson is a two-time Olympic gold medalist who also carries seven World Championships and 16 National Championships in his list of accomplishments. Anderson will fire the first shot of the National Matches with his Model 70 rifle, which he used to win one of his U.S. National Championships.
The First Shot Ceremony and the Range Dedication events are free and open to the public. All guests are welcome. To learn more about the National Matches, CLICK THIS LINK.
July 1st, 2014
 The July 2014 digital edition of Shooting Sports USA magazine is now available. Along with the cover story on the Bianchi Cup, this month’s issue has many interesting articles. And the price is right — this month’s Shooting Sports USA eZine is FREE for the taking. Just Click This Link to load the July 2014 eZine edition right in your web browser.
For all competitive shooters, we highly recommend a 6-page article on Mental Training by Editor Chip Lohman. Drawing on scientific studies, Lohman reveals that practice and specialized training can actually improve mental function and create beneficial physical changes in the brain itself. Lohman quotes one study which revealed that “Brain scans of concert violinists and taxi drivers show enlargement of the areas important to the practice of their profession.” Morever, Lohman notes that “the trained brain has a better idea of tripping the correct nerves and muscles, leading to memory within the muscle itself.”
What this means is that competitive shooters can benefit from mental training in profound ways that were not previously understood. If you want to shoot higher scores at your next match, you should definitely read this article, part 2 of a series.
From the ’50s — How to Shoot the High Power Rifle
Another highlight of this month’s Shooting Sports USA eZine is a “golden oldie” article, “How to Shoot the High Power Rifle”. First published in American Rifleman way back in August, 1955, this article covers basic High Power technique. Lt. Col Jim Crossman talks about position shooting, sling use, practice methods, and procedures for relaxing between firing sequences. Much of the advice Lt. Col. Crossman offers can still benefit today’s High Power shooters.
July 1st, 2014
 Think you have artistic talent and a fashion sense? Well here’s your chance to prove it, and win a bunch of bullets in the process. Midsouth Shooters Supply is currently running a Varmint Nightmare T-Shirt Design Contest.
The person who comes up with the best “Varmint Nightmare” shirt design will win 2000 bullets, a free T-shirt, and other valuable prizes. If that’s not enough, the winning shirt designer will enjoy his/her “15 minutes of fame” — being featured on Midsouth’s social media platforms, and Midsouth’s homepage.
After Midsouth selects six (6) contest semi-finalists, Midsouth’s web visitors will vote on the top designs. The design that garners the most online votes will be declared the winning entry. No purchase is necessary, but all entrants must be a registered users of the Midsouth website.
How To Enter:
Submit your T-shirt design to specials [at] midsouthshooterssupply.com. Please keep a copy of your original, high-resolution art with layers and editing capabilities intact. If you are selected as a winner Midsouth will request the original high-resolution file(s) from you. NOTE: Your design must be easily identified as having to do with “Varmint Hunting.” Do Not Use Copyrighted Material! Your submission must be completely original, though you may use Midsouth’s Varmint Nightmare logos for this contest.
Design Format Guidelines
Ideally, you’ll want to create your original hi-rez design in in a drawing program. Then Midsouth needs two smaller digital files for judging. One file should be a 72 dpi JPG/JPEG, GIF, or TIFF format image that is 900 pixels wide, and up to 900 pixels tall. The second file needs to be a 250 x250 pixel JPG/JPEG, GIF, or TIFF thumbnail image.
High Creativity but Computer Challenged?
Don’t have a digital design program or the computer to run it? No problem, you can still send in your idea to: specials [at] midsouthshooterssupply.com. The more detailed you can be with a sketch or drawing, the easier it will be for Midsouth to put your design into an electronic version. Read the Official Rules for a full list of contest parameters and submission criteria!
June 28th, 2014
Report based on story by Kyle Jillson for NRA Blog
Summer is the time of year to get outside and have fun with family and friends. A great way to enjoy shooting with friends and family members is to attend a Brownells/NRA Day. These fun events will be held throughout the summer, at locations across the USA. These events are designed for all ages — from youngsters to senior citizens. The activities appeal to all skill levels, from first-time shooters to seasoned competitors.
Brownells/NRA Day events are fun affairs, where participants can try out a variety of different shooting disciplines. Events are always a big hit and you won’t find people as friendly and helping anywhere else. Below is a complete list of upcoming July events. If you see one nearby, go to the Brownells/NRA Day website to learn more.
Find a Brownells/NRA Day Event Near You
June 25th, 2014
 MidwayUSA has completely revamped its shipping system, putting in a new billing structure that should result in significant savings for customers, particularly for small orders. The new “Nitro Express” shipping program at MidwayUSA will offer $3.99 shipping for orders under one pound (non-DOT regulated products). Packages 1 to 10 pounds can ship for $5.99 (USPS) plus $0.60 per pound. DOT-regulated products cost more to ship, but the rates are still reasonable. Here are the new Nitro Express Shipping Rates from the MidwayUSA website:
Nitro Express Shipping Basics
MidwayUSA founder Larry Potterfield explains: “I’m very pleased to announce… our new Nitro Express Shipping® system. We discovered that if MidwayUSA re-engineered our system for shipping packages… we could save our customers a lot of money on shipping costs.
We’ve spent several years and millions of dollars to develop one of the best, most efficient shipping systems in the country; and we’ve negotiated very hard with our freight partners — all to save our customers money on shipping costs.
Right off the bat you’ll notice that most shipping costs went down substantially — and it’s really easy to understand. There are no order minimums or small order fees and shipping costs are calculated ‘real-time’ as you add products to your shopping cart. The complete details are available by clicking on Shipping Charges & Options on our website.
News Tip from EdLongrange. We welcome reader submissions.
June 22nd, 2014
Report based on story by Kyle Jillson for NRA Blog
 The 2014 Remington and NRA National Rifle & Pistol Championships at Camp Perry, Ohio are just a couple weeks away. You can still register for one or more of the matches. Just click the orange “Register” button (below) to register online.
Many of the finest civilian and military marksmen in the United States will square off for weeks of rifle and handgun competition while vying for the NRA’s historic and prestigious trophies. From pistol, to smallbore rifle, high power rifle, and long-range high power rifle, the National Matches have something for just about everybody.
Head on over to the Camp Perry sign-up page and get started on this year’s application.
Smallbore Matches Will Be in Indiana This Year
If you’re a smallbore shooter, these next two years will be a little different. In 2014 and 2015, the NRA National Smallbore Position Championships and the NRA National Smallbore Prone Championships will be held at Chief Wa-Ke-De Range in Bristol, Indiana. This change of venue for the Smallbore Championship Events was made to accommodate the 2015 World Palma Rifle Championships at Camp Perry. (The change was made in 2014 because the World Palma teams will be practicing at Camp Perry this summer, a year before the big event.) The Chief Wa-Ke-De Range is an excellent location that has hosted the NRA National Metric Championships for the past few years.
The NRA National Rifle & Pistol Championships are the pinnacle of target shooting in the USA. If you’re itching to try out some new equipment or are looking for an excuse to buy some more accessories, the National Matches are the perfect excuse. Use the links below to register for the National Matches, or to view the 2014 program brochures (in PDF format) for the High Power, Fullbore, and Pistol disciplines.
Click Here to Sign Up for Camp Perry
2014 National Matches Calendar (Draft)
2014 High Power Program
2014 Fullbore Program
2014 Pistol Program
June 21st, 2014
Waterloo Labs is a group of engineers from National Instruments and other self-declared “nerds” from Austin, Texas. These folks conducted an interesting demonstration using electronic accelerometers to plot bullet impacts from a suppressed Ruger MKIII .22LR pistol. The accelerometers respond to vibrations caused when the bullets hit a drywall target backer. By triangulating data from multiple accelerometers, each shot’s exact point of impact can be plotted with great precision. These point-of-impact coordinates are then fed into a computer and super-imposed into a Flash version of the Half-Life video game (which is projected on the drywall board). The end result is being able to “play” a video game with a real firearm.
 Do-It-Yourself Electronic Target System?
Now, we are NOT particularly interested in shooting Zombies in a video game. However, the technology has interesting potential applications for real shooters. Waterloo Labs has published the computer code, used to triangulate bullet impacts from multiple accelerometers. Potentially, a system like this could be built to provide display and scoring of long-range targets. Sophisticated electronic target systems already exist, but they use proprietary hardware and software, and they are very expensive. The Waterloo Labs experiment shows that shooters with some computer and electronic skills could build their own electronic scoring system, one that can be adapted to a variety of target sizes and materials.
In addition, we imagine this system could be utilized for military and law enforcement training. The walls of structures used for “live-fire” room-clearing exercises could be fitted with accelerometers so the bullet impacts could be plotted and studied. Then, later, the impact plots could be combined with a computer simulation so that trainees could “replay” their live-fire sessions, viewing the actual location of their hits (and misses).
Credit The Firearm Blog for finding this Waterloo Labs project.
June 21st, 2014
Are you feeling lucky? Well are you? If so, sign up for Pyramyd Air’s new ‘Son of a Gun Giveaway’. Pyramyd, North America’s leading vendor of air guns and accessories, is running a big contest. Every week a $25 eCard will be awarded. Once a month a Benjamin LP Limited goes to a lucky winner, and the Grand Prize is an Air Arms 30th Anniversary Edition S510 valued (with accessories) at over $3500.00.
Click this link to enter contest.
Story tip from EdLongrange. We welcome reader submissions.
June 20th, 2014
 A narrowly-divided U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the federal ban on “straw” purchases of guns can be enforced even if the ultimate buyer is legally allowed to own firearm. In Abramski v. United States, the justices ruled 5-4 that the law applied to a man who purchased a firearm on behalf of his uncle, using funds provided by the uncle, with the intention of giving the gun to his uncle who was not prohibited from owning firearms. The case began after Bruce James Abramski bought a handgun in Virginia, in 2009 on behalf of his uncle using his uncle’s money and later transferred it to him in Pennsylvania through a firearms retailer after a background check of the uncle. Abramski, a former police officer, had assured the Virginia dealer he was the “actual buyer” of the weapon even though he was really acting on his uncle’s behalf but buying the gun using a police discount available to him.
Background of the Case
The case of Abramski v. United States, arises from the prosecution of Bruce James Abramski, Jr., a former Virginia police officer, for allegedly making a “straw purchase” of a Glock handgun. Abramski had lawfully purchased a Glock pistol in Virginia, then later resold the Glock to his uncle, a resident of Pennsylvania. Both purchases were conducted through FFLs, with full background checks, and both parties were legally entitled to own a handgun. Abramski arranged the sale in this fashion to take advantage of a discount available to him as a law enforcement officer.
 Abramski was indicted and prosecuted for violating Federal laws against “straw purchases”, specifically making a false declaration on BATFE Form 4473, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6). Abramski challenged the indictment, but the District Court ruled against him and the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the District Court. However, the Fourth Circuit found a split of authority among the Circuits as to whether § 922(a)(6) applied where the ultimate recipient of the firearm was lawfully entitled to buy a gun himself. The Fourth Circuit’s ruling conflicts with previous decisions by the Fifth Circuit holding that “straw purchaser” laws are NOT violated if both the original purchaser and secondary buyer are legally entitled to own a firearm. See United States v. Polk, 118 F.3d 286 (5th Cir. 1997).
The key issue was whether Abramski committed a crime by buying a gun, and then promptly re-selling it to another person who was legally entitled to own the firearm. The government argued that Abramski broke the law when he checked a box on Form 4473 indicating he was the “actual transferee/buyer of the firearm”.
June 16th, 2014
Grim news — SHOT Show will be held at the Sands Expo through year 2020. That means six (6) more years* at this “dog” of a facility infamous for its inadequate parking, confusing floor plans, and nightmarish ingress/egress through the Venetian hotel. Then there are the wonderful food courts (NOT). Oh and it’s hard not to think about the scores of people who get sick every year attending SHOT Show at the Sands. If you have been there, you know what we’re talking about. So SHOT Show fans, steel yourselves for six more years of the same sad situation.
Previously, NSSF, the show’s organizer, had agreed to keep SHOT Show at the Sands through 2017. That was bad enough. Now they’ve contracted for even more years at this place. That makes for six additional years of headaches, confusion, disorientation, and general discontent. Oh well…
Anyway, to our great dismay, here is the official notice:
 LAS VEGAS-The National Shooting Sports Foundation and Sands Expo and Convention Center have followed up the 2014 record-setting Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) by adding another two years to their agreement.
Under the new terms, the SHOT Show will be presented at the Sands Expo through 2020.
The 2014 SHOT Show, which ran Jan. 14-17, attracted more than 67,000 in total attendance, an all-time high, and was the fifth consecutive SHOT Show held at Sands Expo. NSSF had previously announced, in February, that it was extending its stay at the venue through 2017.
“We’re pleased with the multi-million dollar investment that the Sands Expo has made in order to meet SHOT Show’s needs,” said Chris Dolnack, NSSF Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “The 2014 SHOT Show was the highest rated by both attendees and exhibitors alike, and we want to continue to build on our success here in Las Vegas.”
SHOT Show is the fifth largest trade show in Las Vegas and the largest trade show of its kind in the world.
“As one of the largest events we host at Sands Expo, it has been exciting to watch SHOT Show grow every year,” said Ashlyn LaPorte, Sands Expo Executive Director of Event Management. “We are proud of the partnership that has developed between our venue and show management, and look forward to continuing this relationship through the rest of the decade.”
The Sands Expo and Convention Center houses more than 2 million square feet of meeting and event space. The SHOT Show generates more than $73 million for the Las Vegas economy.
*The press release says “the SHOT Show will be presented at the Sands Expo through 2020″. In the English language, “through” is inclusive; e.g. “Monday through Friday” includes Friday. But then the release says the current contract, which runs through 2017, has been extended by “two years”. That would push the contract out to 2019, not 2020. Maybe you can figure this out… it doesn’t make sense to us. But then having SHOT Show at the Sands in the first place doesn’t make any sense to us at all.
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