SHOT Show 2013 has been underway since Monday. This show seems bigger than ever, and the sheer number of noteworthy products on display is mind-boggling. We’ve seen some remarkable new scopes from Nightforce, Kahles, and IOR-Valdada. Dave Kiff at PT&G has some “game-changing” new products. Winchester’s new 17 Win Super Mag rimfire cartridge has generated lots of interest, and Savage showed off its new B.MAG bolt action chambered for the new cartridge.
Here’s a quick sample of some cool or interesting products we saw in action on Media Day or on display inside the Sands Convention Center. We’ll do more complete write-ups/reviews once we “back to the office” and have a change to digest spec sheets and edit video. But please enjoy this photo “sampler” from SHOT Show 2013.
New Kahles 10-50X Competition Scope, with Central (big wheel) Parallax Adjustment
New Savage B.MAG Rifle Chambered in 17 Win Super Mag Rimfire
Prototype “Tinkertoy” Benchrest Rifle from McMillan Built on “Alias” Action
New Datum Dial Ammunition Measurement System from Forster Products
New .338 Lapua Magnum Action and Complete .338 LM Rifles from Kelbly’s
New Savage Bolt from PT&G with User-Adjustable Spring Tension
Futuristic $22K Tracking-Point Rifle System with Automatic Ranging, Ballistic Calculation, and Aiming Solution
New .375 Caliber, 350 grain, ultra-high-BC Match-King Bullet from Sierra
Vectronix Laser Rangefinder Units ($1995.00 – $8510.00)
Air Arms S400 Multi-Purpose Rifles (Regular and Biathlon Models)
Accuracy Int’l PSR Multi-Caliber Rifle System — ‘Takedown Edition’ in .338 LM
If you’re going to SHOT Show this week in Las Vegas, head over to the Otis Technology booth, #14213 (You can’t miss it — Otis has big tall banners). Otis has arranged for several “big name” shooters and other celebrities to make personal appearances at the show. Show attendees will have a chance to meet these industry celebrities (including Olympic Gold Medalist Kim Rhodes) and get a signed autograph photo.
Doug Koenig, one of the top pistol shooters in history, will be at the Otis booth daily from 9 am to 10 am. Doug has won multiple Bianchi Cups, Masters Tournaments, and Steel Challenges.
Kim Rhode, 5-time Olympic medalist in Double Trap and Skeet, will appear in the booth Tuesday through Thursday from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm. Kim won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London, giving her five medals in five consecutive Olympic Games.
Mark Wills, country music entertainer and 3-Gun Nation host, will visit the Otis booth for autographs on Tuesday and Thursday from 11:00 am to noon. Mark is a platinum-selling country singer with eight Top 10 hits.
Matt Hughes, 9-time MMA champion, will be at the Otis booth Tues – Thurs from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm. Besides being a member of the UFC Hall of Fame, Matt is an avid hunter and firearms collector.
Otis Technology produces advanced gun cleaning systems. Otis pull-through Breech-to-Muzzle® bore-cleaning products are widely used throughout the US Military.
To ensure the increasing demand of Lapua ammunition and Vihtavuori powder in the USA market is met with sufficient supply, Nammo Lapua Oy has made changes to its distribution network. Effective Jan 1, 2013, Lapua centerfire ammunition and components, as well as Lapua and SK brand rimfire ammunition, will be distributed by Graf & Sons of Mexico, Missouri; Sport Shooting International (SSI) of Anaheim, California; and Crow Shooting Supplies of Brooklyn, Iowa.
VihtaVuori smokeless powder products will continue to be imported and distributed by the Hodgdon Powder Company of Shawnee Mission, Kansas.
Here’s a great bargain — maybe the NRA deal of the decade for gun guys. Right now, if you pay $25.00 for a one-year NRA membership (that’s $10.00 off normal price), you will get a Bass Pro Shops Gift Card worth $25.00. In other words, for every dollar you spend on your NRA membership, you get a dollar’s worth of merchandise at Bass Pro Shops. Imagine if you bought $25.00 worth of motor oil and got a gas card worth twenty-five bucks. Who wouldn’t jump at that? Well this is virtually the same deal. That $25.00 gift card can be applied to pretty much any merchandise in the Bass Pro Shops store: clothes, shooting supplies, hunting and fishing gear, even optics or a GPS.
If you take advantage of this great deal, you’ll also get a FREE annual subscription to one of three NRA-sponsored print magazines: American Rifleman, American Hunter, or 1st Freedom. (Junior members have the additional fourth choice of InSights magazine.) You’ll have to agree that a FREE magazine subscription sweetens the deal even more. CLICK HERE to learn more about this great offer.
You can fill out a membership application online, print and mail a sign-up form, or call 1-877-NRA-2000 to join by phone. But don’t wait too long — this is a limited-time NRA sign-up offer.
Classic hunting rifles never go out of style. We thought our readers would enjoy some photos of a special Jack O’Connor Tribute rifle in .270 Winchester. This unique Model 70 is a featured SHOT Show 2013 rifle. It is being auctioned on Gunbroker.com, with proceeds to benefit hunting and shooting sports. Bids are currently approaching $7,000.00 with bidding open through January 18, 2013.
Winchester Repeating Arms states that this 2013 SHOT Show Winchester Model 70 will be the last-ever Jack O’Connor Tribute rifle. The stock for this rifle is AAA grade Claro Walnut with Ebony forearm tip and shadowline cheekpiece. The rifle’s metalwork has been hand-engraved by the artisans at Baron Engraving. The rifle features a featherweight contour, free-floating barrel with target crown.
Interestingly, the Leupold 4X Mountaineer riflescope mounted on this rifle is an original 1950s-era Mountaineer from the vaults of Leupold & Stevens.
Sporting Classics offers a collection of great Jack O’Connor stories from the pages of Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Petersen’s Hunting and other popular magazines of his day. This 440-page book, entitled Classic O’Connor: 45 Worldwide Hunting Stories, is a sequel of sorts to Sporting Classics’ popular compendium, The Lost Classics of Jack O’Connor.
In this collection, Jack O’Connor recounts his worldwide hunting adventures, during which he pursued everything from ducks to grizzlies, pheasants to kudu. Classic O’Connor presents several of the author’s greatest gun stories and a large selection of never-before-published photographs of the celebrated sportsman and his family on hunting adventures around the world. The book is illustrated with 40+ drawings by acclaimed artist Ron Van Gilder. Hardcover with dust jacket, the book lists for $35, but it can be purchased on Amazon.com for just $23.07.
The Hunting Rifle by Jack O’Connor
Another O’Connor title worth reading is The Hunting Rifle, still considered one of the definitive works on selecting a hunting rifle and cartridge. One owner of The Hunting Rifle explains:
“It would benefit every hunter to take the time and read this book. It offers a corrective to the spirit of things that have gripped the hunting scene lately. Today, if one reads a hunting magazine, [one is] offered the view that you need the fastest and loudest cartridges, rifles with special finishes and the most expensive of anything. Ole Jack reminds us that many have killed game with ‘lesser’ guns for a very long time, and that these new gimmicks will not make you a more lethal hunter.”
If you’ve never visited SHOT Show, you may not know what a huge operation it represents. Filling the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas with 1600 exhibits covering 630,000 square feet is like building a small indoor city from scratch. Starting from bare floors and walls, workers labor furiously to assemble 1600+ booths before Show attendees storm the gates. And then, a few days later, all those exhibits must be torn down, boxed up, and shipped out. It’s a Herculean task. And here, with the aid of time-lapse photography, you can experience the entire SHOT Show in just 96 seconds.
In this short video filmed at SHOT Show 2012, time-lapse photography is used to compress the entire SHOT Show into one 96-second montage. Watch a small section of the Show floor from start to finish (including prep time) at this year’s event. It’s a fun video to watch — you can “experience” an entire Show day in a mere 10 seconds. For example, Tuesday starts at the 0:33 second mark and Wednesday begins just 10 seconds (of video time) later. Appropriately, the soundtrack is “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Nightforce Optics has just announced an all-new, side-focus 15-55x52mm Competition™ Scope. It looks very impressive. The ED (low-dispersion) glass in the new 15-55X provides high contrast, low chromatic aberration, and 92% light transmission. And this scope is a LOT lighter than the current 12-42x56mm — that will help guys make weight. We’re pleased to see the new scope offers a fast-focus, European-style eyepiece. Two reticles will be offered initially: the CTR-1 and DDR (shown below). The big question is “how much will it cost?”. A Nightforce dealer told us that Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) will be $2231.00. We’ll run a full report on this scope when we get our hands on it at SHOT Show.
The big news is that, with a weight of just 27.8 ounces, the new 15-55X Nightforce Competition Scope is 24% lighter than the NF 12-42×56 Benchrest model, and 20% lighter than the NF 12-42×56 NXS. Like the NXS series, the new Competition scope offers side parallax adjustment; and, it will focus from 25 yards to infinity, making it suitable for rimfire and airgun shooting as well as centerfire competition. The turrets provide positive and repeatable .125 MOA (eighth-minute-of-angle) clicks. Each rotation provides 5 MOA of adjustment. And we’re pleased to see that the Competition Scope offers a full 60 MOA of travel — for both windage and elevation. That’s impressive. CLICK HERE for more information.
Happy New Year to all our readers worldwide, and especially the nearly 20,000 members of the AccurateShooter Forum. We hope 2013 brings you happiness in your lives and success in your endeavors. And we wish for small groups, good scores, and successful hunts in the New Year.
We hope that, in 2013, you’ll enjoy your precision rifles, spending “quality time” at the range with friends who share your “addiction to accuracy”. We’ve made major upgrades to our site this year, acquiring new high-speed dedicated servers, and adding a staff “Answerman” to provide direct help for our members. We hope you’ll continue to enjoy our feature articles, our Daily Bulletin, our match reports, and our Free Forum Classifieds. The formula seems to be working — our audience is bigger than ever and it just keeps growing. And with the demise of Precision Shooting Magazine in November 2012, AccurateShooter.com’s role as an information resource is more important than ever.
Forum Membership Grows 23% in 2012
We experienced big growth in our Shooters’ Forum in 2012. Membership grew by 23% as member ranks swelled from 16,000 members to nearly 20,000 members! Forum traffic (pageviews) rose 40% in 2012 — that’s a huge increase in one year. And more people are successfully buying and selling in our FREE Forum Classifieds section than ever before.
Daily Bulletin Is a Big Hit
The AccurateShooter Daily Bulletin has become a “must read” for anyone interested in serious rifle accuracy. Daily Bulletin viewership is up 37% in 2012 compared to the year before. In the Bulletin you’ll find money-saving sale notices, timely match reports, and a host of reloading and accurizing tips. The Bulletin has become THE source for exclusive “scoops” on new products and new shooting technologies. Eric Stecker of Berger Bullets says: “You guys have become the ‘USA Today’ of the precision shooting market.” 365 days a year we offer a unique combination of shooting tips, gear reviews, industry news, and highlighted bargains and special sales.
Big Plans for 2013 — With Your Help…
In the months ahead we plan to release more feature stories, more videos, more informative ‘how to’ articles, and some major gear comparison tests. We also hope to do audio interviews (“podcasts”) with top shooters such as Carl Bernosky, Sam Hall, and John Whidden. We’ll continue to offer serious field tests and inside “scoops” on the latest precision shooting products. And now that Precision Shooting Magazine has folded, we hope to fill that void with articles from some of your favorite PS writers.
We need your support. For over eight years the site has relied largely on volunteer efforts by dedicated shooters. But as the site grows, adding new types of content and more sophisticated features, we need the assistance of professional gunsmiths, writers, and movie editors. Those guys don’t work for glory alone.
For the site to continue to deliver more cutting-edge content, we need to bring in paid helpers. Right now, the site reaches over 125,000 shooters every WEEK. If the majority of those users could provide a small donation every year, we could deliver more stories, more tests, more Gun of the Week features, and more videos.
In the past quarter about 90 site users have donated to the site. I want to thank all those who have generously contributed (at any time). But that still leaves tens of thousands of users who access the site regularly without contributing.
Here’s our proposal. First, if you have used our FREE Classifieds to successfully sell your rifles or shooting gear, consider sending in a dollar or two from your sale proceeds. Second, for those who use the site regularly, consider donating One Dollar a Month. That’s less than the price of a cup of coffee and much less than many websites now charge for their “premium content areas”.
Consider this — what do you pay for a movie ticket these days? Probably $8.50 or more for 90 minutes of escapism. For a buck a month ($12 a year) you can help this site provide a YEAR’s worth of info, tests, and shooting news that you won’t find anywhere else.
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Making a donation to the site is simple and easy. Just click on the orange “Donate” button at right. If you have a credit card, you don’t need a Paypal account to contribute. Any sum is welcome — donations need not be large.
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Yesterday we featured a “mystery man” in a old family photo from a 1950s Christmas. We challenged readers to identify the young boy in cowboy hat who later grew up into one of America’s greatest rifle shooters. Most folks thought our mystery celebrity was Texan G. David Tubb. Others, no doubt focusing on the hat, suggested it was benchrest Hall-of-Famer Tony Boyer. And there were votes for Mid Tompkins and trick-shooter Bob Munden (who recently passed away). But most of you guys guessed right — the “littlest cowboy” was, in fact, 10-time National High Power Champion Carl Bernosky.
How Times Have Changed in America
Carl tells us: “I think the photo was from 1959, when I was three years old. That was on Christmas with my family. Since then, I have upgraded the holster, switched from revolvers to pistols, and gave up the pipe!”
Carl misses the ‘good old days': “It’s hard to believe how much has changed in America. Things were really different in the 50s and 60s. It was great for a boy growing up. We spent a lot of time outdoors, and people trusted each other more.” Carl said: “I remember going on a hunting trip with my Dad. We had to fly from Pennsylvania to someplace out west. Somewhere I’ve got a photo showing my Dad and I carrying our guns in soft cases on to the aircraft. We just walked through the airport and carried our guns right on to the plane. You sure don’t want to try that today!”
Now that he’s all grown up, Carl makes a living producing rifles and gunstocks for hunters and competition shooters. Carl’s company, Carl Bernosky Shooting Sports, offers a variety of stocks made from laminates and fancy woods. A highly-skilled woodworker, Carl can customize stock designs for any customer’s unique requirements. Shown below are some of his creations, prone rifles (in fancy wood) on the left, and an F-Open rifle in Rutland Laminate on the right.
Waylon Jennings famously crooned: “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys”. Well the young fella in the fuzzy photo didn’t grow up to be a cowboy, but he did become one of the greatest rifle shooters in history. Can you guess who this is?
- Guess Who Is in the Photo -
(Answer will be revealed in tomorrow’s Daily Bulletin).
The photo was taken on a Christmas morning, decades ago, when our mystery man was around three years old. He told us: “Starting with toy guns, then BB guns, then 22s, and then centerfires — doing stuff with rifles was just part of my upbringing. This is something I did with my family. That’s my grand-dad in the photo with me.” What happened to the toy six-shooters and fancy double-holster rig? Our mystery subject lamented: “Oh that’s long gone. Wish I still had that rig, it would bring back memories….”
If you’re going to SHOT Show this week in Las Vegas, head over to the Otis Technology booth, #14213 (You can’t miss it — Otis has big tall banners). Otis has arranged for several “big name” shooters and other celebrities to make personal appearances at the show. Show attendees will have a chance to meet these industry celebrities (including Olympic Gold Medalist Kim Rhodes) and get a signed autograph photo.
Doug Koenig, one of the top pistol shooters in history, will be at the Otis booth daily from 9 am to 10 am. Doug has won multiple Bianchi Cups, Masters Tournaments, and Steel Challenges.
To ensure the increasing demand of Lapua ammunition and Vihtavuori powder in the USA market is met with sufficient supply, Nammo Lapua Oy has made changes to its distribution network. Effective Jan 1, 2013, Lapua centerfire ammunition and components, as well as Lapua and SK brand rimfire ammunition, will be distributed by 
If you’ve never visited SHOT Show, you may not know what a huge operation it represents. Filling the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas with 1600 exhibits covering 630,000 square feet is like building a small indoor city from scratch. Starting from bare floors and walls, workers labor furiously to assemble 1600+ booths before Show attendees storm the gates. And then, a few days later, all those exhibits must be torn down, boxed up, and shipped out. It’s a Herculean task. And here, with the aid of time-lapse photography, you can experience the entire SHOT Show in just 96 seconds.
Download free screen-saver from 
In the past quarter about 90 site users have donated to the site. I want to thank all those who have generously contributed (at any time). But that still leaves tens of thousands of users who access the site regularly without contributing.
How Times Have Changed in America
