FREE Digital Editions of SHOT Show Daily
You can also read FREE digital editions of the SHOT Show Daily (for Days 1-3). This is the publication handed out at SHOT Show. Packed with stories and photos, each edition has a special theme for the new products covered.

SHOT Daily 2014

Day 1 Digital Edition | PDF	Day 2 Digital Edition | PDF	Day 3 Digital Edition | PDF

Happy New Year to all our readers worldwide, and especially the 23,500+ members of the AccurateShooter Forum. We hope 2014 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 2014, you’ll enjoy your precision rifles, spending “quality time” at the range with good friends. We upgraded our site this year, acquiring new high-speed dedicated servers. 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, with over 130,000+ unique users visiting the site every week.

Forum Membership Grows 18% in 2013
We experienced big growth in our Shooters’ Forum in 2013. Membership grew by 18% as ranks swelled to over 23,500 members! 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. 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 2014 — With Your Help…
In the months ahead we plan to do a complete overhaul and upgrade of the Daily Bulletin. This will make the stories easier to read on mobile devices, and home computer users will benefit from a more spacious layout, easier navigation, and faster searches. We’ll continue to offer serious field tests, photos and videos of important shooting matches, and inside “scoops” on the latest precision shooting products.

We need your support. For over nine 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.

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.

In the past quarter about 150 site users have donated to the site. We 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.

How to Contribute 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.

Help Support this Site by Making a Secure Donation.

If you don’t like Paypal, you can send a check. Make the check payable to our “Answerman” Jeff Williams. Please list your Forum Log-In Name (if any), and mail the check to:

Jeff Williams
P.O. Box 2409
Evergreen, CO 80437-2409

Here is the Lapua Product Announcement for .221 Fireball and .50 BMG Brass:

New 180-Grain and 150-Grain 7mm Scenar-L Bullets
The other big news from Lapua is the release of two new 7mm (.284 caliber) Scenar-L target bullets. Recognizing the popularity of 7mm cartridges among F-Class Open Division shooters, Lapua will offer a high-BC, 180-grain bullet. As part of the “L” series, this new 180-grainer bullet should exhibit extreme consistency in base-to-ogive measurements and bullet weight. We expect this new 180gr projectile to be extremely accurate in the .284 Winchester, .284 Shehane, 7mm WSM, and 7mm RSAUM — popular chamberings for F-Class and long-range benchrest shooters. No BC information has been released yet, but we expect the BC number to be quite high, giving this bullet great wind-bucking capability. In addition to the new 180gr 7mm Scenar-L, Lapua will offer a new 150gr 7mm bullet. This is optimized for medium range competition in Silhouette and Across-the-Course competition. It should offer great accuracy, but with less felt recoil than its 180-grain bigger brother.

Lanny and Tracy, who hail from Durango, Colorado, learned to shoot before they could ski. That is unusual in biathlon, a sport dominated by Nordic skiing specialists who typically take up shooting only after they have started winning ski races. Under the tutelage of their father, an avid hunter, Lanny and Tracy started shooting at a very young age. Lanny and Tracy were both crack shots before they became competitive skiers. Lanny still enjoys hunting in the Colorado backcountry.

Biathlon is Hugely Popular in Europe
Lanny gave us some new insights into the biathlon game. While biathlon is not widely followed in the United States, it is the most-watched winter sport in Europe according to Lanny. We were also surprised to learn that top-level biathletes do not try to slow their heartbeats during the shooting segment of the competition. Lanny explained that the best competitors train so they can shoot with their hearts beating about 180 times per minute.

Remarkably, with that rapid heart-rate, the movement of the muzzle is more of a flutter than a distinct, heavy rise and fall. Learning to control the amplitude of the muzzle movement with the rapid heart-beat is one of the secrets to success, Lanny tells us. An ultra-accurate, fast-cycling rifle is also very important. Like most top biathletes, Lanny shoots an Anschütz with a straight-pull Fortner action. Lanny tells us that the straight-pull action has made a big change in the sport, speeding up the firing times dramatically. But since all the top competitors can shoot so quickly with modern rifles, that has put a premium on marksmanship. Miss a shot and you may have to do a penalty loop, which can change your standing from front-runner to back of the pack.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out the Twins’ Website (Donations Welcome)
Learn more about Lanny and Tracy Barnes on the twins’ website, www.twinbiathletes.com. Though biathlon is a winter sport, Lanny and Tracy train year-round. This requires great commitment and dedication. The Barnes’ quest to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics also demands a significant budget. If you wish to help Lanny and Tracy in their bid to represent the USA in 2014, you can make a donation (via PayPal) on www.twinbiathletes.com.