Twenty-two years ago Larry and Brenda Potterfield launched the NRA Round-Up, a special program designed to raise funds for the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). To date, MidwayUSA Customers have contributed nearly $10 million dollars to the NRA-ILA National Endowment for the Protection of the 2nd Amendment.
“On January 2, 1992 we started asking our Customers at MidwayUSA if they would ‘Round-Up’ their order to the next higher dollar and let us donate that money to the NRA-ILA. Our Customers overwhelmingly said yes and to date they have donated nearly $10 Million,” said Larry Potterfield, Founder and CEO of MidwayUSA. “The actual donations have never been spent, but each year, NRA-ILA spends five percent of the interest to fight anti-gun legislation.”
At the 143rd NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Indianapolis last weekend, Larry and Brenda Potterfield presented a ceremonial check to NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox for $9,892,195.82, the total amount of money that has been donated by MidwayUSA Customers since 1992.
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
It’s nice to see a leading firearms industry company fund “good works” and help charitable organizations. Hornady Manufacturing recently donated $38,009 to GRACE Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving cancer patients, cancer survivors, and their families. Founded in 1949, Hornady is a family-owned business in Grand Island, Nebraska. The donation came from proceeds of the sale of Hornady® Critical Defense® Lite™ ammunition from November 2012 to November 2013.
“We at Hornady Manufacturing wanted to play an active role in the fight against cancer,” said Renae Waltemath, Director of Sales. “By donating a portion of the proceeds of each box of Critical Defense Lite ammunition sold over a 12 month period, we can directly assist organizations devoted to that cause. Choosing GRACE Foundation to receive a donation was easy since they help so many people in the Grand Island area, some of whom may be Hornady employees or family members affected by cancer.” Lisa Willman, co-founder of GRACE Foundation, said the gift significantly expands the number of people the organization can serve. “To give you an idea of what this means,” Willman explained, “the GRACE Foundation gave out over $21,000 in assistance over the entire third quarter of 2013. So a gift of $38,009 from one source is a huge help.” The Hornady gift is the largest single donation the organization has ever received.
The MidwayUSA Foundation, Inc. and Scholastic Shooting Trust, a public charity established by Larry and Brenda Potterfield, received a $3,000,000 donation from the Potterfields to support junior shooting programs. These funds will be allocated to 204 separate endowments. Funds will support 192 shooting teams each receiving $10,000, seven state 4-H shooting programs, as well as five, new college curriculum shooting programs (receiving $100,000 each).
The Scholastic Shooting Trust (SST) Fund is owned and controlled by the MidwayUSA Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, public charity established by Larry and Brenda Potterfield in 2007. The SST Fund is an endowment intended to provide financial support for scholastic shooting programs. The SST Fund gives alumni and other interested parties of universities, colleges and high schools the ability to financially support a school’s competitive shooting program. The Foundation works with shooting teams, conservation groups and the shooting industry to raise funds in support of high school and collegiate shooting programs. To learn more about The MidwayUSA Foundation and Scholastic Shooting Trust, visit ScholasticShootingTrust.org or call 1-877-375-4570.
Hunters are generous people. More than 11 million meals were provided to the less fortunate through hunters’ donations of game meat in 2010. Nearly 2.8 million pounds of game meat made its way to shelters, food banks and church kitchens and onto the plates of those in need. As a reminder to all hunters to consider sharing their harvest this autumn with those in need, NSSF has developed a new webpage to helpe hunters make venison donations to food banks and other charitable meal providers. Learn more at the Hunters Feed website.
We wish all our readers a happy, safe, and prosperous New Year. We hope that, in 2012, 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 Shooters’ Forum this year, and our audience is bigger than ever. We hope you’ll continue to enjoy our feature articles, our Daily Bulletin, our match reports, and our Free Forum Classifieds.
Forum Membership Grows 23%
We experienced big growth in our Forum this past year. Membership grew by 23% as member ranks swelled from just under 13,000 members to over 16,000 members! The Forum Classifieds section, with an effective seller/buyer feedback system, is more active than ever.
Rifle by Long Rifles Inc. (Chad Dixon), photo by Robert J Anderson.
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. And the Bulletin has become THE source for exclusive “scoops” on new product 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 2012 — With Your Help…
In the months ahead we plan to release more Cartridge Guides, more Gun Profiles, 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. And we’ll continue to offer serious field tests and inside “scoops” on the latest precision shooting products.
We need your support. For over seven 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 100,000 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 50 site users have generously donated to the site. I want to again thank all those who have 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.
How to Contribute
Making a donation to the site is simple and easy. Just click on the “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 Asst. Editor Jason Baney. Please list your Forum Log-In Name (if any), and mail the check to:
As you know, on AccurateShooter.com, we provide 100% FREE content — including our FREE Classifieds. On January 1st, we made a pitch for donations to help the site. Readers have responded positively and we’ve raised over $1000 in just three days. Thanks to all who have donated so far. Hopefully more readers will answer the call.
It does cost a lot of money to test products and to provide new content every day. We’re going to SHOT Show soon. Covering that big event with daily updates will cost over $1500 (for three people), when all is said and done.
There have even been some recent $100 donations! Special thanks go to our latest “Century Club” contributors: Terry B. (WI), TR Butler (Australia), Richard C. (CO), Mark LaF. (CA), Herman H. (VA), Carl P. (TX), Scott O. (MN), Ben W. (TX), Gene Z. (TX). We really appreciate their generosity! But remember, all donations, large and small, are appreciated. For regular site readers, we suggest “a buck a month” or $12 per year.
How to Contribute
Making a donation to the site is simple and easy. Just click on the PayPal “Donate” button at right. If you have a credit card, you don’t need a Paypal account to contribute. All donations — large or small — are welcome.
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 Asst. Editor Jason Baney, list your Forum Name (if any), and mail the check to:
First, we’d like to wish all our readers a happy, safe, and prosperous New Year. We hope that, in 2011, you’ll have time to enjoy your precision rifles, and spend more time at the range, hopefully with good friends who share your “addiction to accuracy”. We’ve made some major upgrades to the site this year, and our audience is bigger than ever. We hope you’ll continue to enjoy our feature articles, our daily news reports, our match reports, our video collection, and our Free Forum Classifieds.
Major Site Redesign Accomplished in 2010
2010 was a big year for the site. First our traffic grew substantially. AccurateShooter.com is now accessed by more than 100,000 unique users every week. In November we completed a major site upgrade, a “nose to tail” rebuild that required hundreds of man-hours of work. We’ve expanded the layout to provide more room for photos and videos. The entire site was rebuilt, page by page, on a sophisticated content management system (CMS). Our new CMS allows easier, faster searching, and category-based navigation. The CMS also automatically links readers to related articles and relevant gear reviews. This provides a richer browsing experience — you can find more cool stuff on every visit. The new site format also allows us to integrate popular articles that originally appeared in our Daily Bulletin.
Forum Membership Grows 30%
We experienced big growth in our Forum as well. Membership grew by 30% as member ranks swelled from 10,000 members to 13,000 members! The Forum Classifieds section, with a new seller/buyer feedback system, is more active than ever.
Daily Bulletin Is a Big Hit
The AccurateShooter Daily Bulletin has become a “must read” for anyone interested in serious rifle accuracy. We launched a bigger, more colorful Bulletin layout in April, and now we now have 12,000 average pageviews a day, up from about 8,500 last year. 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 2011 — With Your Help…
In the months ahead we plan to release more Cartridge Guides, more Gun Profiles, and some major gear comparison tests. We also plan to do audio interviews (“podcasts”) with top shooters such as Sgt. Sherri Gallagher, Sam Hall, and John Whidden. And we’ll continue to offer timely match reports and inside “scoops” on the latest precision shooting products.
We need your support. For over six 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 knowledgeable programmers, database experts and web designers. Those guys don’t work for glory alone.
For the site to continue to expand its content, we need to bring in paid helpers. Right now, the site reaches over 100,000 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 provide more of the photos and videos everyone enjoys.
In the past quarter about 60 site users have generously donated to the site. I want to again thank all those who have contributed. 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 $8.00 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.
How to Contribute
Making a donation to the site is simple and easy. Just click on the “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 Asst. Editor Jason Baney, list your Forum Name (if any), and mail the check to:
Larry and Brenda Potterfield of MidwayUSA have donated $1.6 Million to the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation to support youth shooting programs. The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) is an educational-athletic organization that exists to introduce school-age youths to the clay target sports and to facilitate their continued involvement by providing, promoting, and perpetuating opportunities to safely and enjoyably participate and compete in a high-quality, team-based sport led by trained adult coaches focused on enhancing the personal growth and development of their athletes.
Larry Potterfield, CEO of MidwayUSA, remarked, “Teaching our youth about shooting and shooting safety will ensure a better future for America. Brenda and I are proud to partner with SSSF and their efforts to change the future by engaging youths through scholastic shooting programs.” Russ Arnold, Exec. Director of SSSF, added: “A donation like this from the Potterfields will go a long way in helping us achieve our mission of developing more young shooters, and furthering the future of our sport.”
Larry and Brenda Potterfield of MidwayUSA recently donated $1,000,000.00 to the National Wild Turkey Federation to support youth shooting programs, including the JAKES Take Aim program. The JAKES Take Aim program provides youths (ages 17 and under) with opportunities to try shooting in a safe, fun environment. With the big donation from the Potterfields, over the next four years, the NWTF aims to triple the annual number of youth shooting participants at JAKES events –- from 50,000 to 150,000.
“Thanks to the generosity of Larry and Brenda Potterfield, more young people will have the chance to try shooting sports and may discover a passion that they will enjoy for the rest of their lives,” said George C. Thornton, NWTF CEO.
Larry Potterfield, Founder and CEO of MidwayUSA, remarked, “Brenda and I believe in supporting youth programs that teach our next generation about shooting and shooting safety. The NWTF is doing a great job with our youth, who are the future of shooting, conservation, and the outdoor industry. We are proud to help them change the future.”