Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our readers and especially our 23,500 Forum Members. This marks our ninth Christmas “in business”, and the site keeps growing each year. AccurateShooter.com (and 6mmBR.com) are now accessed by over 130,000 unique users ever week. Part of the reason for that success is the knowledge, experience, and technical expertise that our contributing writers (and expert consultants) share with other shooters.

Unsung Heroes Deserve Recognition
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge some guys who have really helped out with the site. Number one is JayChris. This dude has been a godsend — he’s a really smart IT guy (and a dedicated shooter) who enabled us to maintain multiple dedicated servers, while speeding up things with smart software upgrades. Also Thanks to Jeff Williams, our “Answerman” who helps Forum members resolve problems. I’d also like to thank our regular contributors: Boyd Allen, Vince Bottomley, Sam Hall, Mark LaFevers, German Salazar, and Robert Whitley. And special thanks to EdLongRange who researches leads for the Bulletin. These guys (and many others) have all contributed time and effort — all without asking a dime in return. I’d also like to thank Joe F. (aka “The Stig”), our designated “master trigger-puller”. When we need someone to wring out the Nth degree of accuracy in a rifle — Joe’s the man.

Thanks to Site Supporters and Sponsors
Finally, I’d like to thank all of you who have made donations (large or small) to the site this year. User support is very important. Donations help us grow the site and provide new services for our readership. We also want to express our appreciation for our many commercial sponsors — from large vendors such as Bullets.com, Graf & Sons, EABCO, Midsouth Shooters Supply, and Powder Valley to important product-makers such as Berger Bullets, Krieger Barrels, Lapua, and Nightforce Optics. We are all part of a very special community here at AccurateShooter.com — and we appreciate your support!

We want to take this opportunity to thank all the folks who have generously donated to the site over the past year. (Please, if you’ve donated and are a Forum member, tell us your Forum “nickname” so we can acknowledge your contribution).

We also want to thank the many individuals who help this site by donating their time testing gear, helping with the Forum, and/or writing articles. This includes Jason Baney, Vince Bottomley, Laurie Holland, Speedy Gonzales, “Graymist”, Bryan Litz, Chris (“Techshooter”) Long, Larry Medler, Danny Reever, German Salazar, Jerry Tierney, and all the folks who have helped with Gun of the Week stories. And we want to say thanks to our commercial sponsors that have supported the site through advertising or donated items for auction.

And Blessed Are the Programmers
This Christmas we want to give special recognition to Vladimir Prelovac and his talented team of young programmers in Belgrade, Serbia. Starting with our “wish-list” for an enhanced, “enterprise-quality” web site, these guys worked very hard, for many months, to deliver all that we asked for — and more. This required hundreds of hours of database programming, layout work, and creative site design. If you like the new and improved AccurateShooter.com site, we have these hard-working guys to thank for it. By the way, if you’re curious, most Serbians in Belgrade are Oxthodox Christians, and yes, they celebrate Christmas just like we do — only a few days later. The Serbian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, so Christmas in Belgrade currently falls on January 7th, 2011.