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February 7th, 2009
One of the largest gun shows in the country runs next weekend, February 13-15, starting at 3:00 pm on Friday. Held at the Dulles Expo in Chantilly, Virginia, the Nation’s Gun Show will feature over 1000 tables of vendors and displays. The show floor covers the equivalent of two football fields, with over 1.5 miles of guns, knives, and accessories.
Free Admission with $25.00 NRA Membership Purchase
Admission is $18.00 for a 3-day pass, or $12.00 each day for adults. You can save $1.00 with the coupon below. Or, you can get FREE ADMISSION to the event if you join the NRA at the show, or renew your NRA membership at the show. (Offer valid on $25.00 or greater membership).
December 10th, 2008
The NRA has just launched its enhanced, re-designed NRA BLOG. This features daily entries on a wide range of topics, from the National Championships at Camp Perry to youth safety education programs. The new NRA BLOG (www.nrablog.com) features direct navigation to multiple content categories: Community Outreach, Competitions, Hunting, Law Enforcement, NRA Musem, Training, Womens Programs, and Youth Programs. The new blog also includes syndication links so content can be referenced on other popular websites such as DiggIt.com and Facebook.
While the NRA BLOG’s editors are still manually linking up content for some of the categories, this is still an impressive start. This BLOG should make timely information about matches and training programs available to shooters across the country. The NRA BLOG also allows shooters to voice their views on NRA Activities by commenting on blog items.
October 29th, 2008
From November 5-8, Hamilton, New Zealand will host the 6th Annual NRA World Action Pistol Championships. This major event will draw hundreds of top shooters from around the globe. The 2008 World Action Pistol Championships will be held in conjunction with the Kiwi Cup Action Pistol Championships at Hamilton Pistol Club. This is the second time that the Hamilton Pistol Club has hosted this prestigious event, which has been held previously twice in Australia, and twice in the USA. The NRA World Action Pistol Championships is an aggregate match with four traditional events: Falling Plates, Barricade, Practical, and Moving Target. For more information, visit the World Action Pistol Championships website, www.WAPC2008.com.
Located 80 miles south of Auckland, Hamilton is becoming known as a hub for action sports. In addition to the World Action Pistol Championships, Hamilton will host the V8 Supercars Street Race, World Rally Championships, and 2010 World Rowing Champs. The Waikoto River, shown in the photo below, runs through the heart of the city of Hamilton.
Background on Shooting Sports in New Zealand
New Zealand is a remarkable country, a land of great natural beauty. The island nation is similar in size to California … but with about 30,000,000 fewer people! Nice eh? If you combined the natural terrain of Oregon, California, and the Colorado Rockies, doubled the coastline, and then eliminated smog, urban sprawl, and traffic jams, that’s a good description of New Zealand.
Though small in size, New Zealand has a very active community of sport shooters and hunters. While Australia has imposed draconian restrictions on self-loading pistols and rifles, New Zealanders still retain the ability to own most types of firearms, including semi-automatics. In fact, New Zealand has fewer restrictions on “Black Rifles” than do many American states.
October 27th, 2008
NRA President John Sigler is not only a hard-working advocate for Second Amendment rights, but he is also an active, competitive shooter. This October, John competed in the F-Class Nationals at Lodi, Wisconsin. He was shooting a tack-driving 6.5-284 rifle built by Surgeon Rifles.
This special F-Class rig features a Surgeon action, Krieger barrel, Leupold 8-25X50 target scope, and McMillan fiberglass stock. To benefit the U.S.A. F-Open Team, these top-of-the-line components were donated by the manufacturers and Surgeon did the build. Surgeon Rifles specializes in making custom actions and rifles and guarantees precision of less than .5 MOA on every rifle they build. Their actions are machined out of 4340 aircraft grade solid billet and the 20 MOA Picatinny rail is an integral part of the action. Sound great? Well you can have a chance to own this same rifle shot by NRA President Sigler.
Donate to the F-Class Team — Get a Chance to Win the Rifle
The F-Class rifle shot by Sigler was donated to the US F-Class Rifle Team and is being used to raise funds for the team to travel to the World F-Class Championship in Bisley, England in 2009. This event is held every four years and over 350 of the world’s best F-Class shooters are expected to participate.
 To raise funds, the team is selling raffle tickets. ONLY 5000 TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE SO THE CHANCE OF WINNING THIS GUN WILL BE VERY HIGH!
Here’s how you can get a chance to win this beautiful rifle:
Donate $10.00 and get two tickets to win. The more you donate, the better your chances for winning this rifle. Tickets are available from many F-Class Open Shooters around the country. Or you may write a check, payable to “U.S. F-Class Open Rifle Team”, and send it to:
U.S. F-Class Open Rifle Team
P.O. Box 3110,
Bellingham, WA 98227
If you are making a donation of over $20.00 and would like a receipt for tax deduction, please make out your check to PALMA Promotions and mail to the above address. All tickets and receipts will be sent by return mail. Drawing will be held in February, 2009 or sooner, as tickets are selling fast!
October 17th, 2008
 Here’s generous promotion designed to boost membership in the National Rifle Association. Readers who subscribe to either American Handgunner ($17.76/year) or GUNS Magazine ($19.55/year) through special online offers will receive a free one-year NRA membership. The offers are available at AmericanHandgunner.com and GunsMagazine.com. Click the graphic at left to go directly to the Guns Magazine NRA Offer Page.
Gun enthusiasts who order American Handgunner will get a one-year subscription plus a one-year NRA membership for $17.76. A GUNS Magazine order includes 12 monthly issues plus the NRA membership for only $19.55. Current NRA members are given a new NRA membership gift certificate for a family member or friend when they complete the subscription order.
“This will help to build the NRA membership during this critical time period,” said Roy Huntington, publisher of American Handgunner and GUNS magazines. “Now’s the time to sign up a spouse, son, daughter, scout or even a good friend and help us build NRA membership — to help all of us keep our right to own firearms alive.”
FMG Publications, headquartered in San Diego, publishes American Handgunner and GUNS magazines, plus American COP and the trade publication, Shooting Industry.
August 13th, 2008
John Whidden won the 2008 NRA Long-Range Championship with an impressive 1239-65X score. This was the second straight Long-Range win for phenomenally skilled but modest Georgia-based shooter, who also took the title in 2007. On the way to the overall win, Whidden also captured the Canadian Cup (848-49X) and the Leech Cup (200-15X).
The NRA Long-Range Championship went down to the wire. Whidden secured the victory on X-count, with an edge of eight Xs over runner-up Robert Gustin of California who finished with 1239-57X. (Gustin was also high Senior.) Army Shooter Sgt. Brandon Green finished third at 1238-64X, just one point behind. Nancy Tompkins, popular author of the Prone and Long-Range Rifle Shooting book, was the top female shooter, posting 1231-59X.
After winning the 2007 NRA Long-Range Championship, John Whidden provided the following commentary to AccurateShooter.com (John regularly posts in our Shooters’ Forum). We’re not sure if he changed his equipment this year–we’ll provide updates on that as soon as possible.
Winning Camp Perry and the Mental Game
Winning the National Championship is a long-time goal realized. For me, being the National Champion was the single biggest shooting goal I had. I’m not sure exactly what will be my next shooting goal yet. If I had to summarize the mental game at this level of competition in one word, I would probably choose the word “Confidence”. You have to have the highest level of confidence in your skills, your rifle, and your ammo. There can’t be even a shadow of a doubt that all of your equipment is the best there is. No detail can be left undone.
Confidence is a far-reaching idea. It includes little things like making sure you have all of your equipment with you through the use of a checklist. Anything you can do to give yourself a higher level of confidence is worth doing.
Long-Range Hardware
In NRA Long Range, we shoot “Any Sight Rifles” and Palma rifles. The Palma rifles have to be .308s and they have to use Iron sights. The Any Rifles are used at different times with iron sights or scopes. They are also fairly unrestricted, as long as they are safe, .35 cal or under, and have no muzzle brake.
For the Any Rifle matches [in 2007], I shot rifles chambered in .243 Win. My iron sight gun is a Winchester M70 action, Broughton 1-8 twist 5C barrel, Anschutz trigger, Robertson Original stock, and Warner rear sight. My scope gun is a Stolle Panda action with an Anschutz trigger, Broughton 1-8 twist 5C barrel, Roberston Composites Original stock, and a Nightforce 8-32x BR scope. All of my rifles are proud products of the Whidden Gunworks custom shop. I shoot the same load in each: Berger moly coated 105 grain VLDs, Vihtavuori N160, Lapua brass, and PMC (Russian) primers.
May 28th, 2008
 Increasing the numbers of women involved in the shooting sports is vital. We need to bring in more women shooters to grow our gun clubs’ membership rolls and expand the consumer base for firearms products. From a political standpoint, getting women involved in shooting strengthens the gun rights movement, and helps counter efforts to close gun ranges and shooting facilities. Anti-gun advocacy groups and “liberal” politicians bank on the fact that most women are either opposed to firearms or are apathetic about gun rights. As more females get involved with shooting, it becomes more difficult for gun opponents to claim support from the “silent majority” of Americans. Also, women are important decision-makers at the family level. Wives often decide if there will be a gun in the house and if children in the family are allowed to participate in shooting sports.
This week’s ShootingUSA television episode features the NRA’s Women On Target program. This unique program offers firearms training and hunting excursions exclusively for women. The Women On Target program offers new lady shooters the chance to receive handgun, rifle, and shotgun instruction by other women, in a low-stress situation.
CLICK HERE to Find a Women on Target Instructional Clinic
The popular Women-Only Hunt Program allows women to enjoy the outdoors with experienced outfitters guiding all female clients. A wide variety of hunts are offered in the second half of 2008 including duck/goose hunts, pheasant hunts, turkey hunts, whitetail deer hunts, and even a Rocky Mountain Elk hunt. This program has been operating successfully since 1999.
CLICK HERE for Hunt Dates and Outfitter List
Photos courtesy National Rifle Assn., All Rights Reserved.
April 30th, 2008
 The 30th Annual NRA National Action Pistol Championship, also known as the NRA Bianchi Cup, will be held in Columbia, Missouri, May 21 to 24. Over 200 of the world’s top pistoleros will compete at the Green Valley RPC’s Chapman Academy Range. Tens of thousands of dollars in cash and prizes will be awarded, making the Bianchi Cup one of the richest shooting sports events.
CLICK HERE for On-line Bianchi Cup Entry Form
The event originated in 1979 as a Law Enforcement Training match. The “founding father” was holster maker (and former police officer) John Bianchi. Since its inception, the NRA Bianchi Cup has retained its original, 4-event course of fire:
The Practical Event: From the appropriate shooting line, the shooter fires at distances from 10 yards to 50 yards under varying time limits.
The Barricade Event: From within shooting boxes and behind barricades, a shooter fires at targets on either side of the barricade at different distances and under varying time limits.
The Falling Plate Event: From the appropriate shooting line, the shooter fires at 8 inch round steel plates arranged in banks of six at distances from 10 to 25 yards under varying time limits.
The Moving Target Event: From within shooting boxes at distances ranging from 10 to 25 yards, the shooter fires at a target moving from left to right with the target being exposed for only 6 seconds.
Scoring
Speed and accuracy is the key to winning the Championship. Each event is timed and is worth 480 points, equaling a total of 1920 possible points.
For more info about the Bianchi Cup and Action Pistol events, contact Tom Hughes at bianchicup@nrahq.org or (800) 672-3888, extension 1478. Bianchi Cup revolver photo courtesy J.C. Blauvelt Gunsmith.
February 20th, 2008
Consumers who purchase any Sightron scope (excluding S1 models) will receive a free one-year NRA membership. Current NRA members will receive a one-year renewal with purchase. “With 2008 being a critical election year, all of us here at Sightron are concerned about attacks against our right to bear arms. We want to ensure that future generations have the same rights we have enjoyed”, said Sightron’s President, Scott Helmer. “We are proud to do our part ot help the NRA defend our Second Amendment rights.”
To qualify for the FREE NRA membership, a $25.00 value, just purchase a Sightron SIIISS, SII Big Sky or SII Series riflescope before December 31st, 2008. (The impressive, new Sightron SIII 8-32×56, shown above, also qualifies.) Purchaser must submit Sightron Coupon with original sales receipt by March 31st, 2009.
CLICK HERE for More Info and SIGHTRON COUPON
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