Team NRA captain John Bailey hammers the steel plates with a Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22.
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Team NRA
Team NRA got together just before the rifle matches. From left, Darren LaSorte, Randy Clark, Kyle Crew and team captain John Bailey.
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Shooting a Sharps
Another side match was shooting a genuine Sharps 1874 rifle, chambered in .45-70. This rifle, made by Christian Sharps in 1877, fired more than 400 full-house, blackpowder loads during the two-day event without a hitch.
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Airborne Archery
Using flu-flu arrows, contestants had five tries to hit an aerial target.
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More Than Guns
One of the 17 side matches was this tomahawk throwing contest sponsored by Benchmade Knives.
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Not Easy
Many contestants found the sporting clays leg of the match quite challenging.
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Starting it Off
Former NRA editor Tes Salb fired the first shots at the Shooting Industry Masters tournament with a rimfire semi-auto.
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It’s Western
Contestants were required to shoot a compressed version of a cowboy action match featuring two revolvers, a lever-action rifle and a double-barreled shotgun.
Despite having been made popular by John Moses Browning over 100 years ago, his sacred M1911 design has soldiered on into the modern era, and companies like OA Defense are taking to the classic military platform in all-new ways, improving functionality by nearly tripling the design's capacity with double-stack mags, adding optic-mounting capabilities and more.
Watch our Gun Of The Week video this week to learn about an American-manufactured bullpup pump-action shotgun in .410 bore made by KelTec CNC Industries of Cocoa, Fla.
After thousands of rounds sent downrange, the author has some insights on the nuances of handgun design and marksmanship, and it all revolves around the gun's grip.