Gunsite Academy Celebrates 50 Years

2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Gunsite, an elite training establishment in Arizona founded by Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper to help train Americans in the pragmatic use of firearms for personal protection.

A Gunsite Alumni Shoot planned for Oct. 3 will mark the official milestone. The company is also celebrating with product collaborations, including a Steyr Scout Rifle, an Aero Precision carbine with an Aimpoint Duty RDS optic and a SureFire light and a high-end, Gunsite single-stack 1911 Service Pistol made by the academy’s own gunsmith, Dave Fink. Finally, a collaboration with Davidson’s and Ruger will result in a Gunsite 50th Ruger RXM with an Aimpoint COA MRDS.

“Gunsite is very proud of being the world’s oldest and largest privately owned firearms academy. Nobody else doing what we do can claim 50 years,” CEO Ken Campbell told us. “We continue to be amazed by our Gunsite family. We’ve had 10 record student years in a row—and these aren’t all new students. We have people come back five, 10, 15 times … we even have a few who’ve attended more than 100 times. What would Jeff Cooper think when he and Janelle opened up with 162 acres, and now we have 3,200 acres—could even Cooper have envisioned something like this?”