All Army Championship

Shooting USA - All Army Championship
We’re covering the USAMU’s annual combat competition at the All Army Small Arms Championship. It’s individual and team competition, with issue grade pistol and rifle, with the emphasis on training for combat.

Improving our soldiers’ marksmanship skills while helping them train for combat. That’s the mission behind the All Army Small Arms Championship. It’s nearly two weeks of rifle and pistol matches each year to determine the Army’s top marksmen. The event is competition for both teams and individuals at Fort Benning, Georgia, hosted by the Army Marksmanship Unit. More than 160 active duty Army, Army Reserve, National Guard, and Cadets are taking part in the 12-day, 13 match, pistol and rifle competition.

The Army Marksmanship Unit has a number of assignments, including sending the world’s best shooters to our US Olympic Team. But training soldiers for war is their top priority.

And as SFC Aaron Hampton describes this championship, that’s the primary purpose in holding these matches:  “This is a training event cleverly disguised as a competition. They are going to get some accolades when they are done. Our goal is to stress them, to put them in positions they have never found themselves in training, and allow them to really test their skill set so they know what they need to work on next time. There will be winners. But everyone will walk away a bit more prepared for the eventuality of combat and that’s what we are here to do.”

Related Links

US Army Marksmanship Unit

History’s Guns – The Burnside Carbine

The Civil War was a time of rapid advancement in firearms technology. Muskets would give way to repeating rifles in only a matter of years. Among the firearms that helped make the transition was a breech loading carbine with a nearly self-contained cartridge. The Burnside Carbine is now one of History’s Guns.

New Performance Center 1911s

Two new 1911s from Smith & Wesson. Both come from the Performance Center, which means precision machining, and custom gun fitting by Smith & Wesson’s master gunsmiths. The Performance Center custom 1911 is a full size single stack, in stainless steel for both slide and frame. The custom pistol has a five-inch barrel and comes standard with an oversized external extractor, an ambidextrous frame safety, and a precision crowned muzzle.  The 4.25 inch Round Butt version has an alloy frame for lighter weight as a carry gun. Smith & Wesson gunsmiths hand lap the frame and slide rails, hand cut the chamber, hand polish the feed ramp, smooth and tune the action for high accuracy and reliability.

Performance Center 5 inch

Performance Center 4.25 inch Round Butt Carry Model

Your choice $1,539 Suggested Retail

The new Bushnell Elite Tactical is a one-to-8.5, by 24 variable.  It’s built on a 34mm tube, and as a true one power, this is the best of both worlds in one optic. Both eyes open, and dialed down for close-in, fast work, then, dial up the magnification for long shots. This is a first focal plane scope with an illuminated reticule, so at higher power, the reticule is magnified to use the half mil elevation marks. At one power the reticule is smaller for fast target acquisition. The Bushnell Elite Tactical one-to-8.5 is designed for tactical work and competition shooting, in quality glass, matching anything in the market. Suggested Retail $2,150.

Bushnell Elite Tactical

Pro Tip  – USAMU SGT Daniel Horner - Blending In

The Army calls it “matching your background”. To the rest of us, it’s camouflage. But there’s more to hiding than just dressing in camo. That’s what champion shooter and hunter, Sergeant Daniel Horner has in mind, with a Pro Tip on blending in.

VIEW THE PRO TIP

Hunting Tip – Turkey Mouth Call

Everybody knows that a turkey has the best eye sight of any creature in the woods.  He’s going to pick up any little movement. If you try to move, he’s going to see you. So a lot of hunters will just sit there and they’ll freeze and they’ll hope he is going to walk around in front of the gun barrel. Chances are he smells a rat and he turns and he’s going to go.

So here’s something you can try. I use a mouth call. This is a mouth diaphragm call, goes in the roof of your mouth. You can make sounds on it without moving anything else. I’ll have this in my mouth when I’m hunting. If I see that turkey standing hard to my left, let’s say. I’m going to start clucking to him real fast, an excited hen cluck.

And that’s going to get his attention and he’s going to know something not quite right, but I’m going to slowly move gun barrel over and hopefully, if I can just confuse him for one or two seconds, he’s going to turn and start walking away, but he’s still going to be looking back at you.

If you can do this, instead of just having him duck and run, and you can do this by using this mouth call and making this slow movement. He’s still not quite sure you’re not a hen and that will give you time to get on him.

This is what it looks like sitting here looking down my gun barrel. See the turkey sitting on the left, here’s what I’m going to do. A lot of time clucking like that will be just long enough to make your move. Again he’ll see you, but if you slowly move that gun barrel instead of doing it fast, and if you cluck at him like that, he’ll hang around long enough for you to make that shot.

NRA Membership Offer:  Jim Pays $10 when you join the NRA through the Shooting USA website.

Colors for the Range

All choices have some internal structure to maintain the shape and are adjustable.  

Find them in the Shooting USA Online Store