All Army Championship

Shooting USA – All Army Championship  

It’s the annual match with rack grade M-16s, M-4s and the M-9 Beretta. The challenging stages of fire are open to all units of the Army, the Guard, and Reserves. They shoot in combat gear for bragging rights to be the best of the Army. Plus, the armies of 150 years ago and the reenactment of the Battle of Franklin on the original ground in Tennessee. We cover the firearms of Blue and Gray and the men and women who now reenact climactic battles to honor and preserve our history.

All Army Small Arms Championship

Even in the 21st Century, there will always be a need for American soldiers with battlefield skills. It’s why competition within the Army serves a valuable purpose, and how the All Army Small Arms Championship at Fort Benning in Georgia, came to be.

“The match is a place to demonstrate marksmanship skills and to get marksmanship skills,” says LTC Bret Tecklenburg, Commander of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU). “As one stone sharpens another, the same deal here. When we’ve got folks that are going out, within the Army, competing against each other, trying to better themselves, it’s going to make marksmanship all the better.”

The competition hosted by the USAMU, is based on situations soldiers may encounter in combat. In some cases, soldiers must run more than a mile in a full combat gear, before taking the first shot.

“I believe that everybody that is here is going to take a lot of knowledge that they gain from these matches, and go back to their units to train their units, train the individuals and create that force multiplier, so we are a bigger, stronger and better trained Army,” says SSG Patrick Franks.

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U.S. Army Marksmanship Matches    

Fort Benning  

History’s Guns - M16 Rifle   

From Vietnam to modern day combat and competition, variations of the M16 have been in service for nearly 50 years, many of which are still used today. By 1969, the Aluminum and Plastic M16 replaced the heavier Steel and Walnut M14, derived from the M-1 Garand of World War Two.

It would be a difficult start in the rice paddies of Vietnam, to evolve into America’s Service Rifle and the favorite semi-auto rifle in the 21st Century.

At the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee nearly 10,000 Confederate and Union soldiers lost their lives. On the 150th anniversary of that battle, 1,000 reenactors honor the history at the Carnton Plantation, recalling the failed effort to break the Union lines, which would be the beginning of the end for the Army of the Confederacy.

Muskets, rifles, rifled muskets, muzzleloaders, breechloaders, and even repeaters; all went to battle in the Civil War. The most widely used weapon on both sides was the 1861 Springfield. Yet, historians believe the Confederates were armed with a better muzzleloader, the 1853 British Enfield. Examples of each, and the first cartridge-fed repeaters, are in action again with the reenactors portraying the history of the war.

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 Carnton Plantation

It’s Smith & Wesson’s smallest and lightest carry gun. The Bodyguard .380 is double-action only and hammer-fired. It carries six rounds in the magazine, plus one in the chamber.  The modern belly gun ships with two magazines, and is officially priced at $379, without the on-board laser.

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Gunz & Puzzlez

A 90-year-old anonymous collector in California is now sharing his extensive collection of belly guns and hideout guns from the 1800s in the form of a puzzle. It’s the first of a series from Gunz & Puzzles. The 1,000-piece puzzle will take a bit of work, but it’s also available as a “half-cut” if you just want to frame the assembled print.  And both versions come with a key, which names and dates and the firearms, so you can challenge your friends to name them. The puzzle costs about $25 on Amazon:

1,000 Piece Puzzle

Half-Cut Poster

Amageddon Gear’s PDA Holder

Armageddon Gear’s new smart phone armband holder secures smart phones or PDAs securely, right where you need them for ballistic calculations, or for exercising with your music. The heavy-duty nylon webbing and elastic cord easily grips the phone, plus it can be removed from the arm-band with the hook-and-loop backing. Retail price is about $35, and comes in a variety of tactical colors.

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Matching the right bullet to the twist rate of your rifle is the key to accuracy. But what twist do you have? There’s a simple test to discover that and guide your bullet selection. Sergeant Emil Praslick, the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit’s Rifle Coach, shows you how. 

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