This month’s cover story is on the first annual Southwestern Trap Championships that took place in September at the NRA Whittington Center in New Mexico. This is the first Amateur Trapshooting Association-NRA sponsored shoot in the past 40 years, making it a true milestone for the NRA Whittington Center. The new match is the culmination of years of NRA efforts, recognizing the immense popularity of the shotgun sports. Thus, NRA is partnering with major trapshooting groups like the ATA to help bring the excitement of clay shooting to more people. For example, in 2018 the Whittington Center expanded its shotgun program, increasing the total number of traps to 16. The following year, NRA signed a contract with the New Mexico State Trapshooting Association to host the state trap shoot until 2031. The NRA’s expansion of the Shotgun Center has brought many new competitors to the Whittington Center, which is looking to the future for many more events like the 2019 Southwestern Trap Championships.
With Ruger’s professional shooting team garnering trophies at major matches, the company continues to provide them with high-quality guns to help keep the wins coming in. One of the latest, the full-size SR1911 Competition Pistol .45 ACP that was designed with the assistance of Doug Koenig, should live up to this winning pedigree. Read Chris Christian’s review of the new SR1911 Competition Pistol in this month’s Product Focus.
Conducted in September at the NRA Whittington Center, the 2019 NRA F-Class National Championships were fired for the seventh time. The match saw competitors facing tough winds for both the Mid-Range and Long-Range portions. Author Larry Bartholome says in his article “the wind conditions were some of the most difficult I’ve seen after four decades competing at the NRA Whittington Center.” Read how the F-Class shooters fared this year in New Mexico at this link.
SIG Sauer has had some big optics releases the last few seasons, and 2019 was no different with the Romeo1 Pro and Romeo3 Max red dots earlier this year. Both are great choices for action shooters, which led to this feature by Chris Christian on how SIG’s newest electro-optics are gamechangers for competitive shooters. You can read his story with reviews of the Romeo1 Pro and Romeo3 Max red dots here.
Finally, I would like to extend thanks to all of our contributors for helping to make Shooting Sports USA the world’s greatest competitive shooting publication. The stories that you read both here on the website and in the monthly digital magazine are lovingly crafted by some of the most passionate writers in the industry, like Field Editors Art Merrill and Chris Christian. Without their valuable contributions, as well as those from all of our writers, this entire endeavour wouldn’t amount to very much. If you see them on the range, be sure to say hello.
I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season, with lots of quality time spent with friends and familiy. See you on the range in January 2020.
—John Parker
Managing Editor, Shooting Sports USA
Reporters Welcome
In our efforts to recruit more reporters, we frequently hear the comment: “But I’m not a writer.” What people overlook is that they are on the scene, hearing and seeing the action first-hand. Editing and completing the article is our job, so if you’d like to try your hand at sharing draft reports and photographs from national-level matches or interviews with key people in the shooting sports, please email us at [email protected].
