On the cover are USA Shooting athletes Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince, who topped the men’s skeet leaderboard at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Both athletes earned spots on the men’s skeet podium, with Hancock winning the gold medal and Prince securing silver. Team USA’s men’s skeet performances represent only two of the five total shooting event medals earned by Americans in France this summer, with additional medal-winning performances including Sagen Maddalena claiming silver in the women’s 50m smallbore rifle event and Austen Smith with a women’s skeet bronze medal, plus the duo of Smith and Hancock finishing second in the new mixed team skeet event to earn silver. Learn more about the USA Shooting athletes that competed at the Paris 2024 Olympics by reading my match report.
In Product Focus, you won’t want to miss my review of the TriStar Arms Cypher SP 12-gauge, a feature-rich over-under shotgun that sports three-inch chambers and steel monobloc barrel construction. Imported from Turkey by TriStar, Sporting Clays shooters will appreciate the Cypher SP’s 30-inch ported barrels with target rib, adjustable comb, fiber-optic front sight and automatic ejectors, which round out this formidable 12-gauge scattergun.
In addition, be sure to check out our inside look at the Armasight Contractor 640 in Product Focus this month. This thermal optic is jam-packed with features in a small form factor.
This year, the NRA National Matches celebrated its fourth year at Camp Atterbury, an Indiana National Guard base located about 37 miles south of Indianapolis. The first installment of our match report from the 2024 NRA National Matches includes three features, covering the opening ceremony with Indiana Congressmen Greg Pence as keynote speaker, the Precision Pistol Nationals and the Smallbore Rifle Prone Nationals. Additionally, be on the lookout for the second installment of our 2024 NRA National Matches coverage with the High Power Rifle Nationals and the Smallbore Lones Wigger Iron Man Trophy aggregate in next month’s issue.
Field Editor Chris Christian argues that revolvers still have a place in competitive shooting, offering a unique challenge to shooters. In his article this month, he shares his tips for revolver division competitors in USPSA, IDPA, ICORE, Action Pistol and Steel Challenge, along with personal anecdotes from his many years as a revolver shooter.
Billed as the world’s smallest five-shot .45 ACP, the Semmerling LM-4 pistol, as described by Field Editor Art Merrill, is “the most counterintuitive pistol of the 20th century.” Despite its flaws, the LM-4 is a popular choice for collectors. In his article “Semmerling’s Backwards Cold War Pistol,” Merrill provides a detailed history of this diminutive handgun that was designed with several interesting engineering choices.
John Parker
Editor-in-Chief, Shooting Sports USA
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