Rob Leatham was honored with Shooting Sports USA’s inaugural NRA Golden Bullseye Competitor Award at the 2025 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Atlanta, Georgia. The longtime Springfield Armory pro shooter was presented the new award by Editor in Chief John Parker during an invitation-only ceremony with other NRA Golden Bullseye recipients at the Georgia World Congress Center on Friday, April 25.
“I am truly honored to have been selected as the first recipient of this new award from NRA’s Shooting Sports USA,” Leatham said. “I have loved shooting all my life, and I’m humbled and thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to do this for a living with Springfield Armory. Thank you to Dennis Reese and the Springfield Armory team for making my dreams come true.”
Now in its 23rd year, the NRA Golden Bullseye Awards are determined by a committee of NRA Media staff, representing more than a century of collective experience in the shooting and hunting industry. In particular, the NRA Golden Bullseye Competitor Award recognizes a competitive shooter who not only displays outstanding performance in competition but also gives back by offering guidance and support to the next generation of competitive shooters.
“This award honors the highest level of achievement in competitive shooting—and there is no one more deserving to receive it first than Rob Leatham,” John Parker, Editor-in-Chief of Shooting Sports USA said. “For more than 40 years, Rob has set the bar—not just with his championship titles, but with his relentless pursuit of excellence, his sportsmanship and his influence on generations of competition shooters. He’s a competitor, a pioneer and a true ambassador of the shooting sports.”
With more than four decades in the sport, Leatham has earned more than 100 major championship titles at different competitions like the Bianchi Cup and World Speed Shooting Championship, as well as in USPSA, IPSC and many more.
He made history in 1985 after becoming the only competitor to win practical pistol shooting’s Triple Crown—the Bianchi Cup Action Pistol Championship, the IPSC U.S. Nationals and the Steel Challenge Nationals—in the same year. Leatham also made the President’s 100 in Bullseye Pistol competition, which the longtime action shooter considers to be one of his finest achievements.
In addition, Leatham has provided Springfield Armory with plenty of expert advice over his decades of working with the company, currently as Research and Development Senior Technical Advisor.
“We couldn’t be prouder of Rob for receiving this well-deserved Golden Bullseye award,” Dennis Reese, owner and CEO of Springfield Armory said. “Rob has always striven to be the absolute best at everything he does, and we’re thrilled that Springfield Armory has been able to support his efforts over all these years.”
Below is an excerpt from a March 2025 interview with Leatham, where he shares his thoughts about the National Rifle Association of America.
“I realized as I’ve gotten older that freedom matters more to me, maybe I’ve become more responsible. I don’t know what the right word to explain it is, because I recognize that the freedoms that I have always taken for granted and currently benefiting from were fought for by the NRA. It’s always been the lobbying body that represented us. I’ve been an NRA Life Member since the early 1980s. My appreciation of what the NRA has done and continues to do—to popularize shooting and the firearms community throughout the country—is immense.”
Be sure to check out the 2025 NRA Golden Bullseye Award winners from American Rifleman, American Hunter, Shooting Illustrated and NRAWomen.com.
Learn more about Rob Leatham and Springfield Armory.
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