NEWS

Note to Readers

Our editorial HQ is moving to a new location this weekend. Consequently, we may have the normal "slight disruptions" in communications that always seem to follow a relocation. Effective immediately, all correspondence should be sent to our new address: The Outdoor Wires, 2416 High Bluff Road, Vestavia Hills, Alabama 35216. Telephone and internet addresses will remain the same.

GrovTec Introduces Multi-Adaptor for Push Button Swivel Bases

GrovTec U.S. Inc., the leading manufacture of American made firearm slings, sling swivels and accessories, has introduced a new GT™ Multi-Adaptor to provide greater functionality to those firearms with factory installed push button swivel bases. The GT Multi-Adaptor is a standard swivel stud affixed to a heavy-duty push button base.

National Junior Air Gun Championships come to Camp Perry

The 2009 NRA National Junior Air Gun Championships will take place at Camp Perry, Ohio, starting on Wednesday, July 1, 2009. The three-day event will begin with practice and equipment checks followed by three relays of competition on Thursday, July 2, and Friday, July 3.

Team Smith & Wesson Finishes High at 2009 Bianchi Cup

Team Smith & Wesson members achieved multiple top five finishes during the National Rifle Association (NRA) National Action Pistol Championship held May 18-23 at the Green Valley Rifle and Pistol Club in Columbia, Missouri. During the 30th Anniversary of the NRA Bianchi Cup, Professional Shooter Julie Goloski Golob was named overall winner of the Women¡¯s Division while fellow teammate Doug Koenig finished an impressive 2nd place overall. Team Smith & Wesson members Carl Bernosky and Jerry Miculek secured additional top five finishes in the Open and Metallic Sight Division during the prestigious match.

Mossberg Suports YSSA's New Donated Firearms Program

O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc. has donated a collection of sparingly used shotguns to the Youth Shooting Sports Alliance as part of their new Donated Firearms Program. The donation includes seven Mossberg Model 500C 20 ga. shotguns and twelve Mossberg Model 835 12 ga. shotguns to the program. Several of these donated firearms are Mossberg combo models which feature a combination of shotgun barrel and rifled barrel for different hunting applications.

DoubleStar Introduces DS-420 Handguard

DoubleStar of Winchester, Kentucky introduces their DS-420 handguard, a 12-inch, 4-rail picatinny system handguard that is manufactured of aircraft aluminum, and is oval shaped to fit both large and small-handed shooters. Designed at the request of law enforcement, the DS-420 allows the 4-rail system to be installed on AR rifles with 20 inch barrels.

Team Glock Wins Production Division Of Bianchi Cup

Dave Sevigny of Team GLOCK added another title to his career with a win in the new Production division at the thirtieth Anniversary NRA Bianchi Cup Action Pistol National Championship. Sevigny has won National championships in IDPA, NRA Action Pistol, Steel Challenge and USPSA with the GLOCK 34.

Summer Evening Shooting Leagues offered at Ben Avery

If the recent NRA convention in Phoenix got your American spirits pumping, or you just recently bought a new firearm to replace that old hand-me-down, then now is the time to join one of the summer recreational shooting leagues at the renowned Ben Avery Shooting Facility. Beginning in June and running for eight weeks, these three leagues are designed to introduce recreational shooters to organized shooting that will expand and improve your marksmanship skills.

Champion Eyes and Ears Offers Ladies Gear

Champion™ Eyes & Ears caters to the female shooter with their new line of ladies gear. Available in the spring of 2009, Champion's new pink shell pouches (MSRP: $21.49), shooting glasses (MSRP: $13.49) and electronic muffs (MSRP: $36.95) are ergonomically engineered for hours of shooting action and comfort.

FNH Introduces "Eyes & Ears" Promotion

FNH USA has designed another consumer promotion to help boost sales at the dealer level. Buy any new FNP-9 or FNP-40 autoloading pistol between May 15, 2009 and September 30, 2009, and you'll get a pair of comfortable, lightweight Radians® Revelation shooting glasses and a pair of SureFire® EarPro® EP3 Sonic Defenders® ear plugs free with your purchase.

GLOCK Donates Sixty Pistols to Scholastic Steel

The Scholastic Steel Challenge (SSC) announced that firearms maker GLOCK Inc. has donated 60 pistols, valued at nearly $42,000, to the new youth shooting program. Two of GLOCK's most popular models, the model 17 and 19, will include four magazines each and will be used in support packages to help new SSC shooting teams get started in the program.

XS Sight System's CSAT Sight Offers Near/Far Aim

The XS CSAT Combat Sight from XS Sight Systems eliminates the guesswork shooters face when trying to accurately engage targets in close quarters with the aperture sight commonly used on AR style rifles.

FEATURE

Some things headed in the right direction

The nomination of Judge Sotomayor to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court has kicked off a lot of discussion among both conservatives and pro-firearms groups (yes, they're not always synonymous), but the nomination hasn't done much to galvanize the lobbying wings of any pro-gun organizations.

Fresh off the win for concealed carry in federal parks, it seems the pro-gun groups are content to take the short-term victory, and let what looks like a losing battle pass without any pushback whatsoever on Judge Sotomayor. This is despite the fact that she has consistently been anti-gun in her decisions. Even in a decidedly thin body of work, her position on firearms has been clear - she's again' em for "average folks".

Actually, she's not being challenged much at all by anyone, and that's testimony to the pragmatic way the Obama administration is pushing their agenda down everyone's throats. She's anti-Second Amendment? Sure, but she's from a minority background and a woman, if we oppose her on her judicial record (woeful as it is), we'll appear mean.

We'll appear mean? We are watching our society rapidly being dismantled and absorbed by a government that has bankrupted our future, and we're worried about seeming mean? In a group of like-minded individuals who normally consider themselves sheepdogs, the pro-gun organizations are making sounds that seem more like bleats than howls.

If we're going down a path to certain destruction, it would seem reasonable - at least to me - that we go kicking and screaming, not whining and compliant. But that's probably because I'm mean-spirited, right?

Meanwhile, in shooting sports news, yesterday marked the unofficial start of the Scholastic Steel Challenge (SSC). Sixty young shooters took part in a demonstration shoot at the Montgomery County Shooting Complex in Tennessee during the state's Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) state championship.

Scott Moore, the driving force behind SCTP's spectacular success, is spearheading the SSC effort for the Steel Challenge Shooting Association. Seems this weekend he will be introducing the new youth shooting program to as many of the expected 1,300 competitors as possible.

1,300 young shooters are expected at the Tennessee SCTP state championship. Scholastic Steel Challenge is hoping to introduce-and involve- them in the concept of speed shooting on steel, too.

If the reaction yesterday from shooters and parents who tried the Speed Shooting format is any indication, SSC will be a big hit.

One young man even called his mother over to the SSC range just to make sure she saw one of the new handguns. It was, he explained "the next gun you're going to buy me."

That's exactly the kind of reaction SSC supporters Glock and Smith & Wesson are hoping to hear. Both companies have backed up their generous pistol donations by sending support staff to Tennessee to help get SSC rolling.

Anyway, it looks like a very big weekend for SSC - and it's a good thing. I'm a firm believer in getting youths involved in competition shooting for handguns as well as shotguns. I contend that SSC competition will interest kids even faster than the SCTP program. It was a runaway hit.

We'll keep you posted.

Get out there and introduce someone to shooting this weekend.

--Jim Shepherd