Competitive Shooters Get State-of-the-Art Facility
By Glen Wunderlich
Preparing American athletes to win Olympic medals is no small challenge. USA Shooting, a 501c3 non-profit corporation, was chartered by the United States Olympic Committee as the National Governing Body for the sport of shooting in April 1995 and gets no governmental financial help, as do competing foreign shooters. And, plenty of practice is required. However, practice itself doesn’t make perfect; only perfect practice does.
Firearms and technique are most important but until now, our athletes had been at a bit of a disadvantage in the technological aspect of matching ammunition to specific firearms. Not anymore.
Lapua, maker of some of the most accurate ammunition in the world, has opened new Rimfire Service Center in Mesa, Arizona. Patterned after the world-renowned Lapua Service Center in Schönebeck, Germany, this facilitygives American shooters the same opportunity to test not only various types, but also different lots of rimfire ammunition, in their firearms, under tightly controlled conditions. This assures that the customer will be able to purchase not only the best type of ammunition for his or her particular rifle, but the specific lots of that ammo that performs best in their guns.
Until now, the ability of a shooter to do this vital testing was dependent on the small quantities of ammunition of various lots on hand – generally, without any guarantee that a vendor could provide more of whatever lot turned in the best results. In other words, when shooters find the best ammo for their rifle, they need cases of 5000 rounds or more – not just a box or two.
The new shooting facility not only defines the best ammunition, it makes it available to the shooter in the quantities they demand. Here is how the system works.
At the heart of the operation is the new 100 meter test tunnel. Fully instrumented with state of the art Meyton electronic targeting systems, our Mesa facility offers the unique ability to test ammunition at both 50 meters and 100 meters, simultaneously with a single string. As the bullets pass through an electronic screen at 50 meters, a group will appear on the first targeting screen. As the bullet continues its flight downrange, it will also be picked up on a second screen at the 100 meter line. This approach allows the shooter to see, instantly, which ammunition performs best at both the shorter and longer distances. This advanced electronic equipment measures accuracy to within .01mm! Shooting is performed with machine rests to ensure no human error. Targets are then printed, analyzed, and the best ammo production run (lot) can be purchased on site from a stock of approximately two million rounds.
Recently, America’s Shooting Team, USA Shooting, got much needed support from one of this nation’s premier firearms manufacturers, when Ruger presented a check worth $26,000 to USA Shooting at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting, April 12-15 in St. Louis, Mo. The money raised by Ruger was the result of an on-going auction featuring unique pistols and rifles.
So when you see our USA Shooting Team in action at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, you’ll have a better understanding of just how they reach those pedestals. If you’d like to learn more, check out www.usashooting.org.
