Do you know who your state champion is? You can find out by reading April’s cover feature highlighting the 2021 NRA State Champions (page 20), including the winners of NRA-sanctioned BB Gun, Air Rifle, Precision Pistol, Action Pistol, Smallbore Rifle, High Power Rifle, F-Class, Blackpowder and Silhouette Rifle and Pistol championships held around the country. As the 2022 shooting season gets into high gear, it’s great to look back at the memories created last year and recognize the achievements of our friends on the firing line. In addition, you can always catch local match coverage in Shooting Sports USA’s Score Sheets section (page 18) throughout the year.
In this month’s Product Focus (page 12), author Frank Melloni reviews the Canik SFx Rival 9 mm pistol, an affordable option for action shooters competing in Production and Carry Optics divisions. Priced under $700, the SFX Rival package includes the pistol, plus a custom Kydex holster, two 18-round magazines and five different optics mounting plates.
While jumping from one action shooting division to another can be straightforward, things can become complicated quickly when trying to do so under another organization’s ruleset. Field Editor Chris Christian’s guide on crossing division lines in action shooting (page 26) will help you make the shift to a new semi-automatic pistol or revolver division without having to purchase a new gun.
In the early 20th century, John Browning introduced to the world the .380 ACP—a versatile cartridge that remains in use today, especially in sub-compact pistols for concealed carry. In his article this month, author Brad Miller provides a short history of the .380 ACP cartridge, as well as performance comparisons of different loads in a variety of pistol configurations (page 32).
Additionally, this month Field Editor Chris Christian examines the so-called “obsolete” .38 Short Colt and .38 Long Colt cartridge choices for action revolver shooters. Basically, a shorter .38 Spl. cartridge, Christian says, “They’re identical to the .38 Spl. in all respects except for their case length.” Learn how that case length difference has propelled the popularity of .38 Short Colt and .38 Long Colt with modern revolver competitive shooters (page 38).
John Parker
Editor in Chief, Shooting Sports USA
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