Prestigious Awards Honor the Industry's Best

Shooting Industry, July, 2001

"This is truly one great industry!" Shari LeGate of the Women's Shooting Sports Foundation said upon acceptance of the prestigious Shooting industry Award on May 18. It was one of 12 presented by the Shooting Industry Academy of Excellence during a special reception in Kansas City, Mo. Academy Director Randy Molde and Shooting Industry's editor Russ Thurman presented the awards.

Since 1992, the academy has honored manufacturers, distributors and individuals for excellent products, exceptional service, and distinguished accomplishments. This year's award recipients were selected from 37 finalists who advanced after passing the first-round balloting of 174 "potential nominees."

The academy honored LeGate for creating the "A Day At the Range" firearms clinic, which has introduced over 7,500 women to shooting during its 2-year history.

"I'm so excited. I really didn't think I had a chance," LeGate said.

Tommy Millner of Remington and Bob Morrison of Taurus were also nominated for the only award that the academy presents to an individual.

"I want to thank the academy and everyone who voted for me," LeGate said. "The Women's Shooting Sports Foundation became what it became because of all those people who supported it so I could do what I did. I'm the one who was out there and I got to see all the women who were so excited to be introduced to the sport."

LeGate also had a message for industry leaders in attendance.

"When the day to day battles get a little heavy and you want to remember why you do what you do -- go out to a range and take a woman or a guy and introduce them to the shooting sports. You'll realize that this is truly one great industry," LeGate said.

Manufacturer of the Year honors went to Marlin Firearms for its continued enhancement of its already extensive line of lever-action rifles, and its innovative development of the Model 1875M chambered for the .450 Marlin cartridge. Marlin also recently created "Marlin-Talk," an Internet online community forum, and acquired H&R 1871.

"When we get back to Connecticut with one of these, as we have several times before, the people in the plant get really pumped with pride," Marlin's Vice President Tony Aeschliman said.

Marlin Firearms' Model 1895 Cowboy lever-action in .45/70 received the Rifle of the Year award.

"On behalf of the Marlin Firearms Co., the Kenna family and our president Bob Behn, it is an honor to accept this prestigious award," Marlin's Cindy Blazek said. "Both professionally and personally I am honored to be employed by the Marlin Firearms Co., and to be affiliated with everyone in this industry."

AcuSport Corp. was named Distributor of the Year for serving both the industry and communities at-large. A benchmark for commitment to dealers via business consultation, and impressively operating in six different locations, AcuSport still manages to strongly support local communities. It also hosts a much-celebrated County Fair.

"On behalf of all our employees at our six locations who work very hard and have made it possible to take this award home for five years now, we would like to thank the Academy and the entire industry for their continued confidence in us," Hewitt Grant of AcuSport said.

Sturm, Ruger & Co. received the Handgun of the Year award for its Super Redhawk .480 Ruger.

"The 2,000 employees at Ruger appreciate this," Steve Perniciaro of Ruger said.

U.S. Repeating Arms (USRAC) was honored with the Shotgun of the Year award for its Winchester Model 9410 lever-action .410.

"There are a lot of people who have been working on this and are going to be really happy when we get back, both at our factory and at our R&D. It's not often that a product that has a one word marketing plan can win something, and that word is 'Fun,"' Roger Stitt of U.S. Repeating Arms said.

Winchester Ammunition received the Ammunition of the Year award for its .300 Winchester Short Magnum (WSM).

"We work very hard to introduce new products, which we think are the life blood of the industry. I'd like to also thank the USRAC and Browning people for the co-development of the very new exciting WSM cartridge," Winchester's Dick Hammett said. "This is our fourth year in a row (to receive this award) and seventh out of 10. We're going to get back to work and hope to see you next year."

Leupold & Stevens received the Optic of the Year award for its LPS 3.- 514x50mm Side Focus riflescope.

"This is a very precious award back at Leupold and we have a lot of people waiting to find out whether or not we won." Ray Oeltjen, vice president of Leupold, said. "We put a lot of work into this entirely new optical system. We're so proud of it and we're so happy that you're willing to vote for us. This is a great, great award because of the non-political aspect of it. There are 500-plus employees back at Leupold who are going to be very happy."

Michaels of Oregon received the Accessory of the Year award for its Sidekick Professional Kydex concealment holster.

"On behalf of a tremendous group of people at Uncle Mike's, we appreciate this from the Academy," Steve Rowe of Michaels of Oregon said.