30,711,000

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) that’s the number of Modern Sporting Rifles, or MSRs, in circulation since 1990. The AR-style rifle is wildly popular, obviously, with even the major manufacturers making their own version.

This wasn’t the case 20 years ago. Jump back in time two decades and the U.S. makers of Modern Sporting Rifles were a smaller subsection of the industry, existing quietly at arm’s length from the marquee brands.

To understand how far at arm’s length you only had to walk the aisles at SHOT Show where the only place you could find an AR15 variant rifle would be behind closed doors. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

Today, they are everywhere and NSSF’s production numbers for 2022, the latest year we have numbers, show why.

The total number of MSRs produced and imported, minus exports, was 2,564,000 units. That’s 16.0% of the total 16,045,911 firearms domestically produced plus those imported, minus exported firearms in 2022. More importantly, it’s 61.1% of the total number of rifles domestically produced plus those imported, minus exported firearms in 2022.

In other words, the Modern Sporting Rifle is a sales juggernaut thanks to the consumer’s veracious appetite for owning one (or more).

With such a large number in the hands of so many law abiding citizens, there’s an opportunity, but more importantly a need, for a competitive structure to encourage more of those MSR owners to get out and shooter their rifles.

And that’s exactly what will be happening this weekend as the National Rifle Association beta tests their America’s Rifle Challenge competition format at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana on Saturday.

The NRA’s new shooting discipline has great potential to not only return the NRA to a competitive rifle shooting mecca but also reshape how non-gun owners view America’s most popular rifle.

The America’s Rifle Challenge – or ARC – is not new but with the past ‘troubles’ at NRA HQ, the NRA’s Competition Division was gutted along with its budget, leaving ARC to languish in its own unrealized potential.

Now that money and staff are finding their way back into the budget for competitions, and 19 members of the reform-minded NRA2.0 slate for the NRA Board of Directors have been newly elected, it’s time for ARC to get going.

The format for ARC is rather simple, which makes it ideal to roll out across the country at NRA affiliated ranges. The Level 1 match is conducted from 100 yards and in and is meant for those new to competitive shooting. It is a standardized skills test that tests shooters accuracy, speed, and mechanics.

The Level 2 Match is more dynamic for experienced competitive shooters. It’s conducted from 500 yards and in and is a faster-paced format shot in both shooting bays and across natural terrain.

This weekend’s beta test match will be limited to less than 100 competitors across both levels, with scoring done using Practiscore.

If you’re a competitive shooter I know what you’re thinking. There’s already three-gun, two-gun, multi-gun matches, many of which are well established. And that’s true. But what’s also true is that the barrier to entry to these MSR disciplines is steep. The equipment costs alone are high, as is the skill set required.

This explains why these disciplines don’t have larger membership numbers. Sure, if you ask a competitor how many shoot this or that discipline you’ll be assured it’s ‘a lot.’ However, ‘a lot’ isn’t a number. It’s more wishful thinking…and totally irrelevant when you’re talking about an MSR discipline for the NRA.

Shooting sports organizations start small and work to grow their membership numbers, breathlessly proclaiming they are the fastest growing shooting sport whenever they can. But that’s a rate of growth goal, like having 1,000 members one year and reaching 2,000 the next. Sure, the sport doubled in size but it’s still only 2,000 total participants.

The National Rifle Association is an organization with a membership of somewhere approaching 4 million…much higher before the ‘troubles.’ So, when the NRA looks at launching a new competitive discipline it views it from the position of already having millions of members with the challenge being how to get a significant number of those members participating.

America’s Rifle Challenge can become the discipline the NRA needs to reenergize its natural base of competitive shooters. ARC, for a Level 1 match, only requires a rifle, a sling, five magazines and mag pouches, and of course eye and hearing protection.

That’s an easy first step into competition for the owner of an MSR. And even better, the Level 1 match only requires five 20-round boxes of ammo.

To help those interested but brand new to competition – and brand new to the MSR – the NRA Competition Division staff is finalizing a training course that NRA affiliated clubs can run to help those new shooters feel comfortable handling their rifle and entering their first ARC competition. The crawl, walk, run approach.

This weekend’s beta test match will help the NRA staff make adjustments, tweak the rulebook and match process so that as many of the NRA’s clubs, or any club, could easily and efficiently run an ARC Level 1 match.

The game plan is to have everything buttoned up and ready to roll out across the country the first week of August.

Imagine the impact of a revitalized NRA, and restaffed Competition Division firing on-all-8-cylinders, would have on competitive shooting in America. Especially with 30K, 50K or hopefully 100K people shooting America’s Rifle Challenge not yearly but monthly…even weekly.

With that kind of momentum we’ll be talking about how the Modern Sporting Rifle is now America’s Rifle.

I, for one, am looking forward to the day I can go shoot America’s Rifle Challenge over at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility and see how my score compares to those I shot the match with, those that shot it elsewhere in Arizona, and how I might stack up nationally.

— Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network