Awards

Faxon Firearms has won the Shooting Sports Retailer Choice Gold Award for Aftermarket Barrel for the fourth consecutive year, as voted by the magazine's readers of independent dealers and industry professionals. The Greater Cincinnati-based manufacturer's award reflects reader recognition of its in-house-manufactured rifle barrels and commitment to American manufacturing.

Henry Repeating Arms Founder & CEO Anthony Imperato honored four Texans for extraordinary courage at the National Friends of NRA Event in Houston, including three Austin Police Department officers recognized for stopping a mass shooting perpetrator and Juan Lopez, a Carnegie Medal recipient for life-saving actions during a school shooting in Pasadena.

Anthony Imperato, Founder and CEO of Henry Repeating Arms, received the NRA Golden Bullseye Pioneer Award at the 2026 National Rifle Association Annual Meetings in Houston, Texas. The award recognizes his four-decade career revitalizing American firearms manufacturing and the lever-action rifle platform while championing domestic craftsmanship and corporate citizenship through Henry's Guns For Great Causes program.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) named U.S. Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) as its 2025 Legislator of the Year for his advocacy supporting firearm industry commerce, Second Amendment rights, and hunting. Cline championed the Hearing Protection Act, secured NFA tax elimination in the One Big Beautiful Bill, and sponsored legislation protecting industry access during government shutdowns.

The Beretta 1301 Tactical C has been named 2025 Ballistic's Best Defensive Shotgun by Athlon Outdoors' Ballistic's Best awards. The shotgun earned the highest overall score among defensive platforms tested, recognized for exceptional performance, reliability, and real-world defensive capability.

Ballistic announced the eighth annual Editors' Choice Awards recognizing standout firearms, optics, and accessories of 2025. Over 100 products were tested, with winners including Springfield Armory Kuna for Best Gun of the Year, Marlin 1894 Trapper 10mm for Best New Lever Rifle, and EOTech Vudu 1-10x28 SR5DF for Best New LPVO Scope.

The Spohr L562 has been crowned the Ballistic’s Best 2025 winner for the .357 Magnum Revolver category, edging out an elite field that included offerings from Colt, Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Taurus, and Manurhin.

Ballistic’s Best 2025, in the Rimfire Suppressor category, declared that the Dead Air RXD 22 Ti earned the Ballistic’s Best 2025 Rimfire Suppressor title. Developed through a collaboration between Dead Air Silencers and Ruger Firearms, the RXD 22 Ti is far more than a simple co-branded product.

Shoot ON has selected the Meprolight® M22 Pro in its annual Excellence Awards Roundup. The new Meprolight M22 and M22 Pro models build on that proven heritage but in a more compact and updated form optimally suited for civilian defense and LE applications.

One of the newest riflescope families in the Burris lineup — the XTR PS — has so effectively delivered on that mission that the editors of Guns & Ammo magazine recognized both magnification options in the line, naming the entire family its Optic of the Year. This marks the second consecutive year that Burris Optics has been recognized by Guns & Ammo

Athlon Outdoors unveil sthe winner of the 2025 Ballistic’s Best Full-Size Handgun category, the Sig Sauer P226-X Legion SAO. A refinement of the iconic P226 platform that rose above a fiercely competitive field of nine elite pistols.

Ballistic’s Best 2025 has named the Wilson Combat AR-9 (with Glock pattern receiver) as the top-ranked pistol caliber carbine of the year, earning highest honors in this year’s robust Pistol Caliber Carbines category. 

Shoot ON wraps the publication’s product testing season with the annual Shoot ON Excellence Awards. This year, twelve products hit the mark and earned the 2025 Excellence Awards selection.

After comprehensive hands-on testing, Athlon Outdoors has named the Beretta 1301 Tactical C as the Ballistic’s Best 2025 Defensive Shotgun, earning top honors in one of the most competitive and demanding categories of the year.

Athlon Outdoors announces the Kelbly’s Element Precision rifle as the 2025 Ballistic’s Best Target Bolt Action Winner in the fiercely competitive Target Bolt-Action category. Kelbly’s edged out the field by the slimmest of margins.

NSSF® has awarded Main Line Armory with its coveted Five-Star rating for range excellence. Five stars is the highest rating in NSSF’s star-rating system, which evaluates shooting facilities based on appearance, management, shooting sports development and amenities.

The Hornady® family was honored at the Greater Grand Island Community Foundations Gift of Legacy celebration. The Hornady family was presented with the Legacy Award, in recognition of their enduring generosity, community leadership, and deep-rooted commitment to the Greater Grand Island area.

Henry Repeating Arms, one of the country’s leading firearms manufacturers, is proud to announce that the Henry Small Game Rifle has been selected as the Editor’s Choice for Best Rimfire Rifle by Petersen’s Hunting.

Guns & Ammo magazine awarded Federal’s 7mm Backcountry cartridge as Ammo of the Year for 2025. The announcement was published in the December 2025 issue.

The Lever Action Supreme Rifle (LASR) from Henry Repeating Arms was just named 2025 Rifle of the Year by Guns & Ammo magazine, one of the firearm industry’s most respected and widely distributed publications.