The famous firearm academy is perhaps best known as a training ground for pistol shooters. But beginners and experts can learn Jeff Cooper’s “Art of the Rifle.”
By J. Scott Olmsted, Editor in Chief
The land Gunsite Academy now sits on was 160 acres of desert when Jeff Cooper and his wife, Janelle, first saw it in 1974. Cooper was a retired Marine and an NRA Board member. But he was perhaps best known as the guru of the .45 ACP, no doubt because of his many writings on the subject for Guns & Ammo magazine for many years. He thought the land would do nicely as a pistol school, and he founded the American Pistol Institute there, in Paulden, Ariz., in 1976.
In 1992, a new owner renamed it Gunsite Training School. It 1999, it became Gunsite Academy, and today the complex encompasses 2,200 acres of pistol, rifle and shotgun ranges. Every year, civilians, and law enforcement and military personnel flock there for specialized training. Read the article….
