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Armed Women of America was well represented at the recent Gunsite Academy’s 50th anniversary celebration and Alumni Shoot (GAS) as members participated in the match and volunteered for the event.
High Lady honors went to Samantha McAuley, AWA Littleton, CO Chapter Leader, followed closely by Gunsite AWA member Amber Mooney in second place.
Nine of the top 10 in the Ladies category were AWA members from across the country, including 2025 High Lady, Emily LaFave, Loudon County, VA. 2024 and 2024 High Lady, Julie Godfrey, Littleton, CO.
Of the approximately 340 shooters completing the match, 63 were female, or about 20 percent. Of the 63 women completing the match, nearly half were AWA members from chapters in Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Virginia.
Additionally, several AWA members from the Gunsite chapter served as volunteers working everything from registration, set-up, assisting down range on stages and side matches, and wherever needed.
Gunsite Chapter Leaders Sandi Nissel and Brandi Bilodeau coordinated an AWA booth that included a prize drawing.
The event was far more than a match, it was a celebration of the first 50 years of the oldest privately owned, civilian-focused firearms training facility in the United States, if not the world. It was also a reunion of those who have attended courses over the years and their families, including second and third generations. Ranges closed for lunch, provided as part of the event, and later when the ranges closed for the day, there was an opportunity to visit various vendor booths and displays and socialize. The day concluded with a barbecue dinner, formal flag ceremonies, a silent and live auction and the awarding of match winners, who one by one visited the prize table filled with amazing products donated by event sponsors.
One of the highlights of the day was the ribbon cutting for the restored Raven gate which now proudly stands at the entrance to the ranges. The gate originally graced the entrance to Gunsite but was taken out by a truck delivering supplies just days prior to last year’s GAS event. A new and larger Raven gate was erected at the entrance welcoming visitors to the campus, but the old gate was not forgotten and has a new place of honor.
The academy was founded in 1976 by Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper, the Marine officer widely regarded as the father of the Modern Technique of the Pistol. Since Marine veteran Buz Mills and his wife, Sonja Mills, purchased the school in 1999, Gunsite has grown in both the number of students trained each year and the ground it occupies. What began on a little more than 160 acres now covers more than 3,000 acres, with a succession of new ranges, including indoor and outdoor simulators, built over the 26 years of Mills ownership.
Cooper once said, “Gunsite’s mission is to provide good people with the skills by which they may conduct themselves as responsible citizens of a free Republic.”
Proceeds from the event go to support the Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation, whose purpose is to promote and perpetuate the teachings and philosophy of Jeff Cooper, with special emphasis on the proper techniques for the use of small arms, the importance of self-reliance and the individual right and duty of self-defense.
The Foundation awards scholarships for training and education in the Cooper tradition. In addition, it preserves, archives and maintains Colonel Cooper’s writings and personal collections so that they may provide study and learning opportunities and inspiration for generations to come.
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Please click through gallery for more event photos. Special thanks to AWA Members, Julie Godfrey, Emily LaFave, Connie Peterson and Jan Ennenga for sharing their event photos for our use.
