Ballistic's Best 2026 Hunting Edition Editors' Choice Awards, featured on Athlon Untamed, recognize outstanding hunting products across eight categories including All-Purpose Shotgun, New Spotting Scope, and Backcountry Precision Rifle. The selections highlight innovation and practical performance from Bleecker Street Publications' expert editorial team.
Sturm, Ruger & Company's Ruger Red Label III shotgun has been awarded Best New Shotgun at the 2026 NASGW-POMA Caliber Awards. Built by Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company, the over/under shotgun features classic styling and premium materials, offered in 20 gauge with 28" or 30" barrels.
Federal Ammunition's 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak cartridge won the Caliber Award in the Best Ammunition New Product category from NASGW and POMA at the 2026 NASGW Expo. The high-pressure cartridge uses Peak Alloy cases and delivers 300 fps faster velocities while maintaining similar recoil in existing 6.5 Creedmoor rifles.
PROOF Research's Elevation MTR FDX rifle earned Outdoor Life's Editor's Choice award for Best Hunting Rifle of 2026. Shooting Editor John B. Snow praised the rifle's build quality and performance, highlighting the innovative PXT barrel technology that achieved a 0.58-inch 20-shot group average during testing.
The National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW) presented Jeff Crane of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation with the 2026 Chairman's Award for his significant impact on the shooting sports industry. Crane brings over 40 years of experience in natural resource management and has fostered bipartisan relationships among policymakers and the sportsmen's community.
The National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW) presented its 2026 Appreciation Awards recognizing top manufacturers including Smith & Wesson, Holosun Technologies, and Hornady. NASGW partnered with the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) to present Caliber Awards for product innovation, with Canik USA's Prime Radian winning Best New Overall Product.
Dead Air Silencers' Nomad Ti OTB suppressor won the 2026 NASGW-POMA Caliber Award for Best New Suppressor at the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers Expo in Phoenix. The over-the-barrel design, manufactured from 3D-printed Grade 9 titanium, weighs 10.5 ounces and is rated for cartridges up to .300 RUM.
Otis Technology received the 2026 Northern New York–Fort Drum Chapter of the Association of the United States Army Community Partner of the Year award. CEO Brad McIntyre accepted the honor, recognizing the company's commitment to supporting soldiers, military families, and the Fort Drum community through partnerships and charitable initiatives.
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.