Competing for the Army Marksmanship Unit in the Precision Rifle Series, soldier has six wins since 2019. PHOTOS BY BEN GOSSETT
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t the beginning of 2014, when he was finishing up his last year in the Marine Corps, Ben Gossett’s ambition and desire for competition steered him toward the world of precision rifle shooting. So he got his first dedicated long-range setup, an FN A5M chambered in .308, and spent a year using it at local matches. “The first match I shot I think I finished almost dead-last and my com-
petitive nature couldn’t handle that, so I really put everything into PRS-style matches from that point on,” says Gossett. “I shot my first national-level PRS match in March 2015 and finished 11th and was absolutely hooked to the series and fell in love with the community.” Gossett later joined the US Army and in January 2017 was assigned to the Army Marksmanship Unit. Formed in the 1950s to establish the US as an inter-
national shooting power, AMU provides small arms marksmanship training for soldiers, facilitates Army recruiting, and participates in global shooting competitions, including the Olympics. Staff Sgt. Gossett became an AMU gunsmith, “mainly building precision bolt-action rifles and also working on international competition firearms, from Olympic air rifles, .22 LR smallbore rifles, to trap and skeet shotguns,” he explains.
Earning a spot on the US Army Marksmanship Unit’s Shooting Team supercharged Ben Gossett’s interest in long-range shooting. He competes for AMU in the Precision Rifle Series. americanshootingjournal.com 27
