This weekend, Ben Gossett had a dominant performance at the 2024 PRS Pro Series Finale near Bliss, Idaho. Day 1 had rain, sleet and even a little hail – and Day 2 had winds up to 20 mph! Nature threw everything it had the top shooters from around the world, but despite challenging conditions and a challenging course of fire Ben Gossett only missed 12 shots of the 212 possible over two days!
Ben came into the finale weekend sitting in 15th place overall in terms of PRS season point standings. At the finale, the top 150 ranked shooters in the Open Division are squadded based on their ranking. The top 12 shooters were in Squad #1, and Ben was in Squad #2.
Those squads are both full of truly world-class shooters that are capable of winning any match on any given weekend (and Squad #3 for that matter). But, over the past 12 seasons of the PRS, all of the Golden Bullet winners (i.e., overall season champs) came from Squad #1. That is until Ben Gossett in 2024!!!
Ben won the PRS Pro Series Finale match by 5 points over the next shooter. That was more than enough to make up for his deficit that he came into the finale behind the squad 1 shooters. So not only did Ben win the finale, he earned enough points to come from behind and become the 2024 Pro Series Season Champ!
Below is a breakdown of how the 2024 PRS Pro Series season points for the Open Division shook out after the finale:
There have been years where the PRS Champion was determined by a single shot, but you can see in the chart above that Ben won by almost 5 points over last year’s season champ, Kahl Harmon. Kahl is Ben’s teammate in the US Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU). That means a member of the USAMU has taken home the golden bullet back-to-back in 2023 and 2024 – and they also went #1 and #2 this season. While the AMU team has been competitive in the PRS since the early days, those are both firsts.
PRS season points are based on your best 3 matches based on a 100-point scale for each. So if you won 3 two-day Pro Series matches, then you would enter the finale with 300 points. If you won 2 matches and had 95% of the winner’s score for your 3rd match, you’d enter the finale with 100 + 100 + 95 = 295 season points. There are a few more details, but that is the gist of it. 😉Finally the top 150 ranked shooters in the open division are invited to the Pro Series Finale match at the end of the season where they will duke it out head-to-head on the same course of fire and conditions. The finale match counts for 40% of your season points, which is up to 200 points.
I always think it’s interesting to look at how people were ranked going into the finale compared to where they landed for the season. This year, Nathan Toungate, the shooter who earned 10th overall for the season, shared some of his analysis with me related to movement in standings pre/post-finale. The breakdown below shows the season points before the finale, what they earned at the finale, and their total season points. It includes all of the top 25 shooters based on the final season standings.
You can see there was a lot of shuffling going on between where someone stood on Saturday morning when the finale started and where they stood 32 hours later when the finale wrapped up! There were a total of 20 shooters who entered the finale with at least 295 points! And you can see that Ben could have entered the finale with 4.792 fewer points and still won the season. If Ben had only had 292.429 coming into the finale, he would have still landed on top for the season! 23 shooters entered the finale with over 292.429 points, so while everyone would love to start the finale with 300 points – they clearly all had a shot at it!
You can view the 2024 PRS season standings for all 900+ Pro Series shooters here.
Staff Sgt. Benjamin Gossett is a full-time gunsmith for the US Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU). He’s not an armorer but explains his day-to-day is “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.”
Gossett enlisted in the Marine Corps out of high school in 2010 and was assigned to the 2nd BN 4th Marines in Camp Pendleton, CA. He is a decorated veteran, and his awards include the Combat Action Ribbon, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal-Campaign Star, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, and the NATO Medal.
Ben graduated from the Colorado School of Trades with a degree in gunsmithing in 2016, after which he was recruited to join the Army to become the gunsmith for the USAMU. He started with the AMU in January 2017 and earned a spot on the USAMU shooting team – a very high honor.
Ben has been competing in the PRS Pro Series since 2015, making him one of the OGs!
“The first match I shot I think I finished almost dead-last and my competitive 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.” – Ben Gossett
Ben has 36 top 5 finishes in two-day PRS Pro Series matches! He won his first national-level two-day PRS match on September 13, 2019 – followed by another win the very next weekend!
“I had a bunch of top finishes leading up to that and just couldn’t seem to seal the deal with a first-place finish until it finally happened in Alabama in 2019,” recalls Gossett. “It was a huge confidence-builder in my shooting career and I feel like I finally was able to shoot to my true potential.” – Ben Gossett
Ben has won a total of 12 two-day PRS Pro Series matches. Since his first major match win, Ben has competed in 46 national-level PRS matches, winning 26% of those and finishing in the top 5 in 61% of the matches he shot! The dude is a stud in the PRS world and a threat to win any match he enters.
Ben’s most notable victory (before the golden bullet) was the 2022 Armageddon Gear (AG) Cup. The AG Cup is the precision rifle match with the highest payout annually, so it always attracts the best shooters in the world to compete. It is a unique, 3-day competition that is formatted a little differently – in large part to add drama in hopes of attracting more TV viewers and growing the sport. A big group of shooters is cut after day 1, and another group is cut after day 2. Only a small number of shooters are still in the competition at the start of day 3 – but the scores also reset to 0 on day 3, meaning it is anyone’s competition to win. Because the competition is limited to the best pro shooters in the sport, the course of fire is designed to be far more difficult than typical PRS matches (i.e., tiny targets, tough positions, and very fast stage times).
In 2022, Ben Gossett was one of the few shooters to qualify for Day 3 at the AG Cup. Even with the pressure of scores resetting and the $30,000 payout riding on that one day’s performance – Ben Gossett cleaned every single stage on Day 3! He didn’t miss a single target all day!!! It was arguably the greatest precision rifle shooting performance in a match to date. It earned Ben the nickname “Mr. Clean”!
In January 2023, PRS Champion and two-time IPRF World Champion Austin Buschman cleaned the Leupold Steel Classic PRS match, which was the first time that a shooter had a perfect score and didn’t miss a single shot in a two-day PRS Pro Series match. Not long after that, I was talking to Buschman, and he mentioned that a few people had called him “Mr. Clean.” But every time, Austin corrected them by clarifying that what he did at the Leupold match was in no way close to what Ben did on Day 3 of the 2022 AG Cup match. The targets and stages that Ben shot at the 2022 AG Cup match were extremely challenging, and even the world champ was still blown away by the fact that Ben got through the entire day without dropping a single target. It was a special day when years of practice and experience all came together for one of the best shooters on the biggest stage.
If you didn’t watch Shooting USA’s televised episode of the 2022 AG Cup, I’d highly recommend you watch it below:
Anyone who has met Ben would agree that he is truly one of the most humble people you’ll meet. He’s one of the guys in the sport that everyone roots for. When those of us who shot the PRS finale looked at the live scoring to see that Ben was leading, I bet the overwhelming majority thought, “Good for Ben! That’s awesome!” I know that I did! It put a smile on a lot of faces at the PRS banquet to see Ben get presented with the golden bullet.
You can get a glimpse into who Ben is by watching his acceptance speech at the 2024 PRS Finale banquet (sorry for my shaky recording!):
Ben and his wife live in Georgia with their very active sons.
Here are all the details about the rifle that Ben competed with to become the 2024 PRS Season Champion:
- Chamber: 6mm Dasher
- Action: Impact Precision 737R Short Action
- Stock/Chassis: Masterpiece Arms BA Competition Chassis (Ben did bed this chassis for his action)
- Trigger: TriggerTech Diamond Single-Stage (set to 8 ounces)
- Barrel: 27” PROOF Research Competition Contour (1.00” muzzle at 26”)
- Gunsmith: Himself (He’s the gunsmith for the USAMU)
- Scope: Tangent Theta 5-25×56 with Gen 3 XR reticle
- Scope Mount: Hawkins Heavy Tactical One-Piece Mount
- Muzzle Brake: ACE Brake (6mm)
- Total Rifle Weight: 23 lbs.
Ben handloads his match ammo, and here is all of his load data and specs:
- Cartridge: 6mm Dasher
- Bullet: Berger 105 gr. Hybrid Target
- Brass: Lapua 6 BR Norma brass fireformed for Dasher
- Primer: CCI BR-4 Small Rifle
- Powder: 31.6 gr. of Hodgdon Varget
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,915 fps (Standard deviation = 4 fps)
- Average 5-Shot Group Size: 0.3 MOA extreme spread
Important: You should always reference comprehensive reloading manuals, start with the minimum recommended loads, and work your way up. Just because this load is safe in Ben’s rifle doesn’t mean it will be in yours. There are a ton of factors that vary from them to you, including exact chamber/barrel dimensions, brass specs, reloading scales, powder lots, etc., so it’s critical to follow safety precautions. Failure to follow safe loading practices could result in gun damage or severe personal injury (including death) to the user or bystanders. The author has not independently verified the accuracy of the data and cannot be responsible for errors in published load data. PrecisionRifleBlog.com and Ben Gossett assume no responsibility for the use of this data. The information is to be used at the sole discretion of the user, and the user assumes all risks.
Below are some of his other shooting accessories that Ben uses at matches:
- Magazines: Accuracy International AICS 10-Round with Freedom Gunworks Mag Extension
- Primary Bipod: Accutac bipod
- Rear Bag: Armageddon Gear OG-Size Game Changer
- Positional Bag: Armageddon Gear Plus One Schmedium Game Changer
- Plate Bag: Doesn’t carry one
- Rangefinder: Vortex
- Tripod: Really Right Stuff
- Ear protection: Sordin Supreme Pro X Electronic Ear Muffs
- Chronograph: Garmin Xero C1 Pro Chronograph
- What do you carry to spotting at most PRS matches? Hensoldt Spotter 45 spotting scope
- What do you use to calculate your ballistics? Kestrel with Applied Ballistics (uses a G7 BC as the drag profile)
To learn more from Ben, I’d highly recommend watching this video below from MPA’s Winner’s Circle with Phil Cashin. Phil interviewed Ben after he won the 2024 Hodgdon Punisher Positional PRS Match.
Finally, here is another video interview with Ben from Believe The Target with legendary F-class shooter Eric Cortina:
Congrats to Ben and all the other shooters who finished at the top of the 2024 leaderboard! The level of competition in the PRS continues to rise every year, so to end up at the top is quite an accomplishment! You guys deserve a few weeks off before we hit it again! 😉
Below is the full list of PRS Season Champions overall for the Open Division, and you can see there have now been 3 golden bullets won by the USAMU team:
- 2024: Ben Gossett (US Army Marksmanship Unit)
- 2023: Kahl Harmon (US Army Marksmanship Unit)
- 2022: Austin Buschman
- 2021: Austin Orgain
- 2020: Austin Orgain
- 2019: Clay Blackketter
- 2018: Matthew Brousseau
- 2017: Matthew Brousseau
- 2016: Tyler Payne (US Army Marksmanship Unit)
- 2015: Dave Preston
- 2014: Bryan Morgan
- 2013: Dustin Morris
- 2012: Wade Stuteville
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