1911 EMP® Four-inch Lightweight Champion™ and SAINT™ Join Five Previous Springfield Armory® Products As Golden Bullseye Winners

GENESEO, ILL. (2/7/17) – Springfield Armory® is proud to announce that two new guns have received the prestigious NRA American Rifleman Golden Bullseye Awards. The Springfield Armory® 1911 EMP® Four-inch Lightweight Champion™ and SAINT™ AR-15 rifle will receive the Women’s Innovation Product of the Year and Tactical Product of the Year respectively.

The two guns are the latest in the Springfield Armory® lineup to win the highly regarded Golden Bullseye Awards.

The series of Golden Bullseye Award wins began in 2003 with the Springfield Armory® XD® 3” Sub-compact. Over the next several years, the Springfield Armory® XD® Full Size, XD-S® 3.3” Single Stack, XD-M® 4.5” Full Size, 1911 EMP®, and M1A™ SOCOM 16 rifle all received Golden Bullseye Awards.

“We’re honored to receive these two newest NRA Publications Golden Bullseye Awards from American Rifleman,” stated Springfield Armory® Chief Executive Officer Dennis Reese. “Our team never stops working to meet new and evolving customer needs, and these Golden Bullseye Awards are positive affirmation that we’re on the right track. We’ve worked really hard to make the SAINT™ and 1911 EMP® Four-inch Lightweight Champion™ products worthy of the Golden Bullseye.”

The SAINT™ is Springfield Armory®’s newest rifle and first Modern Sporting Rifle product. Featuring rock-solid construction with premium components, the SAINT™ is loaded with quality accessories but made available at a consumer-friendly price point.

The 1911 EMP® Four-inch Lightweight Champion™ is an extension to the popular 1911 EMP® pistol family, offering a one-inch longer barrel for improved sight radius and increased velocity. The pistol features the same attractive two-tone finish with Cocobolo wood grips but increases magazine capacity to ten rounds.

The Golden Bullseye Awards will be presented at a special breakfast event on Friday, April 28, 2017, at the National Rifle Association Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Atlanta, Georgia.

“We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 Golden Bullseye Awards,” said Doug Hamlin, Executive Director of NRA Publications. “This year’s winners exemplify what NRA members want in their shooting and hunting equipment—outstanding performance, innovative design, and value. We congratulate those who have created the industry’s best new products and look forward to recognizing them in Atlanta.”

The criteria for earning a Golden Bullseye Award is rigorous, with product required to be tested by staff members or contributors to American Rifleman magazine, demonstrating reliability during field use, and showing innovation and value to the customer. Most importantly, award winning products must show overall benefit to the shooting industry and its enthusiasts. For 15 years, award winners have been selected by a seven-member committee representing more than a century of collective experience in the shooting and hunting industry.

For more information on the SAINT™ and 1911 EMP® Four-inch Lightweight Champion™ please visit springfield-armory.com.

About Springfield Armory®
“The First Name in American Firearms,” Springfield Armory® was founded in 1777, when George Washington ordered the creation of an armory to store ammunition and gun carriages during the American Revolution. In 1794, the armory began to manufacture muskets and spent the next 150 years supplying firearms for every major American conflict. The original armory closed in 1968. In 1974, the Reese family took ownership of the Springfield Armory® name and began making the M1A™ rifle. Today, Springfield Armory® develops many products loyal to the company’s heritage, like the 1911 pistol, while ensuring its future with innovative products, including the XD®, XD® Mod.2®, XD-M® and XD-S® polymer pistols and now the new SAINT™ AR-15 rifle.