Gunwerks – Long Range University

Posted: June 23rd, 2026

Towards the end of last year, we welcomed a sales rep from Gunwerks to the store, and we have since become a Gunwerks dealer. We’ve had the opportunity to deliver a few rifles to happy customers, and are excited to continue working with them. Established in 2006 with the goal of revolutionizing long-range shooting through integrated precision engineered systems, Gunwerks has been a top name in long distance precision and hunting ever since. Simply put: they build everything in house with an obsessive attention to detail and precision, and do all of the testing to deliver you a rifle that is 1,000 yards capable straight out of the box.

Scott and I (Kevin) had the opportunity to spend a week in Cody, Wyoming to do 4 days of a course that Gunwerks offers called “Long Range University” where they do hands-on training for long range shooting, with an emphasis on hunting. The course begins with long range fundamentals that help you develop a strong foundation to build all of their lessons onto.

Simple things like breathing patterns, trigger pull, and positioning yourself for a quick follow up shot were the main focuses before we hit the range. It’s a cliché to say that the fundamentals are the most important part, but when they make everything else so easy, the fundamentals are the only thing in the way of you being able to make long range accurate shots.

Photo from the first day, learning our individual Eye Diopter and Parallax Settings

The Course

At the end of the first day, we were both making first round impacts at 840 yards in 20 MPH winds with off-the-shelf Federal ammo, all inside of a 18”x10” steel plate made to simulate the size of an Elks Lungs. The long range shots on the first day were all guided by the instructors, but by the end of the 4th day we were on our own for ranging, reading wind conditions, and still able to make first round 960 yard shots (the furthest targets they have at this location) in the rain with 15 MPH headwinds that were switching from the 11 o’clock direction to the 1 o’clock direction.

Long distance rifle shooting is one of the few shooting disciplines we had never gotten into, so we couldn’t have had a better place to learn. Both instructors are full time instructors with decades of experience. One from the hunting world and the other a veteran and retired instructor from the Marine Scout-Sniper world. They are very good at teaching, from the most basic concepts like trigger pull, to the most advanced concepts like aerodynamic jump and spindrift.

The Range, there were 14 people split up into 7 teams of shooters/spotters, who would do each exercise once as both the shooter and the spotter.

It was like drinking through a fire-hose, we received enough information in a few short classroom sections to fill over 40 pages in each of our respective notebooks. The notebook with the lessons and principals contained in it is now one of my most important pieces of kit. It gives me everything I need to operate the Gunwerks rifle systems accurately out to long distances, in any condition.

We learned how to do range and do accurate wind corrections without the equipment, but on the very last day they taught us how to use the laser range finder that is synced with the optic. Even 100 miles away from cell service, once the range finder has been synced with your scope, it has the information of your rifle and scope saved, and it will give you accurate elevation and windage corrections in the push of a button.

Down range view, pictured are targets from 400 Yards – 960 Yards

Photo from the final day, preparing for an timed challenge where targets ranging from 400-960 yards would be called out, then you had 10 seconds to hit it.

The Rifle

We were shooting a Gunwerks Magnus chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor equipped with a 20” carbon sleeve barrel with a Gunwerks 6IX stainless steel suppressor, a Revic Acura 5-25 Scope, and a Gunwerks branded BiPod. Gunwerks claim to fame is their complete rifle package, where they build everything, including ammo that is designed to yield top performance at long range.

To keep the course significantly less expensive for the customer, we were using off the shelf Federal 140 grain Gold Medal Center Strike ammunition, but it did everything that we asked of it and then some.

Gunwerks Magnus chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor.

The Revic Acura 5-25 scope is built for long distance hunting, it is a 5-25 FFP scope with a custom elevation turret matched to the rifle and the round, and an emphasis on in-reticle wind adjustments. Elevation on the turret is easy to adjust on the fly, and the windage marks on the FFP reticle make it easy to shoot the windage, rather than dialing it on the windage turret. Each dash is equivalent to one MOA, so you can adjust to your spotters call in only a second or two.

Revic Acura 5-25 FFP Scope Reticle, every dash mark you see is always 1 MOA, no matter your magnification.

The Factory Tour

The second day of the course, we met early in the morning at Gunwerks manufacturing facility in downtown Cody, Wyoming, the town founded by Buffalo Bill Cody himself back in 1896. Their facility is 45,000 sq/ft, with everything they produce all under the same roof.

85 full time employees report to the office everyday, including four full time shooters who shoot an average round of 40,000 rounds a year, each, while sighting in customer rifles, building data packages, or testing new loads and new calibers.

One of our favorite stops was by the room where the carbon fiber stocks are made, they do everything from start to finish from pre-preg carbon fiber being fitted to molds, and eventually going into the autoclave to be baked.

We got to watch some of the skilled craftsmen working the carbon fiber into the molds, a photo of this is attached below.

We were advised each stock builder could make two stocks in a work day, from start to finish, if they were lucky. From there, the raw carbon stocks are finished and cleaned up before going to the room where they are cerakoted.

There are many different finishes to choose from, as well as totally custom finishes or even their standard camo, where you get to choose the paint codes.

Pictured below is a template in the factory showing some of the cerakote finishes, as well as a finish as our store owned demo Gunwerks demo rifle finished in the Tectonic Orange pattern.

Our demo Magnus rifle, finished in the “Tectonic Orange” Camo Pattern.

Every Gunwerks rifle that is ordered with their factory data package will have as many as 80 rounds fired through the rifle to establish average muzzle velocity, sight in the optic, verify accuracy, and thoroughly cleaned before being delivered to its owner.

All of this information allows Gunwerks to build a data package and custom elevation turret, allowing you to adjust to distance on the fly. Custom data package rifles have a QR code in the case that makes it easy to add the rifle profile to your Revic Ballistic Calculator App. Once in the app, you just have to tell the app the distance of your target and wind conditions, and it will tell you how to make the shot.

Below is a sample screen shot of the app, with the profile of the 6.5 Creedmoor rifle used in the class, on a day with less wind.

Conclusion

Spending time at Gunwerks has given us a lot of clarity, not only do we understand what it takes to build such capable rifle systems, but why they have such dedicated customers: the rifles really are 1,000 yards straight out of the box. The class is an amazing experience and I would encourage anyone who can take the time and pay for the education.

A lot of us enthusiasts and sport shooters grow up around firearms, and learn from our family or teach ourselves. Some are fortunate enough to receive formal training, but the Long Range University program from Gunwerks is an opportunity for even the most experienced shooters to learn from a proven training team with a proven product and format.