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A rare snapshot of Michael McIntosh.[/caption]Michael McIntosh, one of America’s foremost shotgun writers died on Saturday, August 14, 2010, at his home in Iowa. He was 66 years old.
Other people called him Mike, but I never did. To me, he was always Michael – and if a finer friend than Michael McIntosh ever existed, I have yet to meet him.
Harold Stoneberger sets a trap machine for a 3-bird shoot the following day.[/caption]This story is the first in an occasional series called “Confessions of a Target Setter” where we speak with the men and women who try to confound us at every turn in sporting clays.
It’s August 27, 2010 and the summer heat wave that wracked the country seems to have finally broken here in the hamlet of Wellsville, Pennsylvania – home of Central Penn Sporting Clays. Owner Harold Stoneberger and his young helper, Ben Rickland, are scrambling to set targets for a 3-bird shoot the next day, and I’m here in the field with them as they share their tricks of the trade racing from one trap machine to the next, wrench in hand.
Question: Who needs it?
Answer: You do (if you qualify).
The question, in fact, arose from our initial reaction to finding the RBL12 Sporting Clays model on the web site of Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company (www.connecticutshotgun.com).
The ultimate answer, however, revealed itself after we spent a few weeks shooting this unusual and remarkable side by side.
As a certain local bard may have put it, this is such stuff as a sportsman’s dreams are made of.
Imagine if you could take the Vintage Cup, Southern Side by Side and Grand American shoots; combine them with the SCI Show, Las Vegas Antique Arms show, a gun dog field trial, a horse show and a fly fishing festival; then add in miles of world class shopping, exotic motorcars, fine art galleries, acres of gourmet food and drink; and stage it all on the lawn of a beautiful historic English country estate.
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