An assessment of a new shotgun can go one of two ways: Either we concentrate on the specifications, measurements, features, and options, or we can look at the characteristics that really matter in a shotgun. Those are fit, balance, handling, and reliability.
Dale Spartas might be the luckiest guy I know, for I’m very envious of the fine double guns he owns – as well of his Camp Swampy. On second thought Spartas has no doubt simply worked harder than I have – acquiring all those wonderful shotguns – as well as Camp Swampy. Dale and I were staying at Camp Swampy recently, using it as our base camp for hunting Hungarian partridge.
One of the most talked-about items in our new book Serious Grouse Hunting, Book 1 is how to use Google Earth to find bird cover – specifically ruffed grouse and woodcock cover. Here’s a quick primer (some of this material is in the book), followed by a story about our experience using Google Earth while hunting in Maine the first week of October.
Zoli is ready to introduce its second-generation Z-Sport over/under, which will feature a revolutionary weight balancing system, state-of-the-art mechanical trigger and additional refinements that play on the gunmaker’s reputation for dependability.
Our friend Silvio Calabi gave us a heads up that the book he co-wrote called “Hemingway’s Guns: The Sporting Arms of Ernest Hemingway” was about to be published. Having seen some of the chapters in advance, we were excited about the new information revealed from the in-depth research. Silvio gave us permission to run a chapter titled “The Winchester Model 21 Shotguns,” which appears following the introduction below.
There are three versions of Winchester’s Super X (now shortened to the SX). The Super X Model 1 semi-auto first appeared in 1974. This was one heck of a shotgun, but production ceased in 1984 as the Super X was very expensive to produce because many of its parts were milled rather than stamped.
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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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