SHOTGUN LIFE BREAKS NEW GROUND AS THE FIRST ONLINE MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE BEST IN WING AND CLAYS SHOOTING

Press Release

SHOTGUN LIFE BREAKS NEW GROUND AS THE FIRST ONLINE MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE BEST IN WING AND CLAYS SHOOTING

For the First Time, the Shotgun Industry Can Combine Quality Editorial With Digital Advertising Aimed at Affluent Shooters

Pikesville, Maryland, January 15, 2009 — Shotgun Life (www.shotgunlife.com) opened the door to a new, digital era in the “Best Gun” category as the first online magazine devoted to wing and clays shooting.

In addition to the digital format, Shotgun Life breaks new ground as the only publication with comprehensive, quality editorial of both wing and clays shooting, and a section devoted to the rapidly expanding audience of women who participate in the shotgun sports.

By being online, Shotgun Life lets advertisers, for the first time, adopt a complete “cradle-to-grave” strategy that begins by reaching a new generation of Internet-savvy professionals and retain their loyalty through a lifetime of upgrades to higher quality shotguns, accessories and shooting venues. At the same time, Shotgun Life appeals to the established audience of affluent shooters who use the Internet in their daily lives.

Moreover, Shotgun Life lets advertisers reach readers in places that were previously off limits, such as the workplace.

In addition to the free online magazine, Shotgun Life publishes a free weekly e-letter whose mission is to help shooters improve their skills with tips from world-class instructors. In less than four months, the Shotgun Life e-letter has garnered nearly 700 subscribers who signed up for it. As another new marketing tool, the Shotgun Life e-letter is the first online, direct-response vehicle for the shotgun industry.

“We have been beta-testing Shotgun Life since the middle of September 2008, and now it is clear that the industry recognizes that the need for a robust online venue is long overdue,” said Publisher, Irwin Greenstein.

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Mister Big Bore

GIF Bernie Liberati

It started in a pizza and sandwich shop in South Philadelphia, and eventually led to one of the great finds in the world of big-bore collectors.

Today, Bernie Liberati can legitimately claim he is the only man to own two consecutively numbered L.C. Smith 8-gauge shotguns — a highly coveted find given that only 35 total were ever made.

The achievement is a far cry from the kid who delivered pizzas and sandwiches in South Philly. Delivering food in that neighborhood may not sound glamorous, but it opened the door into the world of big-bore shotguns for Bernie…

After working there for a while, the shop owner had taken Bernie out hunting one night.

“We didn’t get anything, but I had fun,” he said.

The Boy’s First Shotgun

Afterwards, his boss suggested that Bernie may want to buy a shotgun. Bernie didn’t own a shotgun (or any other kind of gun for that matter). The man offered to get one for Bernie, and soon the delivery boy entrusted his boss with the cash to buy his first shotgun.

It turned out to be a 12-gauge Daiwa, made by Singer Nikko in Japan.

“It was beautiful,” Bernie recalled.

So beautiful, in fact, the man offered Bernie $175 — a full $25 more than what the boy paid for it. Did Bernie bite? No way. But it was his first introduction into the value of shotguns — planting a seed that would grow into a fascination with the thunderous big bores.

Telling Dad About the Shotgun

In the meantime, though, Bernie had to contend with his father. You see, when he came home that night with a shiny new shotgun in a cardboard box, he father reprimanded: “You can’t bring that in the house.”

I said “I have no place to put it.”

Dad: “That’s your problem.”

As the sun went down, young Bernie was relegated to the porch. Wearing only a t-shirt, it was like sitting in a refrigerator out there — until his mother intervened.

“My mother was inside, complaining, ‘How could you let my son sit out in the cold?'” Finally, his father let the boy in…along with his brand new shotgun.

Bernie and his friends loved to take his new Daiwa out to a field near the Philadelphia airport. “We’d set up a skeet machine and no one would bother us. The police would come by to make sure we weren’t doing anything wrong, that we weren’t drinking.”

Yes, those were the good old days.

Fast forward to 1992…

Bernie’s father, now 78, wanted to retire from the customs house broker company he owned since 1963, Morris Friedman and Co. So rather than sell the business to a stranger, he gave it to Bernie.

A Fateful Meeting With Jim Stahl

One day, Bernie was hard at work in the office, when one of his regular contacts from U.S. Customs stopped by — a guy named Jim Stahl. He suggested to Bernie they go trap shooting one night. (As fate would have it, Jim would become active in the L.C. Smith Collectors Association.)

They had such a good time they thought it would be a good idea to make it a regular Wednesday night ritual.

After a few times out trap shooting, Jim invited Bernie to go hunting… and they had a great time doing that too.

As their friendship grew, Jim introduced Bernie to side-by-side shotguns. Bernie was bowled over when he discovered that Jim’s collection actually reached 25 side-by-sides.

“That’s unbelievable,” Bernie told Jim, laughing about it today and given the size of his own collection.

Bernie’s Shotgun Education

In conjunction with the side-by-side collection, Jim was an avid collector of books related to vintage and big-bore shotguns.

Thanks to Jim, Bernie embarked on his shotgun education.

But Bernie was about to get hooked.

One Saturday afternoon, Jim took Bernie to visit Hollowell’s Gun Shop in Connecticut.

“We’re walking around and Jim says what kind of gun do you want?”

Bernie’s wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted, but he knew what he didn’t want: a 12-gauge.

“Everybody has a 12 gauge,” Bernie remembers telling Jim.

As they wandered the around the store, Bernie thought he would go for a .410.

“But there was this 10-gauge Remington. It was cheap and unique,” Bernie said.

Out of the Corner His Eye…

Then lightning struck…

Out of the corner of his eye, Bernie spotted an 8-gauge J.P. Clabrough “in the middle of the table. It was the first 8-gauge I’d ever seen.” After negotiating about 90 minutes, Bernie brought home the first two big bores of what would become an extensive collection.

“And that’s how I started. I was fortunate in that people were not that enthusiastic about buying them, and the prices were pretty affordable,” he said.

After years of collecting 4-, 8- and 10-gauge vintage beauties, Bernie was finally able to put it together: his prized consecutively numbered 8-gauge L.C. Smith Grade 2 shotguns.

The first one he purchased was number 46291. As fate would have it, Bernie bought it on Valentine’s Day 2006.

Only three weeks later, another 8-gauge L.C. Smith Grade 2 became available.

As Bernie tells it, “There was a fellow who was member of the L.C. Smith Collector’s Association. Unfortunately, he was going through some rough times.” The man needed to liquidate his collection, and the dealer who got it immediately gave Bernie a call.

When Bernie got it, he realized it was numbered 46290.

Bingo.

Well, from the kid sitting out on the porch that one chilly night with his first shotgun, Bernie now owns about 50 big bores.

“I like the fact that they’re unique, and have a history behind them,” Bernie said.

But these stunning shotguns aren’t mere museum pieces for him.

“I shoot them at least twice a year.” 

 Bernie_and_Bernie

Bernie Liberati today with his son, Bernie. 

Useful resources:

http://www.10gauge.com/

http://www.lcsmith.org/

http://www.vintagers.org/

The Fine Firearms Find of the Century

“Call this a tangled web with a happy ending, a story that unfolds like the plot of a Russian novel toward a conclusion in which one of the most venerable Belgian gunmakers and the most venerable American gunmaker undergo a renaissance and in the process bring back to life one of the more visionary guns of the twentieth century ­- invented by a Belgian maker whose relative obscurity belies his genius.”

— Michael McIntosh

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4 Great Days at the Southern Side by Side Fall Classic

A new tradition started in the fabled chronicles of the shotgun sports.

The first Southern Side by Side Fall Classic took place over three days at the Back Woods Quail Club in Georgetown, South Carolina — with a spectacular pheasant tower shoot as the day-before opener.

At the helm of the new event was the steady hand of Bill Kempffer, the guiding force behind the Southern Side by Side Spring Classic held the past nine years every April at his Deep River Sporting Clays and Shooting School in Sanford, North Carolina.

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