Cigar smoke mingled with fragrances of autumn, marking the twenty-first annual weekend of convivial sporting-clays competitions in the mountains of Virginia by the exclusive Green Jacket Club.

Long before Blaser started importing their groundbreaking F3 shotgun into the U.S. in 2004, the German manufacturer founded in 1957 by Horst Blaser was renown for its dangerous-game rifles. The Blaser S-2 Express Double Rifle in either .470 or .500 Nitro Express was a go-to gun for traditionalists looking to bring down a Cape Buffalo or Elephant in Africa. Likewise, a big-bore Blaser R-93 was engineered with a silky smooth bolt action if you needed to squeeze off that critical second shot at a charging rhino. Then in 2010, when Blaser introduced its next-generation bolt-action rifle, the R8, its revolutionary design immediately made it the darling of the big-game set.

An hour drive in a westerly direction from New York’s Central Park, a quiet revolution has successfully transformed one of the great sporting gun institutions that's long been associated with legendary adventurers such as Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ruark and Teddy Roosevelt.

I sat across the picnic table from shotgun instructor extraordinaire, Gil Ash, as he drew a simple diagram on the yellow legal pad between us. At first it looked like ripples emanating out, but then he started adding numbers to the curved lines until he finally turned around the pad to face me.

The 12th Annual Southern Side by Side Championship & Exhibition Spring Classic provided an extraordinary opportunity to shoot a round robin of highly coveted shotguns, of which Michael McIntosh’s AYA Nº 2 was certainly the most prominent.
Conceivably the best writer about fine shotguns of his generation, Mr. McIntosh forged a path of elegant and insightful books and magazine articles that made his readers gush with pride as fellow shotgun owners.

The itinerary was ambitious – eight days, seven posh sporting clays venues, 13 flats of shells and eight bourbon distilleries. Porsche had loaned us a 2011 Cayenne S SUV powered by a 400-horsepower V8 behemoth, while Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Co. supplied one of their marvelous A-10 American sidelock over/under shotguns. This is the final installment.

Zoli is continuing its blistering momentum this year with a new high-rib shotgun that actually combines two models in one.

The shotgun is yet another example of Zoli’s advanced engineering that seems to have found extra traction this year in the US market, exemplified by Zoli’s own record-breaking sales of the revolutionary Bilanx since its formal introduction in January.

After 26 years in the US Army Special Forces as an expert in explosives, demolitions and incendiaries – including a year as instructor of those subjects in the Special Forces schools – it’s time to stand up and pay attention when Jamie McGrew gets behind a brand of shotshell.

The road up to Primland could pass as a crazy dream.

Out of the blue, someone gives you a $93,000 Porsche Cayenne S that you’re driving up a switchback logger’s road dynamited into a mountain side. Stowed in the back among the luggage and flats of 12-gauge shells is the super-cool A-10 American sidelock shotgun. The Porsche Cayenne S is fierce, fearless – 20-inch tires spewing road dust for mile after mile through computer-controlled all-wheel drive.