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.
Giancarlo & Stefano Pedretti – Master Engravers is the third book in a series on Italy’s most prestigious and venerated engravers. The book contains 256 pages of text and sumptuous full-color plates in an oversized hardcover format. The first Master Engraving volume featured the work of Gianfranco Pedersoli; the second, the art of Firmo and Francesca Fracassi.
Written by Irwin Greenstein with the opinions of Lee Brown, Brett Eppard, Jim Freel, Rick Openshaw and Alessandro Vitale
“It’s like a true Italian woman standing in the room, your eyes immediately turn to it on the gun rack,” said Alessandro Vitale of the Benelli Legacy 28, admiring it after he just ran a perfect score of skeet with the 28-gauge semi-auto.
I love elegant shops. I love shops drenched in dark wood paneling and have dark leather chairs and couches. Sparkling crystal, fine clothing hanging in rich wood cabinets and stunning firearms with fancy walnut stocks stir my soul.
At Broken Arrow Farms there are people who come and stay at the farm for a few days to a week for pheasant hunting, and there are the day hunters who come out to the farm for the hunting but stay in town to take advantage of the restaurants and entertainment it offers. It also includes some of the locals of Pierre, South Dakota who hunt there as well.
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