Ithaca Doubles: Overlooked Classics
Like many enterprises of the time, its origins were humble. It began in a rough little wooden structure perched precariously on the steep gorge of Fall Creek near Ithaca, New York. The virtue of the location was its abundant water power, and the building had already...
Holland & Holland’s Aim for the Future
Holland & Holland, long respected for producing firearms of the highest quality, was acquired in 2021 by the Beretta Holding Group from the French perfume company, Chanel. For three decades, the French company tried to redefine and reinvent the venerable old gun...
Shotguns Across the Pond
At one time, controversy raged over who made the finest guns. Americans pointed to Parker, L. C. Smith, Fox, Ithaca, Lefever and late-to-the-party Winchester. British gentleman would talk James Purdey, Holland & Holland, Henry Atkin, Grant, Lang, Westley Richards...
When 300s Were Young
What place, after a century, does a British cartridge have in the booming chorus of American 30-caliber magnums? Dawn’s hard snow was loud underfoot but the elk were noisy, too. Wind strumming the pines covered the crunch of our steps till both of us, surprised, met...
An Incidental Shooting-Iron: The Savage Model 99
Here’s a gun that carries better than some considerable few others of no greater efficiency. And a man carries a gun a blame sight more than he shoots it.
The Suppressor Crisis Nobody Knew Existed
At a time when Americans are wrestling with inflation, national debt, border security, housing costs, energy prices, crime, foreign conflicts, infrastructure failures, as well as the lingering mystery of why airport food requires a small-business loan to purchase,...
Wayne LaPierre and the World’s Most Predictable Sequel
There is an old rule in politics, business, law enforcement, and virtually every other human enterprise where large sums of money mysteriously change addresses: follow the money. It's not a complicated rule. In fact, it's so simple that entire industries have been...
Early 20th Century Affordable American Doubles
If a person wants to hunt with the same double barrel shotgun that his or her grandfather or great grandfather used in the early 20th century, the odds are ten-to-one it would not be one of the premium brands that today dominate side-by-side competitions and shotgun...
Benelli’s ETHOS: One Formidable Beauty
Benelli’s ETHOS line proves they are nearing perfection in a semi-auto. “Back in the day,” when we were just beginning to discover the incredible number of gamebirds in South America, gunmakers worldwide were competing to see who could develop shotguns that could...
The Ones That Didn’t Get Away
I’m A.D.D. in the extreme. Have been all my life. If you’ve ever been associated with someone who has attention deficit, it can be a real “trip.” One idea births another idea and that one sprouts two more. Pretty soon, ideas seem to be coming rapid-fire and life...