Wingshooting News

Southern Side-by-Side Championship Returns

Bill Kempffer, the founder of the only known double-gun gathering with an authentic Southern-style pig-pickin', expects that this year's sixth annual event will continue to grow. The Southern Side-by-Side Championship & Exhibition will return to Deep River Sporting Clays, near Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, April 22 to 24. The shoot will include a tented exhibition featuring some of the world's finest gunmakers and gun dealers as well as purveyors of fine sporting equipment.

The event has become the largest of the regional side-by-side shoots and is popular for its laid-back and amicable atmosphere. "Based on last year's gate count, we estimated about a 30-percent growth in attendance this year," Kempffer said. "The total gate last year was just over 1,150 attendees."

On Saturday, April 23, the Second Annual Challenge Cup (see "The Challenge Cup," Nov/Dec '04) will be a shoot-off between the Parker Gun Collectors Association and the L.C. Smith Collectors Association. The winning team will receive a trophy and (priceless) bragging rights.

The Southern offers shooting events in numerous side-by-side categories, including small gauge, Compak sporting, two-shooter flush, ZZ birds, 12-gauge preliminary and the Southern Side-by-Side Championship-aptly named The Ripon Cup. Each event has awards in both hammer and hammerless categories.

To sponsor the events, Kempffer has assembled a prestigious lineup from the double-gun world. London gunmaker Atkin Grant & Lang will return as the founding sponsor of The Ripon Cup main event. Other sponsors include Italy's FAMARS; London's Charles Boswell Gunmakers; and America's Fieldsport, Shooting Sportsman and American ZZ.

To register or for more information contact, Deep River Sporting Clays, 284 Cletus Hall Rd., Sanford, NC 27330; 919-774-7080; www.deepriver.net. -Vic Venters

Bob Allen (1920 - 2004)

The shooting world suffered a major loss on November 17, 2004, when Bob Allen and his wife of six years, Sari Kitzis Allen, were killed in an automobile accident near Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In his long career as a trap and skeet shooter, Allen amassed an almost mythical list of accomplishments, including winning 72 state championships in 17 states; being a member of the All-American Trap Shooting Team 11 times; receiving four hall of fame designations, including being inducted into the ATA's Trapshooting Hall of Fame; and winning two World All-Around Championships, the Grand Prix of Paris, the National Live Pigeon Championship and 14 awards at the Grand American, where his trademark white attire will remain a fond memory for many years.

Upon his return from service as an Air Corps gunnery officer in the Pacific Theater, in 1946, Allen founded Bob Allen Sportswear in response to a need he saw for properly designed shooting attire. He grew the company for more than 40 years and remained active as a spokesman and representative after selling the business to Boyt Harness Co., in 1997. Allen was also a beloved community volunteer in his home state of Iowa, where he served on the board of a hospital, chaired the Iowa Manufacturers Association and raised large sums of money for Ducks Unlimited.

Allen recently had completed his autobiography, Shooter: The Life and Times of Bob Allen (Eakin Press, 2001). He was predeceased by Ruthie Allen, his wife of 42 years, and is survived by three children and eight grandchildren. -Chad Mason

Boyt Rebuilds After Fire

On June 18, 2004, the Osceola, Iowa, headquarters of Boyt Harness Co. and Bob Allen Sportswear burned to the ground, destroying an important manufacturing, warehouse and office facility. Many outdoorsmen never learned of the fire, however, because it caused so little disruption in the company's business.

"We've actually been hesitant to say much about the fire," said company Vice-President Tony Caligiuri, "because we don't want people thinking the fire was a bigger deal than it really was." Caligiuri explained that the fire caused virtually no interruption in service to Boyt and Bob Allen dealers, because other warehouses picked up the slack. Osceola employees went back to work the day after the fire, operating in a leased building in the same southern-Iowa town.

Construction is now underway on the company's new 40,000-square-foot headquarters building in Osceola. The facility will include office space, warehouse storage and sufficient manufacturing capability to fill make-up orders and provide repair service to customers. The new facility should be completed in July.

In addition to rebuilding, Boyt Harness and Bob Allen Sportswear will expand its upland clothing line this year, introducing shirts, vests and pants to its successful WeatherWeave line. For more information on Boyt and Bob Allen products, call 800-550-2698 or visit www.boytharness.com. -Chad Mason

Grouse Habitat Guides
Gregg Elliot

Looking for a way to spend more time hunting prime grouse habitat and less time trying to find it? Northwind Enterprises' Grouse Habitat Guides take a lot of the work out of finding prime coverts. Especially nice for traveling hunters, these guides put hundreds of good spots right at your fingertips.

Aspen, popple or poplar-whatever you call it-is the key to finding ruffed grouse. Northwind's guides mark prime clearcuts re-grown in eight- to 17-year-old aspen stands on color topographic maps.

Each Habitat Guide is made up of customized topo maps within a particular region. On each map aspen clearcuts are pointed out with red Xs along with all the details you'd expect to see on a topo: roads, trails, rivers, lakes, streams and elevation contours. The aspen stands are cross-referenced by their sizes, ages and GPS coordinates. All of the spots indicated are on public land, so when you find them, you know they're open to hunting.

In a single guide hundreds of prime aspen stands are pointed out. Depending on how comfortable you are with a compass and GPS, you can pick spots that are right beside the road or far off the beaten path. Habitat Guides are made using a database of forestry records to delineate clearcuts of the right ages and sufficient sizes. Still, the Guide makers point out that following directions to likely habitat is not a guarantee of finding birds. After all, that's why it's called "hunting."

Even though the Guides are pricey ($40 to $95), they're cheaper than hiring a human guide and less trouble than buying your own sets of topo maps. Prices are based on the number of habitat acres identified within a given area along with the number of maps included in the book. The number of maps per book varies depending on the proximity of the clearcuts to each other.

If you're traveling to Park Falls, Wisconsin, you also should check out Northwind's grouse and woodcock hunting clinics. They're crash courses on how to find prime grouse habit. Conducted in the field with professional forester Ann Jandernoa, these clinics will teach you to see the woods through a grouse's eyes. In four hours you'll learn how to weed out the good coverts from the great; how to spot drumming logs, dusting sites and afternoon nesting bowls; how to find overlooked areas and how to hunt coverts that receive lots of pressure.

Jandernoa also covers topics like why some great-looking coverts are birdless and which types of transition cover grouse and woodcock prefer. She even points out the common buds and plants that grouse feed on and solves mysteries like what those red berries are that fill grouse's crops in the fall. (Here's a hint: They aren't high-bush cranberries.)

Last fall I traveled to Park Falls on my first visit to the area. With a Northwind Habitat Guide in hand and a clinic under my belt, I found grouse right away, even though it was a rock-bottom year for bird numbers. The best part is that I saved myself a lot of time trying to find places to hunt.

Because of the way the pages are labeled and numbered, the Habitat Guides did take me a few minutes to figure out, but after that they were easy to use and dead-on accurate. (Personally, I would like to see them organized on a grid more like a Delorme's Atlas & Gazetteer, something I would recommend using in conjunction with the Guides.)

Northwind's Grouse Habitat Guides are available for more than 30 regions throughout Northern Wisconsin, Northern Minnesota and Michigan's UP, and there are plans to produce guides for the birdy parts of Maine. Grouse and woodcock hunting clinics are held throughout the fall. For a memorable day, team up a clinic with a guided hunt over Northwind's excellent English pointers.

For a complete list of Guides, a sample habitat map, details about clinics and more information, visit Northwind's Website at www.northwindenterprises.us or call 715-762-1306.

A Case of Perfection
Michael A. Halleran

It took just a moment for the ebony handled turnscrew to settle into the cutout; the fit was so precise, the air around the tool got in the way.

For two hours I had been watching Marvin Huey build a cutout for an ash-and-leather-trimmed case that rested near me on his workbench. This cutout would hold the turnscrew; the other nearby would hold the cleaning rod. Huey-among the premier casemakers in the world-designs and builds custom cases for shotguns, rifles and pistols from his studio in Lawrence, Kansas. His clients are hunters and shooters worldwide, devotees of fine double guns, and more than a few presidents, aristocrats and foreign potentates. This day he was building a case for a Montana lawyer.

"What exactly is the difference between a turnscrew and a screwdriver?" I said.

"About a hundred and fifty dollars," Huey said with a quiet laugh, explaining that each turnscrew is custom built for an individual gun.

The turnscrew was elegantly simple-a hand-turned ebony teardrop of lustrous brownish black flowing into a brass ferrule surrounding a three-inch steel shank. A deeply beveled tip ensured against marring the screws. The compartment Huey made for the tool fit exactly, sawed to within a fraction of an inch to allow for the owner's choice of lining-in this case a dark green ultrasuede leather, softer than chamois cloth. As I watched, Huey measured, cut and applied the leather to the wooden form, unhurried and deliberately, covering the inside and outside with the lining.

Huey and his business partner, Mike Sweaney of Galena, Missouri, hand-make an average of 40 cases a year. Sweaney, a carpenter and casemaker, mills the wood from stock and builds the case exteriors before shipping the roughed-in shells to Huey, who finishes the interiors. The average takedown gun case, sans cleaning rod and turnscrew, costs $1,950, and the wait can be as long as five months.

In addition to hand-building custom cases, Huey restores antique gun cases with his assistant, Julia Pilant. Old leather cases can be refurbished and repaired and interiors made to house new guns. Tools and accessories can be fitted into the new interiors, and old initials can be removed and replaced with the current owner's. A typical restoration project costs from $700 to $1,300. That may seem like a lot of money until you consider that the average gun that Huey fits is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000.

Traditional English-style cases are Huey's specialty, though he has made some refinements to the design. The cases are framed with Ozark ash, a wood that Huey finds easy to work with.

"The old traditional cases were made from oak," Huey said, "but ash is actually a superior wood. It's more stable, denser and less likely to warp."

Another Huey variance is the choice of mahogany plywood panels for the lids and bottoms. Vintage cases have quarter-inch pine panels, which are less stable and more prone to cracking.

"Plywood is way lighter in weight and not likely to warp, as the older cases are," Huey said. "Some of the most frequent repairs we do for antique cases are cracked lids. Solid wood panels are going to crack, but good plywood like we use holds its shape, because you have wood grain going two different directions."

Huey has made cases with exotic leathers, such as ostrich and elephant, but four-ounce top-grain cowhide is his standard, with an occasional case made with a more rugged cape buffalo hide. The cases are trimmed with brass corners and hinges, rounded instead of squared-a small innovation of Huey's that prevents a lot of damage to the corners.

Cases can be lined with traditional wool felt, but Huey prefers ultrasuede, which is more oil resistant and won't trap moisture or condensation.

The exterior of a Huey case is a synthesis of form and function-rich leathers, glowing wood and sturdy brass. Inside the case flawlessly holds and accents the gun and its components. The mastery lies, however, in what you don't see at all, or what you never even notice: the perfect fit of the gun to the case. Huey calls it "French fitting," and it is here that Huey makes his most significant departure from English designs. Whereas British makers partitioned cases for holding stocks, barrels and accessories, the partitioning allowed for some play between the guns and the cases. Huey fits each piece snugly into the case in the French manner, nesting every item in a precisely measured compartment shaped exactly like the piece itself.

Huey cites French gunmaker and artist Nicholas Noel Boutet (1761 - 1833) as one of his chief influences. Boutet was a master craftsman specializing in pocket pistols and dueling pistols for the French nobility, but he also made picnic baskets for the French Court that are on display at Versailles.

"Everything was cleverly done," Huey said. "In the case there would be a little piece that would hide behind a cup or bowl. You take that out and find something else-special little places for cruets and little crystal glasses-and each fitted perfectly. These cases were pretty good size-it probably took a couple of servants to lift them-but everything was very cleverly done."

Huey's craftsmanship is equally impressive. Each piece of wood forming the support for the barrels or stock is prepared with adhesive and then seamlessly mounted with the lining, as if it were painted on. Each wooden compartment is then mounted inside the case according to exact measurements, allowing the case to be as small as possible.

As Huey completed the cutout, the lining was smooth and uniform and the seams impossible to detect. As part of the design, Huey left a thin bead of ultrasuede, barely a sixteenth of an inch, protruding from the opening.

"Why do you leave that edge of material out like that?" I said.

With a slightly raised eyebrow and a smile, he dropped the turnscrew inside; and as it settled into its compartment, the bead of material framed it like a glove. It was difficult to determine which was more impressive, the beauty of the tool or the precise fit.

"And that," Huey said, looking up from his work, "is French fitting."

Author's Note: For more information on custom gun cases, contact Marvin Huey Cases, 820 Indiana St., Lawrence, KS 66044; 785-842-0062; www.hueycases.com.

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