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If you wish to win the World Side-by-Side Skeet Championship in Illinois in May (see p. 14), you likely will have to better the score of Hal M. Hare. Hare recently was named to the National Skeet Shooting Association's 2005 All-American International Skeet Team based on tournament performance and overall scoring average-no small feat, considering that he was the only competitor shooting a side-by-side.
Hare has used his Connecticut Shotgun Mfg. Co. Model 21 exclusively in competition for two years, and he has been named to All-American teams both years. "In fact," Hare said, "I am the only nationally ranked shooter to use a shotgun of this sort, most using either an over/under or semi-automatic."
Hare also has helped to organize a couple of vintage skeet competitions in his home state, with the Vintage Skeet Buckeye Open on June 11 & 12 at the Black Wing Shooting Center in Delaware, Ohio, and the Fifth Annual World Vintage Skeet Championships from August 24 to 28 at the same range. Old rules apply, including low-gun mount and a delayed release, and both events allow only side-by-sides and pumpguns. For more information on the events, contact Hare at hal.hare@sbcglobal.net or visit the Black Wing Website at www.blackwingsc.com.
Doug Turnbull Restoration has pledged $250,000 to the NRA Foundation for the National Firearms Museum's Firearms Conservation Laboratory. When asked what prompted such generosity, company owner Doug Turnbull simply quoted Teddy Roosevelt: "Every man owes a portion of his time and income to the business or industry in which he earns a living."
When California-based Weatherby dropped Spanish-made side-by-sides from its product line late in the summer of 2003, a spokesman told SSM, "It's premature to say the program is dead." And, indeed, that was the case, as Weatherby has come back with a new side-by-side for '05.
The Athena D'Italia is, as the name suggests, an Italian import-actually, Fausti-made-though it comes in the form of a slender and more traditional English gun, with a straight grip, splinter forend, double triggers and sideplates engraved with a scroll-and-ribbons pattern. Beneath the imagery is a time-tested Anson & Deeley boxlock action with ejectors, modern chrome-lined barrels and a stainless-steel Integral Multiple Choke system certified for steel shot down to Modified constriction.
The Athena D'Italia will be available in 12-, 20- and 28-gauge-the 12s coming with 28" barrels and the sub-gauges coming with 26" tubes. Suggested retail is $2,840 for the 12 and 20; $2,976 for the 28.
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