Snapshots

With 2006 being the 100th anniversary of the all-American .30-06 and the 70th anniversary of the Winchester Model 70, the craftsmen at the American Custom Gunmakers Guild have pooled their resources to build a stunningly beautiful rifle for the group's annual custom gun raffle. This is the 21st collaboration in the ACGG's fundraising series.

Using a pre-'64 Model 70 action that he hand-honed, metalsmith James Wisner fitted the rifle with a match-grade barrel and fabricated all additional metal parts. Kent Bowerly stocked the piece in extraordinary English walnut, and Sam Welch did the engraving. The rifle comes with a pair of Leupold scopes in a Marvin Huey case.

A maximum of 4,000 $20 tickets will be sold in advance of the drawing on January 22 at the annual Firearms Engravers & Gunmakers Exhibition, in Reno. To learn more about the rifle, raffle or the ACGG, call Executive Director Jan Billeb at 307-587-4297 or visit www.acgg.org.


The first annual East Coast Fine Arms Show will be held in Stamford, Connecticut, from January 6 to 8. Organized by Westchester Collectors, Inc., the show is being touted as the largest gathering of fine and collectible guns on the East Coast. It will be held at the Stamford Sheraton Hotel, and there will be a Friday-night preview from 5 to 8 pm. Admission is $15 on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call 914-248-1000.


SSM Field Gear Editor Tom Huggler was named the 2005 recipient of the Excellence in Craft Award by the 1,500-member Outdoor Writers Association of America. The Excellence in Craft Award was initiated in 1971 to honor an OWAA member "for outstanding effort in upholding the OWAA Creed and continued excellence in craft." Previous winners of the award select the recipient, with past recipients including Pat McManus, Nick Lyons, Curt Gowdy, Boyd Pfeiffer and the late John Madson, Gene Hill and Nash Buckingham.

Huggler, 60, lives in Sunfield, Michigan, where he is a full-time freelance writer and the author of 20 books and hundreds of magazine articles. He is the former camping editor of Outdoor Life and a past president of the OWAA. He sold his first piece as a young teen to Fur-Fish-Game. In his senior year of high school he sold a national article on hunting crows to Outdoor Life.

"It took 15 years to sell Outdoor Life the next story," Huggler said. "I had a lot to learn."

--Compiled by Ed Carroll

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