Snapshots

Compiled by Ed Carroll

Caesar Guerini USA announced recently a new limited-run series of its over/ unders available exclusively through Cabela's Gun Libraries. The new offering is based on Guerini's Tempio Field and Sporting Series shotguns, with hand-polished, coin-finished receivers; bright blued barrels; and a special fine scroll engraving pattern designed by re-nowned engraver Dario Cortini from Italy's Bottega Giovanelli.

All of the Guerini guns from Cabela's feature Deluxe Grade Turkish walnut, 26 lines-per-inch checkering, and chrome-lined bores and chambers, and each is inspected by Guerini USA at importation. The Cabela's Tempio Field is available in 12, 20 and 28 gauge-each with 28" barrels-and it comes with five flush-fitting screw-in chokes for $2,995. The Tempio Sporting is in 12 gauge with 30" or 32" barrels and comes with extended forcing cones, an adjustable trigger, six competition chokes and a hard plastic case for $3,395.

Caesar Guerini USA President Wesley Lang said the program is planned for a limited-production run, though other runs can be made in future years if the program proves popular.

For more information, contact Cabela's Gun Library, 800-237-4444; www.cabelas.com. For more information on Caesar Guerini USA, contact 410-901-1131; www.gueriniusa.com.

For die-hards who prefer the portability of paper and enjoy the old-fashioned wishful perusal of printed catalogs, Tony Galazan has the solution for all things fine, quirky and hard to find for high-grade shotguns. Galazan Catalog No. 9 offers an extensive collection of shooting products and accessories covering a broad range-from useful to decorative to truly esoteric.

The useful begins with Galazan's bargain-priced $175 Canvas Trunk Case and progresses through traditional leather ($499), oak & leather ($699) and on to full-length cases, aluminum cases and a variety of soft gunslips in leather-trimmed canvas with lambs-wool liners. Within the collection, there are selected types of ammunition, snap caps and leather goods, as well as a thorough collection of gun cleaning and other case accessories, turnscrews, firing-pin-disk removers, oilcans, polishing cloths and pastes, and gauges.

The decorative includes sporting art prints, framed ammunition displays, jewelry, bronze castings, trinkets and shotshell-themed money clips and cufflinks.

The esoteric should tickle the obsessive itch of fine-gun aficionados and collectors with a leaning toward tinkering: stock blanks, period-accurate recoil pads, replacement receiver-screw sets, skeleton buttplates, gunmaker trade labels, ivory beads, stock-finishing chemistry and case-color laquer.

There's a lot more in there, and the catalog is available by contacting 800-515-4867; www.connecticutshotgun.com.

Lingering on the printed word, California-based Safari Press has produced The Limited Edition Collection, 1985-2005, a 72-page glossy bibliography that is one part celebration of company history and one part catalog. Within it are all of the beautifully made and illustrated limited-edition hardcovers of the publisher's first 20 years, including series encompassing African hunting, big-game hunting, sporting firearms, hunting at high altitudes and wingshooting.

The bibliography includes them all as a reference to Safari Press's accomplishments, though many of the original limited editions are out of print and are so noted. Of special interest here: SSM Contributing Editor Douglas Tate's signed editions of Birmingham Gunmakers and British Gun Engraving-sold out; The Best of Holland & Holland, by Contributing Editor Michael McIntosh and Jan Roosenburg-collector's items; Parker Guns, the "Old Reliable," by Ed Muderlak; The House of Churchill, by Don Masters; and Fine European Gunmakers, by Marco Nobili-all worth considerably more than the initial Safari Press list price. Several others in the Sporting Firearms and Wingshooting series are still available, as are the "regular" editions of the mentioned titles.

The Safari Press Limited Edition Collection, 1985-2005, is available for $10 and is included in the company's latest catalog, or you can order by contacting 800-451-4788; www.safaripress.com.

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