At last spring’s Mitchell Gun Show, I sold six guns that were near and dear to me. My only consolation was the readily apparent pleasure they would bring to their new owners. I made a major mistake when I sold my Mec Size-Master 12 gauge shotgun shell reloader as I acted too quickly.

Through the bulk of my hunting years I shot reloads through my shotgun. Then about 10-15 years ago, prices on factory-loaded shotgun shells were so low that it made me wonder how these companies stayed in business selling ammo for little more than it cost me to reload my own. And so I went to factory-loaded shotgun shells.

As an example, a box of trap loads could be purchased for five to six dollars a box through last fall. I should have bought five cases of trap loads as I enjoy busting clay birds. Today, if you can even find them, the price is double or more! I’ve been told by merchants that the factories are not producing trap loads right now, and that they will get back to them when they meet the demand on game loads. Now I’m wondering how these target loads will be priced. If the cost is prohibitive, I’ll have to once again buy a 12 gauge reloading press.

Unfortunately, this might not be a solution if components aren’t available…..especially powder and primers. Ammo and components are being hoarded, and many stores limit the amount of ammo and components one can buy. Hunting ammo will be available for a price, but thousands of men and women are trap and skeet shooters. What worries me even more are the high school trap teams. Is their sport doomed for all but the wealthy? Time will tell.

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Last winter I purchased an old Ithaca double-barreled shotgun from a widow lady who was liquidating her late husband’s guns. I paid too much for the gun as I was thoroughly enthralled by the antique with side hammers - a gun out of the old west. The only thing I knew about the gun was that it was a 16 gauge, and that most early models were 12 gauge. I hoped that scarcity could be a factor.

The cost of the gun was just the beginning as I eventually bought a Lee Load All in 16 gauge so I could manufacture my own black powder loads and shoot the gun. I made bagging my spring gobbler with the venerable piece a personal goal, and with the guidance of Chuck Zacharias, a former student, my goal was fulfilled. Now I need to bag a pheasant with my old Ithaca.

I wanted to know more about the gun, and I eventually learned that my gun was worth a premium in 16 gauge, and that the model was known as the NIG (New Ithaca Gun). It followed the earlier Baker model which was touted as the “Strongest, simplest, and best American gun manufactured.” In 1892 Ithaca introduced a hammerless double known as the Crass Model with serial numbers that ran through 94,108 although they continued with the hammer models. My hammer gun with twist steel Damascus barrels is serial numbered 30,147.

Ithaca double guns are classics, and the most coveted models are of the Flues line produced between 1909 and 1926. The most elaborately finished and expensive of the Flues models were known as “Sousa Grade” doubles.

When I think of John Philip Sousa, I think of an academic sort of fellow seated at a keyboard with pen in hand writing music. “The Stars and Stripes Forever” comes to mind. Little did I know that Sousa was a dedicated trap shooter who regularly competed on the national level. “Sousa Grade” guns were the best – typically inlaid with a solid gold pointer on one side of the receiver and a gold setter on the other. This was topped off with a very buxom mermaid of gold inlay on the trigger guard. Well John, I would like to have known you, and when I shoulder my very plain Ithaca, I’ll think of that golden mermaid – but only after I bag a bird or two.

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Our duck season, a complicated affair that requires great map-reading skills, is currently underway. “Low Plains North & Middle” opened September 25th. “High Plains” opens October 9th, and “Low Plains South,” for reasons that don’t make any sense to me, waits until October 23rd when those ducks on the Missouri River south of Wagner have been forewarned by Nebraska hunters.

See you next week.