IN CONVERSATION - Clay Shooting USA

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30 BUSINESSMAN Championship with an impressive 548 out of 550 – which at that time had only been accomplished once in all of skeet history. He was such a talented shooter (in such a short period of time) that he was sought out by Trinity University’s Tom Hanzel, the then foremost college shotgun shooting coach. Trinity’s shotgun team was without peer. Robert had switched to Remington 1100s in all four gauges for the 1971 season, but once at Trinity he switched to a Perazzi 12 gauge – fitted with full-length tubes in the three smaller gauges. He graduated from Trinity in 1975, and that same year, just about two months after graduation, he again won the World High Overall Skeet Championship – this time with a 549 out of 550, the highest High Overall score ever up until that time. (It was in 1976 that Charlie Parks shot the first ever 550.) Robert also won the Champion of Champions event in 1974 and 1975. Robert gives a lot of credit to his grandfather, the already Amazingly, in only his second year of four-gun competition, when only 17 years old, he won the High Overall at the World Skeet Championship with an impressive 548 out of 550 – which at that time had only been accomplished once in all of skeet history. mentioned R. C. Pope. Although never a competition clay target shooter, Pope was a champion smallbore rifle shooter in the 1930s and ’40s and went to all of Robert’s early matches. He knew how to win – and he carefully imparted that knowledge to Robert. In 1978 Robert saw a then new gun that he really liked at the Dallas Gun Club. “It looked a bit different – and even had a removable trigger,” he recalled. That gun was a Rottweil. Somehow he got with the right people and went to Germany to visit the factory. At that time the company made an over and under tailored to International Skeet, but Robert convinced Rottweil to come out with an American skeet model made to his specifications, together with full-length sub-gauge tubes, and came home with the ‘exclusive’ Rottweil dealership for the United States. “That’s how my career started in the shotgun business.” ABOVE: IN THE 1970S AND BEYOND,THIS 5-MAN TEAM,THE COSMIC COWBOYS, WERE THE TERROR OF ALL SKEET-DOM. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT – PAT BARTELL,TITO KILLIAN, RICKY POPE, BUBBA WOOD AND ROBERT PAXTON.TOP: FAMED REMINGTON INDUSTRY SHOOTER, TEACHER AND AUTHOR D. LEE BRAUN, WITH A VERY YOUNG ROBERT PAXTON. RIGHT: SPORTS AFIELD’S JIMMY ROBINSON ALWAYS PICKED THE SPORTS AFIELD ALL- AMERICAN TEAMS – BOTH SKEET AND TRAP. HERE’S JIMMY WITH ANOTHER VERY YOUNG ROBERT PAXTON – BUT ALREADY AN ALL-AMERICAN. Skeet and Sporting Paxton Arms is not a ‘walk-in’ gun shop. There is no banner or sign hanging outside and you won’t find any rifles, handguns, trap guns or hunting guns for sale here – only sporting and skeet guns. When sporting clays hit our shores in the mid 1980s Robert saw the potential and hopped right on the bandwagon. Though not a serious sporting clays competitor, he definitely enjoys the game. “After 39 years of clay target competition,” Robert explains, “I’m still basically a skeet bum - as is my wife Mary DiGiovani (also an All American).” Even after all those years, he still shoots thousands of competition skeet targets CLAYSHOOTINGUSA
32 BUSINESSMAN AT THE NATIONAL GUN CLUB IN SAN ANTONIO ROBERT PAXTON AND HIS WIFE, MARY DIGIOVANI, STAND IN FRONT OF THEIR “STORE” ON VENDOR’S ROW. every year and always makes the All-American Team. How about current gun sales? “Ours is a small business, relatively speaking, in that we specialize in sporting and skeet shotguns. Consequently, our business is hardly reflective of gun sales nationally. I know some companies have been having a very hard time, but we have not. Frankly, skeet shooting is not growing, but sporting clays certainly is. I think there’s a lot more excitement in sporting – purely because of the target variation. “Don’t forget that skeet started not only with a low gun, but the original skeet layout was designed to provide shooters with all the various angles that gunners would find in the field. Well – sporting changed all that. Sporting now offers shooting angles and sporting shots that no one could even imagine in the 1930s – as well as so many different target types,” says Robert. While sporting gun sales may have leveled off during the difficult Sporting now offers shooting angles and sporting shots that no one could even imagine in the 1930s – as well as so many different target types,” says Robert. ROBERT NOW SHOOTS A KRIEGHOFF K-80, BUT OVER THE YEARS HE HAS COMPETED WITH MANY OTHER SHOTGUN MODELS AND TYPES. economic times, Robert still sees significant potential for the future, mainly because of new shooters taking up sporting. “Most small skeet clubs have struggled to survive, while clubs that have added sporting and 5-Stand have pulled out of the financial doldrums. Sporting clays really did come on phenomenally fast – its popularity has grown much faster than did skeet or even trap.” Valuable Advice Based in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, this ‘gun shop’ is simply an office in an office park. Walk-in trade is only via appointment – and there is not a great deal of that. Most of Robert’s business, at least initial business with a potential buyer, comes via the ’phone – most often a reference from an already satisfied customer or someone responding to his strong marketing and advertising. He doesn’t want the ‘general public’ to know there are shotguns in his office. Virtually every one of his gun sales takes place one on one – often following an in-depth conversation that can often last nearly an hour – sometimes more. Because Robert is a recognized clay champion himself, he offers his customers a unique perspective. Where else can you go to purchase a sporting gun from a person who has shot literally millions of clay targets and competed at the highest levels? Further, a large percentage of the guns he sells are shipped rather than picked up. At Paxton Arms you can’t buy just any sporting or skeet gun. They only carry four lines – Krieghoff, Kolar, Beretta and Blaser. “These are the finest competition sporting clays guns made today,” says Robert. Obviously, he takes competition shotguns in on trade, so he does have other models on his used rack – but even many of these are one of the four brands mentioned. Personal Choice Robert taught shotgunning skills at one time, but for many years now he has devoted his vocational life to Paxton Arms. The Rottweil was his initial choice of shotgun for 10 years, before switching to a Beretta 687 EELL for another decade – though during that period he also shot a prototype of the current Kolar competition model. From the EELL he went to Beretta’s ASE 90 but for the last six seasons he has shot a Krieghoff K-80. In his 39 years of shooting competition, Robert has been on 39 All American Teams – 26 Open First Teams and 12 Open Second Teams. What a record. He has held the skeet .410 long run at 469, the 28 gauge long run at 857 and currently holds the 20 gauge long run at 2173. He shoots his K-80 with 20 gauge tubes in both 12 and 20 gauge events. He was inducted into the Texas Skeet Shooters Hall of Fame in 1985 and into the National Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame in 1995. He has shot eighteen 400 x 400s, two 500 x 500s and has won the Texas State High Overall Skeet Championship nine times. He has so many other shooting accomplishments that they are just too numerous to cover. Unquestionably, Robert Paxton is one of our most accomplished shooters. Not surprisingly, he’s only ever had one real job – selling competition sporting clays and skeet guns. (www.paxtonarms.com) ■ Nick Sisley can be contacted at nicksisley@hotmail.com CLAYSHOOTINGUSA
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IN CONVERSATION - Clay Shooting USA

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