GUNS Magazine September 1956

On the way to setting his unequalled world record of 1404 shots without a For 1404 times JoeHiestand shouldered
miss, Joe Hiestand looks at his score compared with Remington pro shooter his heavy Ithaca trap gun to break
Fred Tomlin's high score which the latter shot with a Parker trap gun. record number of birds before missing.
VERY YEAR IN AUGUST the tiny western Ohio com-
E munity of Vandalia becomes the trapshooting capital
of the world. The "nation's crossroads" where the eastwest
National Pike, U. S. Route 40, meets the Dixie Highway,
U. S. Route 25, going North and South, is also the
permanent home of the Amateur Trapshooting Association,
governing body of the sport. And each year the ATA holds
the Grand American Handicap trapshooting contest at
Vandalia.
On opening day hundreds of trapshooters arrive for this
annual classic, coming from practically every state in the
Union, Canada, the Canal Zone, Alaska and Cuba. Followers
of trapshooting from every walk of lifemen,
women and mere children, young and old, weak and strong,
including the maimed, shoulder a scattergun, call for the
elusive clay target, press the trigger and hope Lady Luck
will smile upon them and help them win the $10,000 grand
prize.
Day after day the tourney goes on, with a monotonous
and seemingly never-ending cry of "Pull!" followed by the
announcement of the referee. Invariably, the cry is
"Dead!" for assembled at Vandalia will be the cream of
the continent's trapshooters, competing for the numerous
events scheduled by the organization, and listing more than
40 championships among the teams and individuals taking
part-
Almost two million shells are expended during the nine
days in which the target-smashing goes on. Each of these
shotgun shells has lya ounces of shot pellets, so that almost
70 tons of lead will be deposited on the sod beyond the
traphouses, quite a contrast to the status of the land prior h k
hone Logan B-ett of H~dgmde, Ky., claimed
to. its acquisition by the ATA. In the past the present $10,000 purse in 1955 to outshoot 2,024 top trapgunners.
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