From the Editor

A welcome addition to our departments: Guncraft

Longtime readers of Shooting Sportsman know well the name Vic Venters. Vic has been writing for the magazine almost since its inception, and he has been a fixture on the masthead since becoming the Gun Review Editor in the fall of 1996. Later that year he signed on as our Associate Editor, moving to Maine to work in our home office, and several years after that he was promoted to Senior Editor. Vic gave up his Gun Review duties in 2002, and he left Maine to return to his native North Carolina the following spring. Today Vic remains our Senior Editor as well as a valuable consultant and correspondent for the magazine.

During his time with SSM, Vic has written on everything from quail conservation in the South to gunning partridge in Spain, and he has traveled extensively to report on the wingshooting scene in the US and abroad (see his article “Shooting in Slovakia,” p. 88). But Vic’s real passion always has been guns. Between his review columns, feature articles on gunmakers and their products, and Gazette items on happenings in the trade, he has covered all aspects of the business and met most of the major players in the fine-gun world. He has made numerous trips to the gunmaking centers of the UK and Continental Europe and in so doing has gained access to some of the back rooms and workshops most of us will never see. These experiences give Vic a perspective and insight into the gunmaking process that, combined with his desire to understand how things work and his strict attention to detail, make his articles resonate with not only aficionados passionate about guns but also the craftsmen who make them.

Which is why when Vic approached me recently about writing a new column for SSM, I said yes immediately. We had been hoping to add a technical gun department to the magazine, and Vic’s proposal fit the bill. I especially appreciated Vic’s motives for developing the column: to honor the trade’s craftsmen and document skills and methods that may become obsolete.

In his words: “The idea for the column came after visiting fine-gun factories in the UK and Italy and seeing how computer-assisted technology is increasingly able to replicate the traditional skills that once helped distinguish hand-built from machine-made guns. There is no question we are now in a new Golden Age of fine gunmaking —where makers are able to combine hand-craftmanship with modern manufacturing to produce superb guns in stunning varieties. Superb guns likely will be part of the future, but we may be at a watershed where the sort of hand-craftsmanship that has existed since Man first began forging arms and armor may disappear in the not-too-distant future. In the years to come fine guns may be built by programmers, with craftsmen, such as they are, relegated to assembling perfectly manufactured components. We are not there yet, but it is not difficult to imagine.”

As for topics, he said, “Within the context of craftsmanship and double guns, I envision the column to be wide-ranging: from gun-restoration techniques and philosophies, to engraving and engravers, to craft techniques applicable to each stage of fine-gun making. I also will examine the trends and technologies that are changing—or have changed—the face of gunmaking, from cartridge technology to the impact of CNC and CAD.”

The title, Guncraft, was sourced from a 1930s Holloway catalog and, according to Vic, seemed consistent with his intent for the series: “to explore the old-fashioned craft—and craftsmen—of gunmaking.”

The first installment of Guncraft appears on page 122 and describes the exemplary work that Ken Duglan and his team at Atkin Grant & Lang are doing to refurbish older “best” guns. This piece complements Vic’s feature “An Atkin for Morgan” (p. 78), and read together they are a paean to the rich traditions and skills appreciated by fine-gun enthusiasts the world over.

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