We showed up gunned up. Ten shotguns minimum, ranging from a 34" single-barrel LC Smith to my personal favorite, a side-by Abbiatico & Salvinelli .410, hand-engraved by Galeazzi himself. My dad loved to shoot a gold-inlaid Remington 1100—a 12 gauge he’d used to help him win the California State Skeet Championship in 1964. In all the years we shot together, I never saw him miss with that gun. We would show up to the range early, and stay all day long. Most days we shot a twenty box case. Apiece.
Word got around. Our gear held up because it was built by people who used it. We weren’t guessing. We were field-testing.
That reputation led us to open gun stores all over the west. Our biggest account by far was Orvis in San Francisco. The store manager in San Francisco introduced me to Rick Wendland, the manager at the Orvis store in Houston Texas. I sent Rick a few samples. He called back saying, “Hey man, love your stuff. Come out, show me everything you’ve got—and let’s shoot some sporting clays.”
I said, “Sporting what?”
He laughed, explained the basics, the history of how the sport originated and invited me to Houston to shoot at Highland Bend Shooting School in Fulshear, Texas—a former Orvis-owned sporting clays course turned public, run by Jay Herbert.
Rick told me to bring as many guns as I could carry. In those days you could check a bag with a take down gun in your suit case, wrap it in foam, and have no problems with security. I brought 5 guns: the LC Smith for something called “ZZ’s”, the 1100, an 870 pump 410, the Abbiatico, and my Perazzi four-barrel set. We met at the Orvis store that Saturday morning, then drove out to the course. The course, and sport, was so new and then unknown, that all day long it was just me and Rick. That day, simply put, was like heroin. We shot it all: rabbit clays, minis, midis, stick birds. And of course, ZZs. Which is a story unto itself. By the end of the day, I was completely hooked.
That trip was a turning point. I came home knowing that Sporting Clays would be the shooting sport that would transform organized target shooting, and our business. I had a clear vision for what our products needed to become. We started designing gear for sporting clays: field-tested, durable, and purpose-built for the unique needs of the the new breed of clay shooter.
From then on, we weren’t just outfitting skeet and trap shooters—we were supporting the fastest-growing sport in the shooting world. I shot wherever there was a clays course. Throughout California and the East Coast. I was named to board of United States Sporting Clays Association. We spent the coming years refining gear for people who take their shooting seriously, and wanted to use gear that was sophisticated, but not showy. Gear that looked like it was gifted thru the generations by ancestors that cared.
The Highland Bend series is a product of that evolution, and honors the impact that course had on the sport and our business.
Crafted with knowledge earned through competition, conversation, and time on the course. From shell pouches, gun cases and range bags, everything is built from a shooter’s perspective.