1926 Trapshooting Video

[Mike Murphy]

Nice film. I was however,struck by the apparent absolute lack of gun/shooting safety rules being observed. Walking around with closed actions, drinking while shooting, etc.

[Bill Murphy]

Fun to watch, huh? That's the way it was. Oh, that's the way it was ten years ago in some areas. I have been at drinking shoots, don't approve of them now, but then, it was what they did and I was free to go home.

[Bill Murphy]

By the way, I looked at the pictures of the Fox car in the DGJ Index article about Tom Kidd. Kidd's Fox car has a rounded hood like a Franklin, double suicide doors like a Franklin, and an air cooled engine like a Franklin. I have nothing more to say. Investigation continues. Who was first, the chicken Franklin or the egg Fox?

[Old and Reliable]

Originally Posted by Michael Murphy

Nice film. I was however,struck by the apparent absolute lack of gun/shooting safety rules being observed. Walking around with closed actions, drinking while shooting, etc.

--I never caught the Trap or Skeet "bug' but the Queen City Gun Club didn't allow alcohol on the premises- whether you were shooting or just watching. Wonder what these 'sports in suits' were drinking- I was going to guess "Old Overholt" but as some of these "Babbitt-look-alikes were wearing topcoats- perhaps as it was 1926 and the ill-advised Volstead Act was in force (or in farce)- it was maybe a fifth of "Old Overcoat" and the Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton look-alikes made both the shooting and the yachting party scenes great-- Lessee here- if Charlie Chaplin was shooting a 1926 mfg. Ithaca side-by-side at clays- would he then be "The Kid with a NID"?? If Fatty Arbuckle was shooting Trap with the second series of Ithaca SBTs- would he be "The Hick With a Knick" and the beat goes on!!!

[Bill Murphy]

Francis, my Grandfather's pigeon ring was run in conjunction with his "cafe". He didn't close down either until 1927, eight years into prohibition. I would assume that, as with most pigeon operations in Northeast Pennsylvania during prohibition, the selling of alcoholic drinks was part of the business. Read Canfield to get a feel for the time and the place. It is a great book, available at less than five bucks on amazon.com.

[B. Dudley]

Not to mention the pointing of the guns at the camera man.

Is that a Parker SBT that is being shot in the forground of the man at 1:25 in?
Maybe and Ithaca perhaps.