A Tribute to Al Ljutic, a legend in our sport of trapshooting, from Dan Orlich

Al and I first met in the early 1950's. He was the assistant gun club manager at Harolds Gun Club in Reno, Nv. working with manager and trapshooting great, Phil Miller. Al was young, brash, hard headed, outspoken, AND brilliant! He had no equal in a machine shop; always thinking, experimenting, inventing new things, and never satisfied.....until one day in 1960, he had what he thought was the perfect, single barrel trap gun (aptly named the Ljutic mono gun). All he needed now, as he put it, "was someone to shoot the damn thing." I had done some good shooting in the 50's so he came to me and asked if I would give it a try. In addition to the other "adjectives" I ascribed to him, he was very persuasive, so try I did! After 6 months I told him I would like to continue shooting it, but only on one condition...that he put a "BIG" serial #1 on it. He did, and the rest is history.

He used a pump prior to the Ljutic and it has been reported to have been a Model 31
Prior to shooting Ljutic Bi Gun #1 for doubles he used a Model 32

Congratulations John. Quite an accomplishment.

Flying the colors.

Way to go John.:bowdown

John,
Great work. I am so excited for you!

Buddy

From what research I’ve done there is very little information about the make and model of the guns. But I’ll look deeper.

CONGRATS John! Outstanding!!

My run at this year’s Grand is over and I’m headed home. I finished up yesterday with a 99x100 in the Champion of Champions event, which wasn’t good enough to keep me in the carry over for ties in today’s singles event. There were 5 other State Champions who ran them. I’ve had a great run and figured I’d quit while I was ahead. Besides, I’ve been away from the farm long enough and the crops need tending.

As a final word, any of you out there who might be shy about competing with your Parker (or other favorite vintage trap gun) in an ATA registered target event, don’t be. They will crush just as many targets as any modern space gun out there, as long as you do your part. Remember, there is no substitute for practice.

Hard to believe that a 99 wouldn't be enough. That's rarified air.

Congratulations on a great performance.

Most ATA or NSSA 100 bird Champ of Champ events take a 100 to get into the actual race (the shoot offs).