The Boy Wonder

[Drew Hause]

Recreation April 1899



Sporting Life Dec. 10, 1898
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrar.../SL3212013.pdf
"What Phenomenal Guy Grigsby Has Achieved With His Parker Gun"
The Parker gun, in the hands of Master Guy Grigsby, of Louisville, Ky. (the 13-year old wonder of the shooting world), is entitled to special mention. Master Guy won the Kentucky Futurity, a 50 live bird match, at the Kentucky Gun Club grounds, on Nov. 24, 1898, with 49 kills and one dead out of bounds. He killed 44 straight, losing his fifth bird, dead out, hit hard with both barrels.
He also won the Nelson County Fair handicap, score 14 out of 15. On Nov. 18, in another match, he killed 18 straight, all he shot at. On Nov. 23 he won the club "gold" button, killing 10 straight.
All of these phenomenal scores were made in company with Kentucky's best trap shots, and there are many and some good ones. Master Guy is small for his age, weighing 75 pounds, and has always shot a Parker gun. He uses a 12-bore, 28-inch "Titanic steel" barrel gun, weighing 7 1/2 pounds, and in the Futurity had a 25yds. handicap.
Master Guy says the Parker gun is superb (as do many others) and that it is correctly named the "Old Reliable."

Shoot report
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrar.../SL3207012.pdf
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrar.../SL3211011.pdf

Sporting Life April 1, 1899
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrar.../SL3302013.pdf
If you want a calendar from March, 1899, to March, 1900, address Parker Bros., Meriden, Conn. It will be sent to any individual by Parker Bros, on receipt of 10 cents in stamps to pay postage, or free to any gun club. It is a handsome calendar. Among the portraits will be found some thirty "Parker gun" enthusiasts, including thirteen-year old Guy Grigsby of Louisville, Ky., who killed 49 Handicap with his "Titanic" steel Parker out of 50 birds, winning the Louisville gun. Besides the portraits there is much valuable statistical information on the calendar.

[Dean Romig]

Amazing!

When I was 13 I weighed 110 and I was shooting a 12 gauge Trojan with 28" barrels.

That gun about clobbered me each time I shot it. I can not imagine shooting it fifty times in a row, much less imagine a kid 35 lbs. lighter than me doing it and scoring on each and every shot!!






.

[Drew Hause]

Old news Scroll down to Dave Miles' post in 2006!
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/fo...g-form.165010/

[Phil C]

Did he go on to shoot as an adult?

[Harry Collins]

I bet the young lad took a lot of back slapping congratulations that day. J.D. Gay, age 24, was also present. The towering 6'4" Gay shot his AAH that was ordered in April of 1897 a few months after he lost the World Championship to J.A.R. Elliot in Louisville. Elliot was shooting a Winchester pump and Gay a Parker. A. Clay is just another name on the roster, but the family still lives in the Bluegrass and are great people. Many other named as shooters are still here, as well. I have a picture of Gay's AAH Parker, but unable to upload for some reason. It had burned in a house fire in 1977 and was restored.

[Drew Hause]

Harry: I can't find a 1897 Championship in Louisville unless it was the state match. J.A.R. Elliott won the American Live Bird Championship in 1897 in Rochester, N.Y.
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrar.../SL2923024.pdf

J.D. Gay in 1895
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrar.../SL2517025.pdf

1898
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrar.../SL3203013.pdf

BTW: there is nothing in the Sporting Life Archives about Master Guy after 1899. Musta discovered girls

[Harry Collins]

I found it.

[Drew Hause]

Here 'tis Harry
Sporting Life 1-23-1897
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrar.../SL2818018.pdf

[Harry Collins]

This stuff fascinates me Drew. It wasn't jump in the car and drive a few hundred miles on the interstate. It was get someone to take you to the train station by horse and buggy. From J.D. Gay's home in Pine Grove to Hilltop in Bourbon County is about a half hour trip today by car. Then it was an overnighter.

[Drew Hause]

And dangerous. While touring the South with the 1904 U.M.C. squad, the great Rolla Heikes acquired Typhoid fever and his son Horace, Malaria.