Origin of Skeet

[Dean Romig]

Yesterday while searching through my many issues of “Hunting and Fishing” and “National Sportsman” magazines from the late 1920’s and 30's I came across this nice informative article by author Hy Gunn (which may have been the pen name of WHF) describing the origin of a shotgun game invented by two young men in Ballardvale, a village in Andover, MA.

I thought I would share it here for everyone’s enjoyment.

Notice the ad at the bottom for Glen Rock Kennels, 73 Dascomb Road where the Davies family lived and where Skeet was invented. I wrote an article in Parker Pages in 2012, Issue 2, titled “Davies’ and Foster’s Original Andover Skeet Field at Glen Rock Kennels” with pictures of the property I had taken just before the property had sold.
This ad was the biggest ad in the entire classified section, probably owing to the fact that William Harnden Foster was the editor and publisher of these two magazines and co-inventor of Skeet and a great friend of the Davies family.


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[John Bastiani]

Nice article! Wonder what gun Mr. George Knowles is shooting in the picture? I doubt is the Parker 410 skeet I'm looking for but who knows.

[Dean Romig]

Definitely a Parker (or a Fox pin gun) and likely a 16 or a 20.





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[Dean Romig]

Oops... I messed up. I neglected to include the beginning of the article in the first column - So here's how the story began.


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[Drew Hause]

Gertrude Hurlbutt



The May 1926 issue of National Sportsman announced the winner of the competition for naming the new shotgun game; Mrs. Gertrude Hurbutt of Dayton, Montana, and the new name, "Skeet," from an old Scandinavian word for shoot.

Remarkably, the Ithaca NID Skeet Special was advertised in the July 1926 National Sportsman, only two months after the game was named! Was the Ithaca Gun Co. tipped off in advance of the announcement in order to accelerate production of a designated skeet gun?



The L.C. Smith “Skeet Upland Special” was not introduced until 1928, and a Parker advertising brochure showing a "Special Skeet Gun" with “skeet-in/skeet-out” chokes not until 1932.

[Drew Hause]

Foster also designed a logo featuring a flying quail with superimposed clay target and shot pattern.



The NSSA was formed March 20, 1928 and announced in the May issues of National Sportsman and Hunting and Fishing magazines. William Harnden Foster was selected as the first president, and the name of the association and presumably the logo were proprietary to National Sportsman, Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts.
Foster introduced Skeet Shooting News in January 1931 and related the story of the development of the sport in Volume 1, No. 1.

[Drew Hause]

Another Foster National Sportsman skeet related cover. Would the background be the Remington Gun Club in Lordship, Connecticut?

[John Bastiani]

Originally Posted by Drew Hause

Another Foster National Sportsman skeet related cover. Would the background be the Remington Gun Club in Lordship, Connecticut?

Those gentlemen in the early 1900's must have had alot of respect for hunting, fishing and shooting events(skeet and trap) as they are always pictured wearing a tie and dress clothes. Most people today don't even wear a suit and tie to church anymore-blue jeans and T-shirts have become acceptable.

[Dean Romig]

It’s about respect for one’s self and others. Times and mores change, unfortunately.




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[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Drew Hause

Another Foster National Sportsman skeet related cover. Would the background be the Remington Gun Club in Lordship, Connecticut?

What’s the date by Foster’s signature? Looks like 1943...?





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