This was my uncle; he was president of Hydra-Shok Corporation. They used to sell out of the back of Shotgun News & other similar outlets as in the pic. Those piercing eyes...impossible to forget.

Richard "Dick" Bauman was a Korean war vet, worked at Elmira State prison in NY and later opened "Hill Top Gun Shop" in Odessa, NY. The address in the ad was his personal home and he and his business partner Tom Burczynski started Hydra-Shok as a side-business to make improved self defense loads.

They won the 1986 DOJ contract to outfit federal law enforcement with more lethal cartridges; believe this came out of the infamous Miami drug shootout. I spent a summer working with Uncle Dick and Tom B. out of an old school they bought in Millport NY, believe it was 1988 or so. They ultimately couldn't keep up with demand so licensed the design to Federal Ammunition eventually selling the patents to them (and retiring).



I took these pics in the basement when we were up for a funeral for another of my aunts. There were leftovers all over the place; Uncle Dick had died a few years before and my aunt had a dealer clear out all the old gun shop inventory (including tons of new/old stock Colts & Smith & Wesson revolvers and handguns)

I bought one at the corner drug store when I was a kid, pre-high school, every time a new edition came out (IIRC, it was every two weeks).

Read just about every word in it in every edition until I went off to the Army in '65 and returned in '68. I subscribed to it after I got home for years.

As a boy I never could come up with the $ to buy one of those 1891 Argentine Mausers ($19.95), but finally got the $5 to buy the Bayonet for it through Shotgun News.

A few years after I finished Law School, I got the Argentine Mauser from my LGS who got it from some guy's widow who got it from SGN (IIRC). It was nearly mint and shot really well with 7.65 Argentine reloads.

I miss the SGN and those days of my life.

Bob

Oh, how do I miss the good old days. I found out about SGN in the early 90's.

I was heavy into HK back then and scored a couple of great HK's from all over the country.
I recall that I subscribed finally and my issues were sent to me USPS Priority.

Until then I would have to get the latest issue at a place called Tower Records & Books.
I always loved the look on the clerk's face when I would pay for SGN, she didn't approve, lol

From Mothers stuff. She passed a month ago at 100. This is from a collection of 1910,11,12 clippings from her Mother.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
It has morphed into a magazine called Firearms News.
I think.

Correct. Same kind of stuff just made like a magazine now. I got a sweetheart deal so I subscribed. I am pretty sure it was 12 issues for around $12. It is pretty expensive to get it off the newsstands.

I loved SGN! Dad would bring one home occasionally and I would spend hours going through it.

Those were the days...

Oh, I LOVED the Shotgun News! I waited for that new edition and also mooned over the specials, lol. Did get some good deals from the ads too.

I haven’t seen it for sale in such a long time, I had just assumed it was out of publication years ago. I spent a lot of time daydreaming about the stuff in those ads.

I remember buying them as thinking, who is gonna buy the cheap Romy ak-47 rifles for only $100. Now, I wish I would have bought a few dozen of them.

I was at a store today with a magazine section today; and found myself looking for a copy in its current iteration. Didn't see it, so a copy of American Handgunner came home with me instead. Used to enjoy looking at all the mil-surp stuff being offered, like most of us here.

Wow glad you guys remembered this as well. Anyone got a copy still laying around ? I’d love to see a pic of one of the old ad pages. They would Jam as many items / guns on the page as they could . Sideways , crooked , tiny it didn’t matter. They were using every inch of the page to advertise their goods. Damn . Good old days.