Some of the many words of wisdom from the great Shooter, Sportsman, and American
Herb Parsons:
"Hunt WITH your son or daughter, and you will never have to hunt FOR them"
"You show me a good sportsman, and I'll show you a good American"
"It's just as important to be a good sportsman as it is to be a good shot".
A story about Herb Parsons and the movie Winchester 73,
by his son Lynn
In 1950 my father's shooting schedule in Florida was interrupted and he was flown across the country to Hollywood to serve as a consultant on the movie WINCHESTER 73, starring Jimmy Stewart. The storyline of the movie revolves around possession of a very special "1-of-1000" Winchester rifle, model 73. In a contest for the rifle, the protagonists tie at shooting still targets, so a shootoff involves shooting a metal link taken from the necklace of an Indian among the crowd of onlookers and tossed into the air. Stewart's character shoots at the washer which falls to the ground untouched. He then maintains he must have shot through the center (hole) of the washer. A stamp is placed over the hole and the washer is rethrown. These washer shots were ACTUALLY MADE by my father standing off camera (see attachment) This was in the days before trick photography and computers. Authenticity was the only option!
The model 71 rifle my father used is now on loan to the Cody Firearms Museum of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, (see attachment) as is the necklace the Indian wore in the movie. Embedded in the stock of the rifle is a shot Universal Studios medallion and engraved on the stock are the autographs of all the actors in the movie (The signatures cannot be seen in the picture.)
Around 1985, Universal Pictures released a laserdisc (remember those?!) which contained, along with the movie, an interview with Jimmy Stewart discussing his career and the making of WINCHESTER 73, including this particular scene. JUST LAST WEEK Universal Studios released this program in DVD format! It can be purchased on Amazon.com . It is worth the money just to hear Jimmy Stewart talk about his horse!.......and now you know some other "trivia" which no one else knows! Thought you might be interested.
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