NEWS

NRA Issues Statement on Charlton Heston

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre issued a statement yesterday afternoon in which he said he was "heavy hearted" at the passage of Charlton Heston. With his death, LaPierre says he, along with "four million NRA members and eighty million gun owners" has "lost a faithful friend."

USAMU Olympic Shooters Competing in Beijing World Cup

More than a dozen Olympian and Olympic hopefuls of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit of Fort Benning, Georgia, will be competing in the International Shooting Sport Federation Beijing World Cup April 11 to 21. The ISSF Beijing World Cup 2008 is the only shooting competition where the Soldier-athletes will be able to test their shooting skills at the new Olympic shooting venues prior to the Olympics.

Michel and Miculek Take Top Honors At Smith & Wesson 2008 US Steel Nationals

Facing off against the nation’s best shooters, Max Michel and Kay Clark Miculek captured the Men’s and Women’s titles the 2008 US National Steel Championships presented by Smith & Wesson. The match, now in its second year, was help at the Skip-J Range in Anderson, South Carolina, March 12-16, with 90 shooters competing.

Shooting USA Goes "Banging and Clanging"

It's high-speed, high-action and high-intensity. The United States Steel Championships feature the world's best practical shooters, burning ammo at a furious pace to take home the fastest gun title. All that action is featured this week on Shooting USA, only on the Outdoor Channel, followed by Sighting In with Shooting USA where viewers can learn how to reload their ammo to enhance accuracy and performance - and save big bucks.

Insight Introduces H2X Typhoon 2 Tactical Light

Insight Tech-Gear, introduces their next generation multi-functional tactical light with the New H2X Typhoon 2™. Designed as a hand-held or a weapons mountable light, the H2X typhoon uses a new 120 lumen, shock-proof high intensity LED.

HS Strut Offers Undertaker Chokes for Benelli M2 20 Gauge Shotguns

Hunter's Specialties® highly effective Undertaker® chokes are now available to fit Benelli's popular 20 gauge M2 shotgun. The 20 gauge is quickly becoming a favorite with many turkey hunters as they discover how effective it can be with the proper loads and chokes.

Winchester's New Safari Line Engineered For World's Toughest Game

Winchester's new Safari Ammunition line was engineered to not only tackle the toughest game in Africa and the rest of the continents with supreme confidence, but to provide performance and versatility in virtually any situation. Offered in the venerable .375 H&H Magnum, .416 Rigby and .458 Winchester Magnum, as well as the .416 Remington Magnum cartridge, the new Winchester® Safari line makes the most of these popular and proven African cartridges by pairing them with the finest bullet choices available - Nosler® Partition® and the new Nosler Solid™.

FEATURE

Ann Hoyt: One of History’s Best Archers

Ann Hoyt, widely regarded as one of the best archers in United States history, has died. Hoyt, 86, suffered from dementia and complications from a stroke.

In 1959, Hoyt won the International Field Archery Championships, and was the only woman to win both the USA National Target and Field Championships as well. In 1972, she was elected to the Archery Hall of Fame, in an inaugural class that included Fred Bear, Ben Pearson, Karl Palmatier and Russ Hoogerhyde.

Ann Weber Hoyt The only archer ever to hold national and international championships in two disciplines: target freestyle and field bare-bow.

Mrs. Hoyt began archery when she was 16 and a student in Bloomfield, New Jersey. By 1939, she was ranked fourth nationally by the National Archery Association, winning the National Archery Championship that same year.

After high school, she continued to add trophies and recognitions, bringing Montclair State Teachers College in Montclair, New Jersey four intercollegiate archery titles before her graduation in 1943.

In 1948, she married another top archer, Lloyd Corby. They traveled the country, sometimes performing together, with the attractive Ann paired with the archer she called a “showoff”. Their performances included a variety of trick and exhibition shooting routines, including one where Lloyd even shot a grapefruit off her head.

Ann & Lloyd Corby

Corby died in 1958, at which time Ann Weber Corby continued her competition, shooting a Hoyt bow. As she described in an interview, “Earl often stood behind my chair in the shooting line to watch me shoot…Sometime in the late 60’s, we started dating. Earl’s mom, Clara, (also a noted tournament shooter) had a hard time letting go, but we finally did get married.”

They stayed married for 34 years, until Hoyt’s death in 2001. Speaking of Hoyt, she once said, “Earl was the kindest, most generous man I have ever known. Together we made Archery History, he the designer and me the gal behind the bow. We made many records with his bow all over the world. Most top shooters of that era shot the Hoyt bow.”

Ann (Clark) and Ann (Hoyt)– the start of a lifelong friendship.

Following Hoyt’s death, she moved to Glendale, Ohio to live with longtime close friend and fellow archer Ann Clark.

There, Hoyt became part of Clark’s extended family, living happily among them until her death Saturday.

Looking on her life, Hoyt may have put the archery industry into a time capsule, at which she was one of the focal points: “I have seen much of the history in the making. From wood arrows to carbon, from wood bows to glass, from hand support for the arrow to modern launchers, from 150 feet per second to 300 feet per second and from recurves and straight bows to compounds. It has truly been a sport in transition. I can hardly wait to see the next major innovation that will change archery.”

The industry may change, but the contributions of Ann Hoyt certainly won’t.

--Jim Shepherd