Miscellany Mondays: Skeet shooting & bird dogs

Invented in Andover, "Shooting around the clock"

Our story begins with William Harnden Foster (1886-1942).

William (Bill) Harnden Foster was born in Andover in 1886. His parents had moved from Tewksbury 3 years before and purchased a farm at 61 Porter Road. Bill Foster grew up in Andover. When he married, he bought a house on Chestnut St. But he spent much of his time with his father and grandfather learning to shoot on his grandfather’s farm in Tewksbury.

After graduating from Punchard High school in 1905, Bill went to the Museum School in Boston where he trained to become a commercial artist.

(Foster) submitted a collection of railroad illustrations to Scrib­ner’s Magazine. Not only did the magazine pay him an amazing sum, but it encouraged him to write a story about them, landing another skill in Foster’s toolbox. He embarked on a career of illustration and writing spanning a transitional era in transportation.

One of his memorable il­lustrations showed a 1909 Olds­mobile racing the 20th Century Limited, the New York Central’s famous train which ran for 65 years be­tween New York and Chica­go. Both companies became Foster’s clients for decades, and the Limited was a fa­vorite subject. Seven years after the Wright brothers first flight, Scribner’s published a collection of Foster’s illustrations of aircraft.¹

Foster worked for the publishing firm Charles Scribner’s Sons illustrating articles and books — including articles on the building of the Panama Canal. He was known for his sketches of airplanes, steam engines, trains, dogs, and birds.

After building a summer cabin in Freeport, Maine, Bill became friends with Leon Leonwood Bean, founder of L.L. Bean. In 1925, he provided cover illustrations for the company’s mail-order catalog. The first cover was of a hunter being surprised by a moose.²

Gallery wall at L.L. Bean in Freeport, Maine

Skeet Shooting

In 1915, Bill, high school friend Harry Davies, and Harry’s father, Charles Davies, decided to devise a way to practice their shooting skills off-season. They set up a 12-station shooting game in a field behind the Davies house at 73 Dascomb Road.³ The targets were set up in a circle, and they called the game “Shooting round the clock.”

Then a neigh­bor built some chicken houses and the circle had to be cut in half, which is how the game is still played today.⁴

Skeet field layout, http://nssa-nsca.club/all-about-skeet/american-skeet/

Ten years later, “Shooting around the clock” became known as “skeet shooting” when Bill, then editor of the Boston-based magazine, National Sportsman, offered a prize for a new name for the game. The winning name, “Skeet,” is said to be an Old Norse word for to shoot.

Today there are a number of categories of skeet shooting. “Skeet shooting” uses the half circle designed by Foster and his friends.⁵  In “Trap shooting,” the clay targets are launched from a single location.⁶ With “Sporting clays,” a complex course – often described as being like a golf course – is used. “Olympic Skeet” is a variation used in the Olympic Games with two throwing machines and 25 targets.⁷

Author

William Harnden Foster’s book, New England Grouse Hunting, published in 1942, is still considered to be the standard guide to everything and anything anyone would want to know about grouse shooting. It is filled with illustrations of dogs, grouse, and hunters.

ACHC #2007.051.1

Bill Foster, Andover native, artist, and editor, was an avid game and waterfowl shooter and a noted bird dog handler. He preferred setters over the more popularly used pointers — a point he makes clear in his book.

Illustrations from the chapter, The Grouse Dog, ACHC #2007.051.1

In addition being editor of National Sportsman, Foster was also editor of Hunting and Fishing magazine. He often served as a judge in bird dog (cover dog) field trials.⁸

The above photo of the Grand National Grouse Championships was taken at the back of the Andover Country Club in 1945.

Unfortunately, Bill Foster was not part of these trials, nor did he live to see his book published in 1942. He died at the age of 55 of a heart attack, doing what he loved, judging a grouse dog field trial in Connecticut in October 1941.

The William Harnden Foster Awards are still awarded at the Grand National Grouse Club’s Annual Championship event for the best Cover Shooting Dog and Handler of the Year.

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~Elaine

1. Larz F. Neilson, Wilmington Town Crier, July 1, 2017 http://homenewshere.com/wilmington_town_crier/news/article_3b4194d6-5ce1-11e7-bc94-d7911609bb86.html

2. LL Bean gallery wall, Freeport, Maine, http://gallerytalk-lars.blogspot.com/2013/03/ll-bean-catalog-cover-art.html

3. 73 Dascomb road, https://preservation.mhl.org/73-dascomb-road

4. Neilson, Wilmington Town Crier, http://homenewshere.com/wilmington_town_crier/news/article_3b4194d6-5ce1-11e7-bc94-d7911609bb86.html

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeet_shooting

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_shooting

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISSF_Olympic_skeet

8. https://strideaway.com/william-harnden-foster/