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The Red Cross, Badger Pass, Croatia, Victor McLaglen, The Green Bay Packers, The University of California at Fresno – as unrelated as these may seem, all these places and people played some role in the story of one of America’s most celebrated and respected specialty gun companies. In the spring of 1951, a lovely and wonderfully athletic young girl named Nadine Nichols was taking in the beauty of the hillsides of Badger Pass in the Yosemite Valley. At the time, Nadine was a member of the ski team and racing for the University of California at Fresno. On this day, she was enjoying herself on the slopes. With her natural athletic ability, Nadine traversed the hills, moguls and slaloms with ease. The day was bright and beautiful, and it seemed nothing could change the way things were going.
Then a young, handsome gentleman somehow guided his skis directly in front of Nadine. She was less than amused and loudly voiced her opinion of his obvious lack of skiing talent as she tried to keep a straight course. He continued his path down the hill in her way. Nadine had had enough. She made a deft maneuver across the back of this scoundrel’s skis and away he went, down the hill head-over-heels. After he landed in a heap at the bottom of the hill, Nadine happened upon him and he and she exchanged pleasantries, with no obvious hard feelings between them.
A year later, Nadine was visiting the home of Victor and Suzanne McLaglen. Victor was an Academy Award winner and often co-starred with John Wayne. Nadine was tutoring Suzanne in becoming a Red Cross swimming instructor. Nadine was a Master Red Cross Swim Instructor. Later that afternoon, guess who showed up at the house with Victor? You guessed it, the scoundrel of the ski slopes! Unbeknownst to Nadine, Al Ljutic was Victor’s gunsmith.
These chance meetings were a bit odd, but soon the rascal began to grow on Nadine and they began to date. Dates included settings like the Kingsburg Gun Club in Kingsburg, California. The happy couple wed on July 3, 1952 below Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite National Park. According to Nadine, Al chose the date for the wedding. His reasoning was Nadine’s birthday was the 5th of July, and with the Fourth of July holiday sandwiched between, it was easier for him to remember.
In my interview with Nadine, I learned quite a bit about Al’s work with his father and some of Al’s other talents. Before he became famous for building super-reliable, custom trap guns, Al was a riflemaker. In fact, he and his father were both superb rifle shooters.
Read on, Page 2
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