October 2026 (1) - Flipbook - Page 33
“According to family lore, Paul Shuttleworth traded his train set for
his first gun at age 12, the beginning of a life-long love of the shooting
sports. During his time in the Air Force he worked on everything
from handguns to atomic bombs, but single shot rifles became his
passion. As a young man of modest means his salary was reserved for
supporting his family so his hobby needed to be self-funding. Paul
would haunt gun shows looking for bargains and projects, learning
skills and acquiring tools over the years. There was a man in New
Jersey who had been making reproduction stocks, and when that man
retired Paul was compelled to build a stock duplicator and started a
small mail-order business out of his garage. His daughter Gail began
shaping stocks at age 13, and all 3 of his daughters would take up
shooting.
Finding himself unemployed at age
57, Paul decided to merge his love of
shooting with his years of
manufacturing experience and
build complete rifles. The Stevens
44 ½ was the obvious choice for him:
the strong action had excellent
double set triggers, a fast lock time
and a take-down design making it
easy to fit and change barrels. The
first prototypes were done in 1988
and production was soon underway.
The first rifles were Pope-style for
o昀츀and shooting and CPA Rifles
remains the primary source for new
Schuetzen rifles today. A big jump in
demand came with the growing
popularity of black powder
cartridge rifle silhouette shooting,
and many national championships
have been won with CPA Stevens 44
½ rifles.
God Bless Black Powder!
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