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Is it a Swiffer Sweeper? A Stormtrooper bring-back from Tatooine? A spud gun for carrots? All of the above are incorrect. This beauty of simplicity is the Ljutic Space Gun. With a name like that, it could only come from California.

Al Ljutic was a renaissance man of the 20th century. A California native of Croatian heritage, he was a rifle maker, competition rifle shooter, and heavyweight boxing champion. He was a member of the ill-fated 1940 US Olympic Team and designed several firearms for other manufacturers including Winchester’s Model 100 rifle.

Working with his father who had similar talents, the two ran the Ljutic Gun Company in the Fresno area. One day in 1955, a close friend and Remington field rep by the name of AA Reil called to invite Ljutic to go trap shooting with him the next day. It was only after he agreed that Ljutic figured out that he didn’t have a shotgun at his disposal, so rather than go back on a promise, he designed and built one by the end of the day.

It was a basic single shot firearm and was ugly, but it worked and would become the basis for the Space Gun.

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com