The following article was published in February 2013 by Neil Winston. Just recently, Neil told me he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and had little time left. He also told me he would be gifting me the Pro Stock gun back. At the time I told him I’d make a wall hanger out of it. He told me, don’t do that, put it out there where it belongs, shooting targets.
Our family discussed what to do with the gun together we decided to pay it forward. We have a shooting family member who is currently fighting cancer as well, Chris Morton out of North Carolina. Chris has been a very good friend and competitive shooter for many years. He slowed down when he became a family man, a father, and a great husband. We have decided to put this piece of Ithaca Gunworks history up for raffle to raise money for Chris & his family.
Denny Tubbs – From Turkeyshoot.net
I had the privilege of building Neil Winston, past president of the ATA, an Ithaca Prostock not for target shooting, but general pattern testing, comparing our world of sporting guns against the world's best patterning shotguns in the trap shooting. Here is a recent summary posted by Neil on the trapshooter.com forum, Thanks again Neil! It's been my pleasure working with you!!
Subject: Card shooting barrel?
From: Neil Winston
Date: Thu, Feb 21, 2013 - 09:21 PM ET
You may remember two Decembers ago when a couple of members posted pictures purportedly of patterns they shot. In one case it was claimed that the gun-owner had not only bought the tightest shooting gun in the world, he sold it and then bought the new candidate for "tightest shooting gun in the world." Another guy, call him lNDR, did better than that!
It was all bull of course, but it did make me wonder just how tight a gun could be made to shoot at 40 yards. That lead me to the friendliest site which was, if possible, less reality based that the three claims I just cited, but there was likely something there. It just didn't seem possible that all these guys were kidding themselves about something so easy to check as a letter being blown out or pellets being counted.
I checked around and finally met, online, Denny Tubbs of Gunworks. He was understandably wary at first; he had been online and knew that it was not a place to risk your reputation on. But we got together, and he built me a card gun biased for the shells we shot (and they don't). So, he didn't guarantee anything beyond his pledge that he would do his best.
I ran out of survivable weather before I could test the whole rig, but what it has done tells me that that yes, this is the undisputed record-holder of tightness among my guns. It's a pattern difference you can actually see and that's a record right there! But that's not the whole story. Besides being a record-breaking performer, it's a wonderful gun. The action is perfectly smooth, the trigger (though heavier than I like) is at the very top end of feel, lack of creep (zero), and "snappiness." The fit and finish are flawless, and it just radiates performance. I've bought custom guns from Europe and America, plenty of them. This Gunworks Ithaca is a match for any of them in quality, workmanship, and a commitment to giving my money's worth. It's a high, high quality shotgun, obviously made by someone who cares. I look at it now and wonder "Who would have guessed that Upper Sandusky is where something like this could be born?"

Dave Tubbs
Back in 2012-13 I joined shotgunworld.com, as may of you know back then I was heavyweight champ of idiot internet fights and I was looking for some fresh meat being Dad & Linda booted me from Turkeyshoot.net. I’ve slowed down over the years lol. Anyways at that time Gunworks as a company was taking off as we had secured a deal with Ithaca Gun Company to develop a O/U Trap gun. My thought at the time was very forward thinking that idea was showing the birth of a new gun development from concept to market. I wanted to let the end user see the development and what made my product stand apart from what everyone else did, I wanted the user feedback and I wanted to establish relationships with the end user. Why? Because my goal for the project was to develop a following outside of my own market and give Ithaca a modern identity that even to this day they lack, it was what is now in 2019 as brand building 101. Those at the time at Ithaca failed to grasp the concept of an interactive online presence so they vetoed it in process. Ultimately between that and arguing with Randy Wakeman (internet gun writer reviewer, also a paid buddy of former Ithaca MGR) that ended the trial run of development of that project. It was in those side arguments with others that Neil found us and reached out to us seeking to discover something outside the box of his gun world. Paths that would have been far less likely to cross if ever. Anyways long story short even in bad moments (arguments) something great can come of it. Neil’s position in the gun world was one that comes with credibility and the highest level of respect, his words hold value. Imagine this, there are those who can say you are great who are not as knowledgeable or equal, and there are those who are the bar. Neil is a bar in his industry he’s in a spot that you look up on the totem pole and you want to end up next to or surpass.
I met Chris and family back in the early-mid 2000’s at that time this stuff wasn’t my life I was just an occasional shooter and Dad was building some awesome guns. I shot with Chris a handful of times always had a great time. He bought many of our personal guns and we’ve always stayed in contact even when he slowed down and started his own family. Chris has always been a supporter and friend of us, we stand by our friends and do what we can!

The Gun
This Prostock is one of the true relics of Ithaca / Gunworks history as it is a defining moment of acknowledgment that we were doing something, something better than all the other gun companies in the world.
We will setup the benefit raffle on www.ithaca-gunworks.com ALL money raised will be donated to Chris & family. Each entry will be $10 we will keep the raffle entry open for at minimum 10 days. We will also do Mini Draws through the website so like and follow and check in on www.ithaca-gunworks.com to see what is currently going on we will post updates on the Facebook pages of Ithaca-Gunworks as well as through Choke Express & The Gunworks group page & turkeyshoot.net
Along with a donation tab $5 - $10 - $20 - $50 - $100 Plus T-Shirts for sale
Also, through chokeexpress.com we will add a donate tab at the top of the page, this tab is for those placing orders, if you would please donate $5 we will match the first $500 in donations.

As far as the T-Shirts we will be selling advertising space @ $50 per spot if you would like to advertise your business or just be listed as a personal donator it would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to donate a prize to giveaway, we will include you on the T-Shirt advertisements.
As far as the drawing we have not selected an ending date nor a venue for this to take place, we are hoping a shooting house will step up and help us out to make this a remarkable event so we can help one of our own.

Ithaca Hogslayer

Benefit Raffle