The Ljutic Space Gun is a 12 gauge single-shot shotgun intended for

trap shooting Trap shooting, or trapshooting in North America, is one of the three major disciplines of competitive clay pigeon shooting, which is shooting shotguns at clay targets. The other disciplines are skeet shooting and sporting clays. They are disting ...

. Originally designed in 1955, the firearm has since been discontinued.

History

With his father, Al Ljutic ran the Ljutic Gun Company (Now Ljutic Industries) in the vicinity of

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. In 1955, AA Reil, a friend and Remington field rep, invited Al to go

the day after. Al realized after that he didn't own a trap gun. Instead of buying one Al designed and built one by the end of the day. This became the template for the Ljutic Space Gun. Only about 200 of the shotgun variant were made, making the firearm run anywhere from $2,500 to $3,000 on the secondary market (2013). However the weapon was also offered in single-shot

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

variants, using a 24-inch barrel, which began being produced in 1981. These were chambered in

.22-250 The .22-250 Remington is a very high-velocity, short action, .22 caliber rifle cartridge primarily used for varmint hunting and small game hunting. It is capable of reaching over 4000 feet per second. It does find occasional use by women and yo ...

, .30/30 Win,

.308 Win The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...

, and 30.06 calibers. With less than 20,000 total shotgun and rifle variants being made.

Variants

* 12 Gauge *

.30-30 The .30-30 Winchester/.30 Winchester Center Fire cartridge was first marketed in 1895 for the Winchester Model 1894 lever-action rifle..308 The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...

* .30-06

References

Single-shot shotguns of the United States {{Shotgun-stub