Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/68594
Z Destinations way from hunting leopards, and Carter Finnell's high-end gunshop, Marco Polo Outfitters, in a St. Louis suburb is a long way from that Canadian childhood. Finnell, a rangy six-foot seven-inch dynamo who thrives on challenge, says, "I was born in Calgary, Canada, and I grew up hunting there with my dad, my uncles and my grandfather. I came stateside with my mom and moved around the country for several years, but I went back to Canada often to be with my dad who was an oil executive in Alberta." Carter Finnell has been a hunter since age 9, stalking gophers and gunning ducks and pheasants around Calgary. He quickly graduated to deer and then to elk and antelope, often hunting with his maternal grandfather and mentor, Bill "Coach" Vogel. imbabwe is a long way from the prairies of Calgary, Canada, but then shooting gophers is a long "Coach used to tell his wife The full-body mount of a rare Marco Polo ram in Carter Finnell's gunshop is a fitting tribute to a businessman and hunter who doesn't know how to quit. P assionate about fine guns, Carter Finnell carries a glittering array of shotguns and rifles at Marco Polo Outfitters in Missouri. Virginia, 'I can talk with the Man Upstairs when I'm out there without a roof over my head.' His passion was bird hunting with his Brittanies." Finnell worked as a paramedic/ firefighter for several years and finally realized that would not give him the income he wanted. He was then recruited by several pharmaceutical companies and worked for three different manufacturers over a 25-year period. In 2008 he totally jumped ship on his lifelong career when the company he worked for was bought out. "I've always had a passion for firearms and for developing my own projects," he says. "I love the western states and thought about moving back there, but the children were in school and my wife was established here so we decided to stay in St. Louis." He opened Marco Polo Outfitters in 2008 in a rental building but it quickly outgrew its baby clothes. Finnell bought the current building in an area of Chesterfield, a west St. Louis suburb locally known as "The Valley." The SPOR TIN G CL ASSICS 95 By Joel Vance