Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/812511
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S • 55 T he esteemed firm of Antonio Zoli and I are not strangers, by any means. In fact, we have a long- standing relationship through the firm's products. In the not-so-distant past I had extensive experience with a couple of their guns. Neither was what you would call fancy, but boy, did they perform. The first was a slender, long-barreled 20-gauge over/under that for a while, made life really hard for the Georgia dove population. The other was one of the most practical combination guns that I've ever hunted with. It had two sets of barrels. The first set was chambered for 20-gauge shotshells, and it likewise took a fearful toll of mourners in the early fall. When that was done I substituted the barrels chambered for the .30-06 rifle cartridge, and after a fairly extended period of woods-prowling and stand-sitting, I managed to take a passable eight-point buck with it. Then, just to "guild the lily" a bit, I switched the little Zoli back to 20-gauge and spent a couple of weeks following a brace of well-trained, liver-spotted pointers across a good swath of South Georgia and Alabama, where we racked up an admirable tally of bobwhite quail. I loved that gun! And wish I had kept it. Actually, I grew quite fond of both guns, although neither was very ornate. They were just clean-lined, graceful, well-made guns that served their purpose extremely well. Even though I loved both of them, the folks at Zoli didn't prepare me for the one that just appeared on my doorstep. A while back I got word that Zoli had a new field gun that I might want to look over, and, given my past experience with the company's products, I agreed without hesitation. The new gun is the latest iteration of Zoli's famous "Z gun" line. Like all of its progenitors, it's extremely well made, durable, practical, and in all ways, works as it should. It takes the line one step farther, though, because it's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous! If I were hard-pressed, I would readily confess that beauty is not a prerequisite in a field shotgun, but it doesn't hurt anything, either. If a woman is intelligent, faithful, loving in all the right ways, a fantastic and enthusiastic cook, and shotguns by robert matthews Zoli's new Pernice: Pretty to behold, deadly in the quail fields. brings home a nice paycheck in addition to knowing how to clean both birds and guns, her physical beauty or lack of same may seem less important than you'd otherwise think. But if she also looks like an SI swimsuit model? Now you're talkin'! That's the Pernice. Mechanically, the new gun is all "Z gun," with every one of its predecessors' virtues. The mechanics, however, are housed in a true round-body receiver. By that I mean that it was designed and built from scratch as a round body. Most round bodies begin as conventional "square bodies," which have their lower edges rounded. The Pernice, on the other hand, has no parallel sides. It starts out slightly slimmer at the top than in the middle and maintains a continuous curve until it rounds out the bottom. It may be difficult to describe in words, but the result is extremely comfortable in the hand, making the Pernice a joy to carry all day in the field. The curves also make it lovely. The "engraving" is lovely, too. I put this word in quotes because it's a term that's hard to neatly define in today's world. Most of