Company History

As the founder and president of TarHunt Rifle/TarHunt Slug guns, Randy Fritz was raised in 1950's Pennsylvania where the rifle ruled when it came to hunting both varmints and big game. At that point in time the rifle placed second only to the young ladies of the day. Needless to say only accurate rifles stayed around very long.

After being introduced to the bench rest rifle in the late 1960's, Randy's search for accuracy got worse. But as life went on and he completed college in 1967 Randy found himself working in upstate New York as an engineering aid. During his three and a half year tenure with a company called General Dynamics Electronics Division he discovered that New Yorkers hunted with something called a slug gun. For Randy, these were three and a half years from hell. Slug guns of the day shot two foot groups (minimum pie plate size groups at 100 yards). "God help them and the deer!" he shrugged.
 
As life went on, Randy moved back home in 1970 and had put those three and a half years of New York deer hunting well behind him before he had even reached the Pennsylvania state line. He spent his time getting back involved with his love of accurate rifles and started to shoot bench rest competition.
 
In 1981 his intrigue with the many available calibers as well as the high cost of having someone else supply him his rifles led Randy to begin building competition guns as a hobby. His quest for better rifles and cartridges got him into not only making my own rifles, but making his own bullets as well. His most interesting bullet to date was a 40-70 Govt. shortened to 1-1/2 inches long and necked down to a 6 millimeter bullet...with which Randy actually won the Pennsylvania State I.B.S. Hunter Class Championship!

In 1987 Randy saw an advertisement for a fully rifled 12 gauge barrel by E.R. Shaw Inc., and those three and a half forgotten years of his life began to haunt him, keeping him awake at night thinking...What if? The Ultimate WildCat Cartridge!! Rifles that would shoot slugs!! Randy finally gave in. 
 
In 1988 Randy built a crude prototype bolt action slug rifle that produced 5 to 6 inch groups on average at 100 yards. He also knew that he could improve upon these groups if he could produce a more precision rifle. Because the quality and precision of the parts that were available at that time was unacceptable for what he wanted to build, Randy knew that he would have to draw on all his years of experience building and shooting bench rest rifles to create a totally new concept in guns.
 
While shooting bench rest rifles through the 1970's and 1980's, Randy made friends with a number of people on the cutting technical edge of rifle accuracy. Gale McMillan of McMillan Rifles and McMillan Fiberglass Stocks was Randy's mentor and a major reason for the original version of what is now the professional model of the TarHunt Slug Gun ever getting to market. With the help of Gale McMillan and his son Rock McMillan the RSG-12 ga. (Rifled Slug Gun) was introduced at the 1992 S.H.O.T. Show in Dallas, Texas. Over the next two years some minor changes were made that allowed the RSG-12ga. to produce 1 inch groups at 100 yards...the same kind of accuracy that we now have come to expect with good lots of ammunition.

The Mountaineer RSG-20 ga. was added to the TarHunt line in 1997, followed by the super-accurate and more reasonably priced pump Designated Slug Gun (DSG-12ga.) in 2000. The DSG 12ga. consists of a fixed barrel conversion to the 870 Remington pump shotgun. 

From 1993 to the present TarHunt has sold bolt action slug guns into the domestic, European, African and Japanese markets. With the respect they have garnered in the shooting industry it should also come as no surprise that TarHunt has done consulting work and built research and development slug guns for every major manufacturer of sabot type shotgun slugs both foreign and domestic.
 
Beside building guns that are the envy of the industry, TarHunt is under contract to the Lightfield Ammunition Corporation (The industry leader in rifled slug technology) for research and development, testing and quality assurance of their Hybred-Exp and Commander IDS sabot slug lines. They are responsible for everything from powder selection and testing to product loading and accuracy acceptance tests.