You know that feeling when everything is so perfect that your brain shuts down – stops thinking rational or coherent thoughts – and almost goes numb trying to focus all of its energy on processing and celebrating every sensory stimulation around you? That’s exactly what happens to me when I’m hunting birds in central Montana.

Here’s an easy one: What are the two largest American whiskey-producing states today?

A quick Google search shows Kentucky and Tennessee in a landslide. But before the Civil War, neither state had the most registered stills. In 1840, it was Virginia, which boasted more than 1,400 stills to Kentucky’s 889.

Back then, every state enjoyed the “likker” produced by the farmer-distiller. Even New Jersey had more than 300 distilleries.

But the Civil War began their demise.

In 1956, a young German machinist named Horst Blaser set up a business to produce a hunting rifle. Although not a trained gun maker in the German tradition, Blaser had an idea for an entirely new design. As a skilled machinist, he envisioned a rifle made to exacting standards by automation, with interchangeable parts that would make it the most versatile hunting rifle in history.