Air force pilot, skeet shooter.
Born at Swan River on 2 November 1916, he moved with his family to a farm in Saskatchewan at age 10. He was educated in a one-room schoolhouse and completed high school by government correspondence. He dreamed of becoming a pilot as a teenager, though he lacked the formal university education required at the time. Undeterred, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1938 as an aeroengine mechanic, eventually getting his acceptance into pilot training three years later.
While stationed at Dafoe, Saskatchewan, he met Johanna Carr (?-?) and they married in 1942. The couple had one daughter, Shelley Hartman (1952–2022). It was not until 1947, while stationed at a remote base at Goose Bay, Labrador, that he took up skeet shooting at a homemade range to pass his off-duty hours.
Recognized by his peers as the greatest skeet shooter in the world, he dominated the sport in North America for 18 years. He won his first competitive shoot at Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1949. By 1956, he captured the Canadian amateur 12-gauge championship, a title he held for eight or ten years. He turned professional in 1963, ultimately holding roughly 30 world records across multiple gauge classes, once shattering an astonishing 2,002 consecutive clay targets.
Alongside his legendary shooting career, he maintained a full-time military path, reaching his compulsory retirement as a Squadron Leader with 25 years of service. After that he joined Canadian Industries Limited, an ammunition manufacturing company located at Brownsburg, Quebec.
In recognition of his prowesss, he was inducted into the Order of Canada (1998) and six sports halls of fame: National Skeet Shooting Association (NSSA) Hall of Fame (1976), Canadian Armed Forces Sports Hall of Fame (1976), Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame (1980), Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame (1983), Canadian Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame (2000), and Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (2013). He received a Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012).
He passed away at Ottawa, Ontario on 30 October 2016.
“1 on 1: Bernard Conrad ‘Barney’ Hartman” by Morris Gresham, Skeet Shooting Review (now Clay Target), October 2006, pages 40–47.
Obituary [Bernard Conrad Hartman], Ottawa Citizen, 1 November 2016.
“Two days shy of 100, the ‘Wayne Gretzky of skeet shooting’ grazes final bull’s-eye” by Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen, 3 November 2016.
Obituary [Shelley Hartman], Arbor Memorial.
Recipients of the Order of Canada, The Governor General of Canada.
Inductee [Bernard Conrad Hartman], Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame.
Barney Hartman, The Canadian Encyclopedia.
This page was prepared by Zeel Bulsara.
Page revised: 30 May 2026
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