A Custom Flintlock At Last

I have been shooting blackpowder pistols and rifles since I was fourteen years old. My first was a replica 1851 navy I ordered out of the back of Outdoor Life magazine, I think it was $19.99 plus shipping. I had to include a statement that I was over twenty one and they were legal in my State. That was no problem since I had no idea what was and was not legal in Texas at that time in life and I was only 7 years away from being twenty one. I remember all the problems I had getting Longacre’s gun shop in Abilene to find some .36 caliber lead balls, black powder and some number 11 percussion caps, but they came through and kept me supplied for years. I was close to 16 before my dad heard me shooting that pistol down by the river one weekend at our family ranch and asked to see what gun I was firing. In hindsight it was a little louder than the twenty two rifle he had given me.  He looked at it, handed it back and asked no questions.

From that beginning I shot all types of old blackpowder firearms. Every time some company would come out with a new model I could not wait to read about it or see it at our local gun stores. I shot Thompson Center Hawkens, Senecas and Cherokees along with CVA and Traditions standard models. I even had a South American monkey gun and a cheap Japanese rifle for a while until I traded them off on something else. In the back of my mind I always wanted a real custom flintlock muzzleloading rifle. Something like you would see carried by Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett. Going to the Alamo in San Antonio was like a religious trek to the Holy Land of Blackpowder rifles. I would look at the rifles in the cases and paintings and dream of carrying one similar on a treck in the woods. Through the years I would read about great rifles and see them in museums. Once in a while I would even run across someone that had one I could actually hold. Later in life I lost interest and went to all modern guns, but as I have gotten older and hunt less I have returned to the slower older blackpowder guns. What a new world of customs and semi customs we are blessed with today. I have toyed with the idea of having a custom built but it seems all the builders I talked with wanted my first born along with their inheritance to build a rifle.

A while back I ran across a builder that makes a good looking product that is not a kit and charges a reasonable fee for his work. He carves the stock from a plank of wood and builds the rifles in the old styles even making such iron parts as the butt plate, trigger guard and thimbles. He does not use some company’s idea of what the rifle should look like in a precarved model and he follows old historic examples of the gun maker’s art. I will tell you more about this gun maker in the future and will provide you links to his website along with contact information. For now I will only show you pictures of the start of my rifle so you can wonder what I am having made for a while, Wild Ed

Round Rock Unity Park Community Garden Open House and Fun Day

 

Join local gardeners for a tour of Round Rock’s first community garden for citizens, get gardening tips, and enjoy fun garden-related activities for kids.

Now in its third year, Round Rock’s first community garden is open to local residents who can rent garden plots and take gardening classes at the site located on Gattis School Road in Round Rock. The community garden also grows organic produce to supply the Hope Alliance Women’s Shelter and its clients.

Saturday April 28th

Noon - 4pm

Unity Park Community Garden

2746 Gattis School Rd

Round Rock, Texas

Facts About Lyme Disease

My friend Rick over at Whitetail Woods has an excellent article on Lyme Disease this week that you should take the time to read.  It is becoming something that we are all exposed to in the wilds of Texas and I am seeing a lot of ticks this year.  Here is the link to the article. http://whitetailwoods.blogspot.com/2012/04/facts-to-know-about-lyme-disease.html
Leave a comment and tell him Wild Ed sent you.

Fly Fishing Texas Clear Creeks and Streams

I false cast a couple of times to let out just a little more fly line and softly laid the chartreuse popper in the shadows under the bridge. It drifted with the current into a sun lit pool where I gave it a couple of short twitches. There was a flash of orange and silver as a Longear sunfish slammed the popper and headed for deeper water. The little fish shook his head as he felt the resistance of my four weight rod. It swam in throbbing circles as I pulled him in for a quick release. The bright iridescence of these little sunfish from the pools of Brushy Creek are just as beautiful to me as some exotic in some hot far away place, besides it gets plenty hot right here at home. I repeated this contest over twenty times in the span of an hour and yet I was only twenty minutes from my house. The traffic pounding over the bridge above my head on IH 35 just north of Austin had no idea of the fish I was catching just below them. Brushy Creek runs right through the middle of Round Rock and I was fishing within sight of the famous Round Rock itself marking the cattle crossing on the old Chisholm Trail.



I had taken several species of sunfish along with a couple of Guadalupe bass and a Rio Grande Perch. All were well under a pound and returned to the water to be caught another day. Even if I caught a giant on Brushy Creek I would return it to the water as along with the population growth, sewer plants and septic tanks have been placed up and down the creek and it is not the same little creek I fished thirty years ago. I can remember when the water was pure and clean. There was none of the icky moss that grows in the creek today. I use to take home sunfish, bass, fresh watercress and wild onions for the table but no more. The fish still survive and are abundant even though we are trying hard to destroy the habitat.

The point of this all is get out and enjoy one of the small waters close to home. You do not have to spend a fortune on gas and lodging but the thrill of the catch is still the same. Carry out some trash and do your part to try and clean up these creeks in Texas so the next generation will also be able to enjoy them.  Get out and try some of the local small waters near you. You might be surprised how great the fishing right under your nose really is, Wild Ed

Remember to click on comments below to leave a comment or read the comments from other readers

Jose Wejebe Killed In Plane Crash

Jose Wejebe was born in Cuba. His family fled Castro and he grew up fishing in Southern Florida. I have been watching Jose along with Flip, Lefty, Chico and others on their outdoor fishing shows for decades. I have even traveled to fly fishing shows just to meet these guys. I learned to fly fish in the clear streams and creeks in the Texas Hill Country and later to cast on the windy flats of the Texas Gulf Coast for Redfish and Trout. I still feel as if Jose and the others on his show were my private instructors each week and looked forward to each new Spanish Fly fishing show every week. I hope they keep running it for a long time.


When he wasn't fishing Jose was often working with the Big Brother, Big Sister, Make a Wish and other youth charities.  Jose was killed in a plane crash on April 9th while flying a private plane in which he was the only occupant. Our prayers and thoughts go out to the family of Jose. Jose will be missed by fly fisherman the world over and remembered by many of us every time we cast a fly over clear waters. Jose, I hope that where ever you are the water is clear, the wind lays and the fish are hitting hard. Thanks for all the lessons, Wild Ed

Customer Service Alive and Well at Primos

I got a call the other day from my brother telling me that a hail storm had knocked out his Truth Cam 60 game cameras at our family place in Lampasas.  I told him to send the camera in and find out if it could be fixed but that he might want to contact Primos and request return instructions.  The following is an email he sent to me and I pass it on to you guys as we always try and let you know about the products we find dependable in the outdoors.  Since we buy our gear just like you we are always looking for the best products and service we can get for our dollar.  Once in a while you find a company that you want to stay with and that you can depend on.  When we do we will let you know, Wild Ed

It is a rare thing these days when you can actually say you received great customer service by any business, much less a large company that really doesn’t need to worry about you as a customer. I will however, go out of my way to promote a company that showed me the kind of customer service that I recently received. Around two years ago I bought a Primos Truth Cam 60 and started my obsession with capturing all the animals that come to my feeder in Lampasas. The more pictures I captured, the more I came to love seeing all of the animals that now come to my feeder on a regular basis. Deer, turkey, raven, crow, grey fox, bobcat, coyote, raccoons, ringtail, jacks, cottontail, vulture, feral cats, dogs, dove, roadrunner, and too many other little birds and critters to list. This year has seen several big storms roll across the ranch and as documented by the Truth Cam 60, several hail storms. The last storm that came through was quite severe as documented by the TruthCam. It was hailing pretty hard when the camera took a direct hit to the PIR sensor cover and broke the lens. The camera actually took a photo of the hail stone that broke it! The camera continued to document the storm, but missing the sensor cover would now take a picture every few seconds until the memory card was full. I sent a request to the folks at Primos asking if I could mail my camera back to them for repairs. Their answer was quite un-expected. They told me a replacement door for the camera was on the way to my house and as far as they were concerned, the matter was closed. No questions, no charge.


This is the kind of customer service we all wish we could get and unfortunately, it is rare these days. I will be purchasing another TruthCam this year for the sole purpose of monitoring who is coming and going through our gate this year, and who knows what other surprises that camera might catch!


Thanks for the great customer service.

A satisfied customer.
Mike
Austin, Texas