Page 29 - Outdoor Oklahoma - May/June 2021 Issue

Squirrel season is open 8 and a half months in Oklahoma.

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I was reacquainted, by accident, I had started building a Carolina-style long rifle, .45-cal-
with one of those backwoods-type magazines — a unique iber percussion, for my grandson several months before but
magazine for folks who enjoy the old ways of doing things. I hadn’t touched it for a while. Finding the magazine is just
There were articles on how to make a knife or how to make what I needed to get me back on track. I just love to build
dill pickles, plus recipes, and folklore and such. flintlocks. I have built 12, I think. I built one for each of my
It’s a very interesting magazine if you like learning about and kids (two girls and a boy) and several friends. All my guns are
making things with your hands. I am a guy who loves to tinker researched and historically.
with things and create things, to make or repair something. So, My 15-year-old grandson had begged me to build him one
the magazine was right down my alley, as my dad used to say. since he was 6. And since he was about to quit growing, I
This was about the second week in January. I was work- decided to build him a nice one. It was about half built then,
ing out of town, and one night I was bored to tears, what with a long way to go.
with being holed-up in a motel room and the poor selection I had been into buckskinning for 35 years or so, and had made
of programming on the TV. I all the gear over the years. I had
had forgotten my Kindle, so I “Look at this, Papa. It’s a story built numerous powder horns,
had nothing to read. I hopped about a guy squirrel hunting with a knives, moccasins, possibles
in the truck and went to the muzzleloader. Heck, we’ve done that bags, colonial clothing and all the
local bookstore. While stroll- before, several times.” proper gear to be a longhunter.
ing through the magazines, I But my most prized possessions
discovered several copies of The Backwoodsman magazine. are the muzzleloading guns that I have built. Not kit guns, but cus-
I hadn’t seen it in years. I grabbed one and headed for the tom guns. Kit guns are a very good way to get a good muzzleload-
motel, where I read the whole issue several times that week. ing rifle at a decent price. Custom guns can go for $2,500 easily. If
By the time I got home, that magazine had me all pumped you have any talent at all, you can build a gun. And if you build it,
up, and I was ready to make something. I was ready to be it becomes a special treasure to you, or to whomever you give it to.
creative. Being creative soothes my soul. So, out to the gun I build flintlocks mostly. Oh, I have all the modern stuff: all
shop/guitar house/man cave I did go. That is where most of the usual guns a fellow might have. But, the old, traditional
my puttering takes place. guns are my passion, especially the flintlocks.
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