Ok. That's not exactly a news flash. I decided to go ahead and try to make a new spring for the free, broken shotgun so I ordered some spring steel from Dixie Gun Works. I can't make the gun any worse and I might learn something - right?. It seemed stupid to just order a couple of pieces of steel so I ordered a couple of different types of cloth patches for the Hawken and a holster for a certain bulky, dragoonish revolver that I sometimes carry when hunting.
There was some difficulty getting the order to process and the website kept telling me that the patches and holster were all out of stock. Not wanting to believe such a thing was possible, I ordered it all anyway.
The next morning, I had an email from Dixie that said the holster was out of stock and wouldn't be back ordered and it said something like "will ship" on the patches. After the previous night's difficulties with the order, I assumed that meant "the holster and the patches are out of stock, we'll ship the patches when we get them but you better forget about the holster."
So now I'm wondering how it could be that Dixie Gun Works would be out of pillow ticking and cotton patches for muzzle loaders. This kind of thing just doesn't happen. I mean, Dixie pretty much kept muzzle loading alive in the 1960s and 1970s and they're out of patches? That would be like Chick-fil-A being out of Chicken and Waffle Fries. It had to be a sign of the coming apocalypse. I just knew it was mentioned somewhere in the Book of Daniel or maybe in The Revelation.
While in a Biblical frame of mind, I decided, that if there was to be a judgement between the quick and the dead, and if it had anything to do with muzzle loader patches, I was going to be quick about getting some.
I found some interesting stuff at S & S Firearms but the interesting stuff included some odd sized bullets that I wanted to use in a particular old, obscure rifle and I didn't know what size it took. All I knew was that bullets the size the reference books said it used would drop right through the barrel. I book marked S & S for a return trip to be made after I had slugged the barrel in question and figured out how to measure the diameter of a lead slug with three equally sized lands and grooves on it. Before long, I wound up at The Track of The Wolf .
The Wolf people had a huge selection of patches and I ordered some in .10", .15" and .18." They listed a holster for the dragoon but they were out of stock too. Probably been a run on Colt Walker Replicas lately.
Driving home after work last evening I was still pondering what it meant in terms of the degradation of society if Dixie really didn't have muzzle loader patches but when I got home, two packages from Dixie were on the kitchen counter. Their shipping was so fast I didn't expect the steel to get here yet but there it was. The second package had the patches. They meant exactly what they said when they said "will ship" about the patches. They shipped! I, on the other hand, had done what is so often done when one ass-u-me-s something.
Dixie had the patches after all. Something is still right with the world. I got my spring steel too. I got the S & S order placed and it includes a book on making springs. Perhaps things aren't quite so bleak after all. This afternoon I went by Chick-fil-A just to make sure.
2 comments:
You were lucky Dixie was out; After Ol' Turner died the people who took over Dixie Gun works stated selling the worst and cheapest junk they could find. ANYTHING sold by Dixie junk works should be thought of as money wasted. I have been a "hard core" front stuffer fanatic since 1976 and I dumped Dixie 15 years ago .
I hate to hear that but it is consistent with the holster that I tried to order. They listed two that would fit a Walker. One was something like $45 and the other was $29. I read the reviews on the more expensive one and they were good. I read the reviews on the less expensive one and they said the holster was way too tight and the stitching was cheap and tore out just trying to get the gun to slide in. I didn't want the cheap one after reading that but they won't even back order the better one. Its a shame.
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