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FROM THE LIZARD

FRIENDSHIP, FALL 1997

GOOD EATING, A GOOD TIME,

AND A POLITICAL QUAGMIRE

Well Crash and the High Cotton people showed up at Friendship for the first time, and they liked it, and are coming back. One night they, along with the Professor, cooked up lobsters, clams, potatoes, onions and eggs in seaweed. A real Maine Clambake! I could not believe they brought seaweed to Indiana. When it was done, it was the best I’ve ever ate. (The eggs were used to test when everything else was done and ready to eat). People were walking by, and wondering what this big great mound of green stuff was, and were we going to eat it. It was a blast! I think we need more “Mainers” in our club.

Later in the week we had pheasant again cooked by Jersey. Guess What? It was delicious, and I have had pheasant cooked by Jersey for over ten years, and this was the best.

Crash and Frozen Charlotte shot with, me, the Tennessee Whip, and Max on the Mountain Man Agg. They were shooting for score on the Mountain Squaw Agg. The Frozen Charlotte took first place, and Crash took second place in the event, and no only did they win that, but they out shot all of us guys. Not bad for their first trip to the Nationals.

With some help from Ellenore, Redeye got the “Pipe” to us on Tuesday. It’s a fine piece. Money is still coming in from here and abroad so we will get out anonymous donor back his money that he so graciously put up, before the pipe was sold to another party in Montana. A special thanks to Redeye who made the trip to Friendship just to deliver the pipe. That Redeye is not bad for a “Hoosier”.

I don’t know who all placed in the Nationals. You will have to check your future Muzzle Blasts for that information. I know one thing, our club burnt a lot of powder, and Mr Buzzard was pulling a trigger every time I seen him at the range.

POLITICS AGAIN

Politics were alive and well as usual, both on the Primitive and Walter Cline ranges. Charges were brought up on me to the Executive Board, and a petition was attempted to remove me from the Association. Oh well, I can’t stay out of politics no matter how hard I try. Will Rogers once said “If you die with a handful of good friends you are lucky,” meaning that if you have five good friends. My statement is “Better to have a good enemy than a bad friend!” I like mine better.

GRAMPS

A few of us Widowmakers went over to Gramps’ and Grams’ house for his birthday on Tuesday during the shoot. Cram (Mark Reynolds) set it up and it went well. Gramps is looking chipper, and it won’t surprise me a bit to see him on the Chunk Gun range in the Spring. Gramps and Grams house is a piece of art. It is beautiful! Gramps has his chair set next to the picture window so he can watch those college girls jog by and looks at their boobs and butt bounce up and down. That Gramps is something else. If I were Grams, I would paint the whole window “flat black”. Gramps is going in to the hospital and will have something put into his chest that will allow him to run 60 mph and look forty years younger. College girls better look out, here comes “Our Gramps”.

MUZZLE BLASTS

I am working on a story for Muzzle Blasts about old traditions. The title is NMLRA, Buckskinners and the Pipe Tomahawk. It will be on the traditions of the past and how our club is working on bringing them back. I hope it works out for all the buckskinners out there, but if it ends up just in our club, so be it.

ON BEING A TARGET

One more thing and then I am out of here. The Widowmakers are a high profile club, and some people out there resent that. I call these people “interlopers”. These people don’t like us because we shoot good, are always having a good time and they are jealous. The interlopers want their 15 minutes of fame and they can’t get 10 seconds because they are ignorant. This is nothing new for the club. I’ve noticed it for 20 years. If they can’t get where we are (and they can’t) then they are down on us. They will tear us apart if they can, disrupt us any way they can, and look for any “one” thing that we do wrong, when we’re together to destroy us. That sounds a little strong, but it is the truth. One other main reason to take the club down is “ME”! A few buckskinners don’t like me because of the Rendezvous Wars. The big reason a lot of people don’t like me is that I’m the center of attention, wherever I go and they want that position. They can’t have it though, because I’m the best there is. (I have to be the best of something) This has been told to me more than once. I thought this was Bull Shit until I started thinking about it. So if you’re a Widowmaker, unfortunately you will get an arrow or two that was meant for me. I was told that pay backs are hell when I was at Friendship. I’ve been to hell and I’ve seen the Elephant, and I’m still here. (This sounds like a war story, I better settle down and take a pill!) Hope to see you all in the Spring or maybe sooner.

LIZARD

A member of the Lizard Museum of Lapidary Art.

LIZARD’S CRAFTS CORNER

On the next page of this news letter is a copy of a drawing that Lizard made of a “woods pack” that he saw in a museum that has since flooded. He got the opportunity to handle and measure three “woods packs”. The packs were known to be Rev War era and were obviously used. Since the museum was broken up, the packs are now in private collections and may not surface again for the average person for another 100 years.

I made one from Lizards directions two years ago and have found it to be a good design. The only thing I would add is a breast strap to keep the straps tight on your chest.

I made mine out of oak tanned leather (vegetable tanned). This is the same leather used by shoemakers. If you don’t have a source near you, I bought my leather from:

Landwerlen Leather Company

365 S. Illinois Street

Indianapolis, IN 46225

Phone # 317-636-8300

Landwerlen has been selling leather from the same location since 1911. They have a basement full of oak tanned leather and they have a scrap bin on the main floor full of just about every other kind of leather. Lizard says that “any leather can be used for the woods pack.

If you are going to make the woods pack out of leather, you should use oak tanned leather. A good heavy canvas will serve just as well.

I stained my pack black with an historic concoction. Fill a glass jar with steel wool packed loosely. Fill it with white vinegar and put it somewhere outside, the smell can get pretty fierce. Don’t put a cap on it, the gasses will blow the lid off. When the bubbles stop coming up in a couple of days, pour off the liquid.

To stain the leather, just wipe the liquid on. Oak tanned leather will blacken instantly. You may have to apply the liquid two or three times to get the right shade you want. When you get the color you want. Wax the leather with carnauba wax and a lot of elbow grease. By the way, this stain only works on oak tanned leather.

Sew the pack with linen thread, since sinew would not have been used in this construction. I used steel rings at the top and bottom of the straps to fasten to the pack, since they were in Lizard’s drawing.

PACK CONTENTS

1 Awl

2 Blanket - Cut an old blanket 30 inches wide and roll it tight, tie on top of the pack

3 Bowl - If you bust the handle off a dipper you will have a bowl and a cup

4 Buckshot - 6 .32 or .36 caliber lead balls

5 Candle

6 Compass\sundial

7 Cup - small

8 Extra Firearm - Pistol ( get a cheap one and chop the barrel off and cut some of the grip off) or carry your regular pistol. Make sure you have 4 or 5 balls and patches.

9 Fire Starting Kit

10 Fishing Kit - get one from Jersey, cheap & traditional

11 Food - dried or dehydrated, peas, corn, meat etc, etc, put up in leather pouch with drawstring.

12 Fork , Knife and Spoon - Old silver plate, or iron, no stainless

13 Gun Cleaning items

14 Lock Parts and tools to use with them. Screw driver etc.

15 Lead and Ladle - A large old silver plate spoon can be used for a ladle by grinding the handle to a sharp point to be stuck in the end of a green sapling, or tied on to a stick. Also pinch the front in a vice to make a spout. For the lead, heat and pour on a flat surface like a skillet, let harden and knock or scrape out. Use enough lead to make 4 or five balls. Do not hammer out the lead, it makes the lead harder, and most of the time making lead balls is a timed event.

19 Maps - Bring some brown paper about 6 inch square and when we get to a rendezvous, we all will discuss the forts and rivers etc. in that area and put them on our maps

21 Mold - old time mold with handles (Rapine Bag Mold) make sure you get your size because you might have to shoot it at a target.

27 Sewing kit - Linen or pure cotton thread, needle make one out of a small nail or remove the finish from a modern one.

29 Skillet - small steel one, cut off the handle to about 3 inches bend to a U shape so it can be tied to a stick

30 Snare - A piece of wire about 24 inches long. Make a 1/4 inch loop in one end and run the other end through it.

32 Spare Moccasins - Make a pair out of light weight leather. They don’t have to look good, or you can buy a pair of eastern center seams in a kit for about 30 dollars.

36 Trap - Get the smallest trap you can find. No coil springs I carry a bird trap. To make one, take a piece of wood 1 inch thick, 3 inch wide and 8 inch long. Drill a 3/4 inch hole in one end and a 1/4 inch in the other end. Tie a piece of linen thread at the small hole and make a slip knot and loop at the other end.

To set the trap, Put the noose end of the linen around the very edge of the 3/4 inch hole. Put a few pieces of corn in the hole. When the bird goes after the corn, the noose will slip around it’s neck, and under it’s feathers. It is one of the most successful traps used by the Iroquois.

38 Extra Gun Powder - a small horn to hold about 6 loads. Use 3F because you can use it as primer as well.

These are some of the things that I have been asked for over the past 20 years. But “they” will ask for some dumb things that don’t have know and again, but you can’t carry all the shit some of these ass holes as for, because your woods pack would weigh 70 pounds. If you keep it small and simple your pack will weigh about 10 pounds. These items will get you through about 90 percent of the time. I don’t know of any club, or buckskinner that has a better woods pack then the Widowmakers. A lot of the stuff can be found in:

Remember keep every thing small, and if you use bottles (cork type only) wrap them in leather to keep them from breaking. Tie your corks to the bottle, one piece of string over the top of the cork and down the neck, then wrap the string around the neck.