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FROM THE LIZARD

Well to start with the club dues are DUE again. I’m going to try and send out a broken arrow every three months and more if we need to inform the members of something important. Send your dues in, its just $10.00. There are members out there who have really good paying jobs and some who have wives working to that fail to send the dues in. It seems that the poorest members out there who really need the ten dollars are the first to pay. I guess the word "dedication" comes in there somewhere.

NMLRA QUITS RENDEZVOUSING

The big news is the NMLRA is no longer in the rendezvous business. We are on our own boys and girls. The Prof headed up a group of experienced buckskinners to form a Board and get some leadership to start a new organization to run the rendezvous. I can’t remember the name and I wouldn’t put it in here anyway, because it sounds like a re‑enactment organization. The name has nothing to do with shooting. In fact it doesn’t even mention guns or shooting competition. This is the first step of this Circus to fail. I don’t know if you know Mike Nesbitt or not, but he has for a long time, and still does write for a lot of blackpowder magazines and also writes on blackpowder shooting in other modern gun magazines. He’s a friend of mine, so I called him to get his opinion on this new organization’s new name that says nothing about shooting and is going to lead the rendezvous. Mike agreed with me all the way that it should have the word shooting or guns in it. Mike’s daughter who also is a good friend of mine writes for Muzzle Blast on our youth today shooting blackpowder. Her name is Emily Nesbitt.

What really sucks is that the National rendezvous’ that were started in 1972 by Blue Jacket, was just for that reason, to get the everybody to shoot, including the women and children. We were the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association rendezvous. When Blue Jacket left for Montana, he told me, "you got it Lizard. Keep the traditions alive. We have put time, travel, blood and tears into getting this started. It will be a deep furrow to plow though" Well I devoted my life for this cause, but it looks like the furrow I plowed was not deep enough. I’m tired.

I’m not just talking about the stupid name, but we are going to die on a National basis, and that is a fact. The NMLRA is not stupid folks, they are giving us the gun to shoot our self with. When we die out, and we will pretty quick, we done it on our own. Most people think that it is great that we no longer have to answer to the NMLRA. Well most people are wrong. That is also a fact.

Now as I understand it, this is how all this is set up.

1. The NMLRA has 0 control on the rendezvous and their money.

2. The rendezvous will still use the NMLRA logo. In return we get space in Muzzle Blast for advertizement and articles on rendezvous.

3. All monies brought in by new memberships to the NMLRA goes to the NMLRA.

4. There are two NMLRA representatives that sit on the board of this new organization. (This is OK because the board consist of six, the other four representing the new organization.)

5. I’M GETTING TIRED OF TYPING THIS NEW ORGANIZATION, SO I’LL REFER TO IT AS THE 'BOZO CLUB."

6. The Bozo Club has six board members of whom four are elected by a group of "other guys" who have a stupid name, and are our leaders who will lead us, I’m afraid, into one of those "Black Holes" in space. (Note‑ This will not be their fault)

7. Quote‑"The one thing I’ve learned in my life, is, I cant believe how many stupid people there are out there, and some of them are my friends." by Lizard, pre 1965.

Well that is the most important items in the new contract of the Bozo Club. There’s more but I’m tired of talking about it, on to something else.

HUNTER BECOMES THE HUNTED

What did I have for meat at the Christmas Table? Ostrich, what else! Do you here a story coming up? Yes you do, Honnies.

My cousin Danny Powell’s son, Johnny, raises wild animals. He takes them around to all the schools to show them to the kids and also takes them to many functions in this area. Johnny has bears, wolves, big snakes, three mountain lions, bobcats and etc. Johnny found some fence to buy, and to make this a short story, the seller gave Johnny all the fence free if he would take the ostriches with him. Since Johnny thought this was a cool idea because he had all these wild animals and now he could add these to his Powell Wild Animals Farm. So the miles of fence went up and in went the ostriches and Imu’s. About four or five months later, Johnny called me and said,"hey Lizard, do you want an ostrich?" I said yeh man, but I’m going to shoot them and put them in my freezer. Johnny said "on second thought" and that ended that matter. Well a couple of months later he called and said "come and get these damn things cause they keep getting out all the time. Shoot them, I don’t care, but do it when I’m not home." A few days later, I called him and said be somewhere else tomorrow, cause I’m coming to get my "Big Birds". The next day I get my trusty 29 year old "Critter Gitter" out. It’s the trade gun that Blue Jacket made, and was presented to me at the blockhouse ceremony at Friendship in June of last year. I got the biggest shot I had, double 0, gun and all my other stuff and away I went. When I got there, my cousin Danny was there waiting and said there they are. He pointed about 150 yards out in this field. Damn, I said “they look 10 ft tall from clear back here”. He laughed, I didn’t. I said what about all the rest of the Ostriches roaming around out there. Danny said well, Johnny managed to give all the others away and the new owners are coming over to get them in the morning. I said “they didn’t want the other two?” He said “no, they just wanted 10 birds.”

Well I put my gear on and loaded ole Critter Gitter up with 80 grains of 3f and a handful of double 0 buck. I started walking out toward the big birds and I said “lets go Powell”. Powell says “I’m not going out there.” I said “what the hell is wrong with you?” He says “you don’t need me, do you?” I said “hell yes, these things can get mean. I’ve seen them on TV chase down guys and kick the shit out of them.” They have giant feet with giant toe nails that can tear you apart. I said “go in Johnny’s house and get a gun for back up, I’d feel better off my self.” After ten minutes of "Discussion" Danny went in the house. When he came back all he had was his Blue Jacket hatchet. I said “Oh that’s nice.” Danny said when they hear the first shot they will run from us. I asked do you know that for a fact? No answer..

Well off we go headed for the two biggest birds out there. On the way toward the big birds I said how much do these suckers weigh? Danny said close to 300 lbs. I stopped and looked at him and said how tall are these things. Danny says about eight ft or a little taller. I said “you know Danny, there’s 12 of these monsters out here and all we got is a single shot muzzle loader and a damn hatchet. Do you see something wrong with this picture?” Danny said “Come on and lets do it. You’re just getting old.” Well for sure I know how George Armstrong Custer felt like at the Little Big Horn. We were getting pretty close to the big birds and Danny says,” what’s your plan?” I said “I’m going to the biggest bird of the two and I’m going to blow off his head. After that you might want to ask all his relatives out there what their plan is!!”

Well we got about twenty yards from the two giants and they just turned around to face us. Danny said they don’t look too scared do they. I knew then that I might not see my next birthday. Oh well. Bawhoom. The charge in the smooth bore rocked me back and hurt besides. I looked and the two were still standing but one didn’t have a head. What the hell! Then the one with no head fell to the ground. He no longer was a problem, but his brother just took about three steps to one side and looked at his bro and then he looked at us. We are dead, I just knew it. Danny and I just looked at each other while I was trying to load up again. I said noise don’t bother these damn birds, and all I did was piss them off for shooting one of their relations. All the other giant monsters were walking toward us. The big bird that was next to the one I shot, was looking right at us and scratching up dirt with his giant feet. Don’t bulls do that before they charge?

I told Danny to head for the gate and get it open, cause I’ll be right beside him. I knew I should have brought my Mac 10 for back up. Danny split with his hatchet and I started walking away, at the same time reloading. I was still reloading after dropping the first handful of shot on the ground, instead of down the barrel. Me scared? No way! The bird that had stood next to the one I shot was taking a step for ever step I was taking, and coming right at me. I thought what would Simon Kenton do if he was in a mess like this? RUNNNNNNNNNN!! I turned and ran toward Danny and saw that three of the big birds were between him and the gate. I said “oh shit”, I haven’t done this for a while, I was loading while on the run. I had no time to look back and see if old Joes brother was on my ass.

I had a plan. I got with Danny and said just follow me and go where I go. We took off running(about ½ mph) straight for the three big birds that were in our way. They were looking at us and jerking their heads from side to side, like they were checking us out who had the most meat on our bones, Danny or I. Danny said, “ what now?” as we got closer to the Killing Machines. I didn’t say a word and Danny probably thought that was neat, and that meant I was cool and calm. The truth is I was out of breath and couldn’t answer him if I tried. We got within 20 yards from the Killers Three and I slammed on the brakes. Danny ran into me and went rolling on the ground with his nice hatchet. I yelled “STAY LOW!!”, and Kaboom. Old Critter Gitter bucked and snorted and drove my right arm around to my back. Hey you can’t measure shot and powder too well while you are on the run. The big bird in the center had no head just like his cousin stretched out behind us. When I touched this shot off both big birds on the sides of him jumped a few feet to one side, and while they were wondering why their heads were ringing like a bell, we ran to the gate, opened it and went through.

We both sat on the ground panting like two draft horses that just ran a quarter mile track. After I got my breath back, I said to Danny, “yes they will run from us when they hear the first shot go off, right.” Well one of my buds came out and it took all three of us just to load one bird. We still had to use an old truck hood to make a ramp to pull them up into the bed. When we went to pick up the dead monsters we had model 1187 automatic 12 gauge shotguns with us and drove the truck right up to the big birds to load them. That way if we were attacked, it would be like the Alamo. We would be inside shooting through gun ports, the windows. A lot better than the Custer scenario.

Now I’m going to answer the stupid question that you are wanting an answer to. Ostrich tastes just like Ostrich, as bear tastes like bear, as antelope tastes like antelope, etc. I hate it when people ask what does it taste like. What the hell do you think it taste like, chicken? This story is over in more ways then one.

KELLY ROSE

While surfing the air waves and running into buckskinners that I haven’t heard from for years, or seen for a while, I met a 21 year old red head from California. We were in a chat room and she mentioned Ft. Drum to someone in the chat room and I beamed in on her cause I got buddies that are in the 10th Mountain Division stationed there. Her husband was stationed there for a while and she lived up there in New York with him. Well we got to chatting back and forth and it turned out we were chatting every night to each other for up to four hours. Kelly knew nothing about Buckskinning, but was real interested in it. To make a long story short, I talked her into coming to Friendship last June. (I asked the President of the NMLRA to personally write an invitation to her, which he did, and that helped) I had sent some videos of all of us dorking around down there so she could get an idea of what to expect. Kelly also had sent me a video of some of her art work that she had done in high school. I told her to bring some of her work with her. I contacted my friend David Wright, who is one of the top artists in this country, mostly doing 18th century painting. You can see David’s work in Muzzle Blasts, Muzzleloader Mag, and a lot of others. Well Kelly made it down to Friendship and loved every bit of it.

David came in the first Saturday and came over to my cabin. I hollered at Kelly to get her pictures and come over. She did and brought some of the frontiersmen she had drawn, and a drawing of Mot, a club member that lives in Michigan. This was her first attempt at anything like this. The drawing of Mot looked like a picture that was taken buy a camera. David looked at them and asked Kelly how long she had gone to art school. Kelly told David that she never went to any schools, that she just drew while she was in high school. David couldn’t believe it. David said that the art schools start at one and go to ten as you advance in your work. He told her that if she went to any art schools they would put her in ten, cause she was that good. David told Kelly that if she put her heart and soul into her work, there would not be any stopping her as one the best artists around. Well I wanted to put all this in here because Kelly is going to start putting her work in the Broken Arrow, and also prettying up the news letter at the same time. Right now however, she is going through a divorce. When her soon to be ex-husband left the house he took the computer with all the graphics and fonts with him. When she gets over this large speed bump in life, you will be seeing her work in our newsletter. By the way her real name is Kelly Farr. I gave her the name Kelly Rose, as I have given a lot of you my friends new names. So if you make it to the June Friendship, go and say high to her. She is a red head and a beautiful one at that.

"LOFT LADY + FLINTLOCK = 10X

It could be possible that we have a new Widowmaker in the making. At a shoot down in Tennessee, it seems that the Tennessee Whips girl friend Daneen (Loft Lady) was a bored with what was going on and decided to do some shooting. The Loft Lady shoots now and then and has done a little more of it recently. Well they had a one shot match at this rendezvous and she decided to go and give it a try. She put her gear on and grabbed the Whips mountain howitzer and headed for the range. She loaded up, sighted. squeezed the trigger and KaWham, a ten X. The Whip said it was flat dead center, yes! Next to her was a good shot who takes his shooting a little too serious, and when he saw what she had done he walked away mumbling to himself. The Whip said if she wants to get into shooting he will build her a gun that fits her and doesn’t weigh a ton. If he does that I think we got another shooter to reckon with. Well Loft Lady if you do or don’t take up shooting we will still all love you. Good shooting.

"I CAN DO THAT" (HUNTING STORY)

I was talking to JoJo on the phone a while back and he related this story to me. It seems that JoJo and his buddy who he hunts with every year, was in the truck and headed to their hunting spot opening morning. JoJo’s buddy said you know what . If I see a doe I’m going to shoot her and stay put, and when the buck comes to find her, I’ll shoot him. It was in the full rut season. JoJo said that might just work. Well JoJo had just picked up his new swivel rifle made by Day. One barrel a 54 smooth, and the other 54 rifled. JoJo told me before that the new gun was not shooting dead on, so he adjusted the sights by changing the powder charge. (Hoosiers. They do have their own way of doing things) Well JoJo went to his spot where he hunts and found his place to sit until the sun come up so he could kill his deer and go home. Well the sun had been up for a long time but there was no deer to be seen anywhere. JoJo decides to walk to another place to see if there was any deer around there. On his way there he spots a doe below him bedded down about 40 yards away. JoJo puts his sights on her head and KaBoom. Nothing was running away, it must have been a good shot. JoJo stays cool and twisted the other barrel to the ready. Thinking let’s see what happens now. JoJo sits down next to a tree and a few minutes later up comes this nice 8 point buck. W hile the buck is sniffing around the ground looking for his "lay of the day", JoJo pulls up and KaWham. This time he puts the ball perfectly through the chest of Mr. Buck, real close to the bucks heart. JoJo was thinking about how his buddy had said that he thought this would be a neat thing to do. Well JoJo’s buddy came up on the quad, hearing JoJo shoot and figured he had killed a deer. JoJo had the doe all gutted out and they loaded it on to the quad. Then JoJo said now lets go get the buck I shot too. He went that way. JoJo’s buddy came unglued. JoJo had just done what he had talked about in the truck and figured it would never happen or even work for that matter. Good hunting JoJo and good shooting. I think I’ll stick to my way of adjusting sights though.

THANKS!

I’d like to thank the Tennessee Whip for making the traveling trophy for the Free Trappers match at Friendship. The Whip took a coyote trap(an old timey one) and put it on a plaque, and staked down just as you would use one for real. It really looked good.

Jersey, no words can describe the Primitive Chiefs Range Officers sign that you made for the blockhouse. It is a work of art and done by an artist with a lot of skill. The design with the scallops and the colors are of the best that could be done. That piece of work is second to none. Just for that, you get to stay in the club one more year.

I’ve also heard that the Frozen Charlotte, is making something for one of the matches.

Ole Griz (Ricky Roberts) is making something for the Flint Pistol match.

Rudd is putting a pistol on a plaque for the Any old Muzzle loading Pistol match.

The prof is putting a brass plaque on a 250 pound moose antler for a match.(I’d hate to win that son of a bitch) .

My blood brother, Slamfire called and said “Hey man, I want to get in on this.” So I really don’t know what he’s making or for what match, but I know it will be a thing of beauty. That Slamfire isOK, ya know.

If others have told me they were making something I have just plain forgot. If you have get hold of me so I’ll know who’s doing what. Thanks to all of you and to the ones that are making something now. It means a lot to me and I have passed the word to some of the old timers and they said thanks to all of you to. The old timers sent me an e‑mail that stated"Lizard get us the names of the people who are doing this." I don’t know what they got in mind, but I’ll surely do it.

ABOUT THE BROKEN ARROW

Well I think in the last Broken Arrow I was telling about how this was going to be a new and fancy Broken Arrow, but it did not happen this issue. As Pac Man says, "I take full responsibility for this" Maybe next issue. Maybe not. LOL For you pre‑historic members that go back too far, that LOL means "laugh out loud" in computer language. LMAO means, "laughing my ass off." Hey I just joined this PC club. I’m not the leader. PC= Personal Computer.

Last year was not a good year for me and most of you know why. I lost more Good friends in four months then I lost in two years in South East Asia. Along with some other things that went wrong and other things that have been wrong for a few years, I just didn’t give a crap about anything, and the Broken Arrow was one of those anythings. I let my personal problems get in the way of my responsibilities. It won’t happen again. In fact I’m working with the editor and Kelly Rose to get the newsletter out bi‑monthly or at least four times a year. That doesn’t include if things pop up and you all need to know about it. We made a run at it already and failed. I know this news letter is small and don’t look like it would be nothing to do, but it is a job, let me tell you. Many Klatch gets most of the credit for it coming out like it does, and he doesn’t have the free time like I do to do it.

When I get Kelly Rose to doing her part, she is going to have a lot of work ahead of her too. The Rose came up with the idea of burying a time capsule at Friendship this coming June. We are going to do just that and I’m going to put in it a copy of all our Broken Arrows in it. The news letter was out a long time before it had the name Broken Arrow. I’d say it goes back some twenty years or more. We will talk of the time capsule more in the next issue. Blue Jacket done this in 1972, and if you go back four or five years ago in Muzzle Blast, you will see an article I done on it. You will see Blue Jackets name mentioned a lot in the Broken Arrow and I’ll be the first to say, I’d follow his path anytime and anyway. We are also blood brothers. Just about everything I do and say is just a repeat performance of his actions in the old days. He was the leader then, and through me he is once again today. (Take that Blue, but don’t get a big head over it) Blue Jacket gets a copy of all the Broken Arrows.

TROUBLE ACROSS THE RIVER

For years our club wore the red bonnets(beret). Well I had a little uprising in my club a few years ago, a take over is a better word to use. I was told I could still be a member(and I remember exactly who said that) but I wasn’t going to be in charge anymore. How nice I thought that was. Some members wantrd my club for their selves and some of them have only been in this sport a couple of years. They think Simon Kenton is a Harley mechanic, a flintlock won’t shoot, and don’t touch my wooden beads, they are made of real wood. OKKKKKKKKKKKK Well to handle this situation I had to be very careful. Some of these boys don’t know what’s going on here and when it comes altogether they will ride with the Lizard again. Then that will leave only the assholes, and they will die out in the end anyway. So instead of a war and let me tell you there would have been some blood on the ground, I just changed hats and named the club. Should say Nailman named the club. Before that we were just know as the red hats, or chigger heads by Frank House and his boys.

Well it worked. Damn I’m great. We do have one Widowmaker who wears a red hat, cause as he put it to me, this is what I started as, and I want the people to know where we came from. We did a lot of good shooting wearing these and I don’t want them to forget that. I was hesitant about this, but knowing Dave could kill me with his bare hands in a second, I said good idea. His Name Is Dave Brattain from Indiana. Well after all this I called up the head honcho in Colorado who was the leader on that side of the river and told him what had happened. I said dump your red hats and get the riflemen’s hat. He said I don’t think they will get rid of their red hats, cause they like them. I said ok, have a meeting and see what they want to do. If they don’t give up their hats I’ll throw all of them out of the club. Bob said do you know how many club members you got out here? I said yes, about 150 or more, so what’s the problem. Bob said well you threw out the whole state of Iowa, I guess you would do it. They had their meeting and kept their hats. I fired all of them. Anyway now that I have walked around the bush ten times, I was trying to get hold of Bob for some political reason a few months ago, I had lost his address and phone number or threw them away with the roster of all of the x‑members. Bob is a good guy, but he lives out there not here, and he has to go with the flow which I understand.

Well to try and find Bob I went to the on‑line Buckskinner Directory. This is a neat sight. It list the names of all the Buckskinners who have sent their names and e‑mail addresses in to be put in this directory. More on this later. Well I found nine names in the area that Bob lived in. I sent them all that I was looking for Bobs e‑mail, snail mail, or phone number, and it had to do with the NMLRA. I stated that he was a red hat and used to be in my club. Well the first surprise was I received answers from all nine people that I had sent e‑mail to. Even the ones that did not know him answered me, saying so. The second big surprise went something like this from four of the Buckskinners that lived in Colorado and the area where Bob lived. Lizard, what the hell do you want to have anything to do with those red hats. No one likes them out here and wont even camp around them at the rendezvous. They cause all kinds of trouble out here. One answer I got was from an older man, ans he stated if he was 30 years younger, he would whip all their asses and make sure they never showed up at a rendevous. He also said he was an X Special Forces career man. Well that knocked the wind out of me, and I let my business with Bob end right there. Later on one of the nine who had answered my e‑mail sent me Bobs phone number, but it had changed, and was unlisted. Well I don’t know what happened out there, but I’m damn glad we are not any part of it

WWW RENDEZVOUS DIRECTORY

This is one of the best ideas that has come along in a long time, especially for us Buckskinners. This Web Site lists (if you send it in) all the Buckskinners that are in our sport. It lists Buckskinners by state, and town. The guy who runs this show will put in your profile, what ever you send him. I got in it a long time ago, and have met new friends and found other friends of mine that I’d have been looking for in the past. The big thing is, this list has grown to 100 times bigger then when I put my name in it. I know we have some paranoid members out there who are scared to give out any information about them selves, but just put your real name, nickname, and use another e‑mail address for them to contact you, or you to contact other people. That way if you get a whacko, just delete the screen name and address and its all cool. You can find people out there who are interested in the same things in Buckskinning as you are. I chat with two other guys who are also building war clubs, and we have helped each other out a lot. No pun at Maine, but the Prof is the only one listed for the state. If you are interested or just want to look it over, the address is http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/1824/index.htm Oh by the way Prof, yours needs to be updated, and now you have company. There is another buckskinner listed for the state of Maine. I just checked.

COME AND GET THEM

To make a long story longer, the Preach needs some cash and you know what that means. Guns for sale, da dah! It seems that one of his daughters wanted to use his nice Blazer one night, and when he got the Blazer back it was not, shall we say, in the same condition as it was when it left. He had the four wheels and the steering wheel. Hell, Preach what else do you need. It’s a flintstone vehicle and foot powered. Look at the gas you will save. It seems Heather, the daughter who borrowed the Blazer, hit one of those cement bumper things they have where you park. The prob is, it was estimated that she hit one of these at about the speed of light. Hummm. Well Heather dusted herself off and went on her way. She was perfectly fine, but the now old Blazes was history. So the insurance won’t pay for the whole damage to the car, and Preach is laid off right now. Sell time.

The first gun he has to sell, is the Dutch 1680 smoothbore that Lt. Mork built for me. (Morris Taylor) I didn’t have the money to get it, so the Preach bought it. It’s a new gun, and the only shooting done with it was when the Preach and I sighted it in.. When we were done the Preach was hitting targets out to 125 yards with it. The gun has a custom 50 inch Getz smooth barrel on it. A Siler lock, and I had Lt. Mork make a snap‑on rear sight just like the original had on it. Its a 54 smooth, and all he wants for it is $1,200 for it. A deal A deal!

The other rifle is not for everybody. Its a Dawson rifle. Tom Dawson was building muzzleloaders long before we heard of "The House". The rifle is of 45 caliber, early Penn. style, and heavily inletted with silver and other metals. The unique thing is, it has a pop up peep sight built on and inletted into the tang, as the original did. The price,$5,000 big ones. That’s about half of what the Dawson guns go for. Preach wont have any prob selling it at Gunmakers hall in June but he needs the green now. Preach also has a smoothbore that him and Buzzard can’t get together to exchange the gun for money. I think they might be related.

THE MOVIE

Herschel House called me and said Hollywood was finally going to make the movie, Daniel Boone, the Frontiersman. Herschel built the rifle for the movie and hand delivered it to them about five years ago. I seen the rifle and I think it was the best of the best that Herschel has made. Hollywood got in touch with Herschel and said they needed it now. Herschel told the man on the phone, I can do it , but its going to cost you. No prob what it cost, just get it built and get out here with it. I don’t know what Herschel got for it but I know it was over $10,000. The movie didn’t get made earlier because the star who was supposed to play ole Daniel decided not to do it. They never did tell Herschel who the star was. Brad Pitt is now playing the part, and it has him as an old Daniel Boone, going back to his past and reliving his life. All the time he is telling all this he is cradling his rifle, the one Herschel made. Herschel’s rifle will get a lot of exposure in this movie. This all takes place at the last house Boone lived in. It was in the Spanish owned territory then. The Spanish had heard all about Boone. When the great state of Kaintukee took all of Boones property, and Boone had to pay back all the money that the people gave him when he sold them some of his land, (Daniel legally didn’t have to, but he did. That was Boone.) He wanted to get the hell out of the state that he had fought for and ended up getting the shaft. The Spanish heard of this and cut Boone a good deal to move to their land away from all the American politicians. Boone did just that. His house is now in Missouri and is still standing. It was made of stone and held up well. We used to go there every year and have an encampment and shoot there. Herschel got the script in the mail and he was telling me some of the things that they had in the movie. Its got the part where Kenton is carrying Boone after he got shot in the foot. Kenton had to make a run for the fort while carrying Boone. Three Indians cut Kenton off and Kenton had to throw Boone at two of them to knock them down before he killed them. This goes to show you this is right on the money on accuracy of this movie. There are some other cool things that Herschel told me and some of the other big stars in it, bit I couldn’t make out what Herschel was saying because he was a little tippsy on the phone when he called me. I guess I would be to after hearing that news. At the end of the movie Herschel will be interviewed for 9 minutes. Damn! Herschel is going to be on the big screen. Also Mr. Eckert will be interviewed too. The movie company used his book to get the right info for the movie This is going to be a good movie. You don’t want to miss this one, but you probably will, cause I just made it all up. Now before you want to hang me, Herschel did make the rifle and hand deliver it to Hollywood. There was going to be a movie about Boone and his life. But that’s the last word Herschel has heard from them. It has taken me 10 minutes to write these last words, cause I was laughing so hard. Hey I get bored doing this and I have to have some fun too.

ADDITIONS

Here are a few things I forgot to put in on some of the subjects that you have just read about. Kelly Rose wants you all to know, that after my ostrich kill, that I didn’t show up on‑line for a few days. Well she was worried and got hold of Rudd(one of our club members) that lives 25 miles north of me to check on me. He did. When I gutted the damn birds I had cuts all over my hands from making the war clubs and the guts and blood of the weird birds infected me with a bunch of different things. I also was eating some of the meat raw like I do when I kill a deer. I didn’t tell her that though. I got some kind of food poisoning (really, I wondered how that happened) and had to got to the doc then the Hospital. Well they gave me some antibiotics, the size of horse pills, and they were in an envelope instead of a bottle. Don’t know what that was all about. I had three different kinds of crap to take, and when I did take them I went out like a light. I was tired and sleepy all the time, so I wasn’t able to get on‑line for a couple of days. But they were working cause my veins were not showing up like they were coming out of my skin, and my aches and pains were going away. Only me!

When and if we get this newsletter going the way I talked about, Kelly Rose is going to help with the editing and do all the graphics for the newsletter. Many Klatch is going to need all the help he can get. Also the Digger might be involved with the printing of the Broken Arrow and getting the graphics the right colors. I told you this little paper you read and then throw away takes a lot of work and time, plus staff now. Hey that staff word makes us sound like the Washington Post, cool.

The Tennessee Whip called and said lets continue the completion with the rifle, smoothbore, pistol, tomahawk and knife. I was for dumping it cause of the lack of interest. The whip has all five, I have four, digger and Preach have three, Rudd has two, and Uncle Buck has two. JoJo came over a few times and I know he has two four sure and maybe four. Well you guys are missing a lot of fun doing this, and the big thing is, it improves your shooting a Helluva lot. Well we are going to stick with it, and I will have the long range targets and distance to be shot at in the next Broken Arrow.

In the next issue im going to have space for anyone who wants to sell something (Primitive only) and also a space for you guys to put in there what you need and are looking for. I’m going to start this off right now. I have a pre-year, three spouted tea kettle for sale. It was made for the King of Poland, one spout poured for him, another for his queen, and the last for his concubine. That way they could all be served at once.(the queen was understanding) Its made of 37 gauge steel, made in Poland and has a touch mark on the bottom, of a pole. Its worth a lot, but like the Preach, I need the money right now, so im sacrificing it for a mere 100 pounds, sterling. Any one interested get hold of somebody and they can call the Editor and he can call the Whip and...... Cheers Lizard (L)

I took the liberty of taking excerpts from Maurice Taylor’s last letter to me, for publication. Morris was the first person to send in his $10.00 dues for this year. If Maurice can send the money from halfway round the world in such a short time, I know the rest of you in the continental US can do as well. Since Lt. Mork started using a typewriter, I find that he much easier to read. Now if he just carried the typewriter to rendezvous so we could read what he is trying to say instead of listening to his Sheffield accent. Many Klatch

I notice none of the last three issues have had an article by me. You are either out of them or I’m out of favour. I don’t think it is the latter so it must be the former.

I am now home on the range in New Zealand. It’s a rifle and pistol range and they wanted a warden. I am rent free, for now at least. The range is so remote there isn’t even a mail contractor goes by here. I will not be up until May, for now I’m tending this range (sounds like a cowboy story).

On Sunday I walked up into the mountains and shot a wild pig and a goat the next morning, then walked to a hut in there. Brewed up and had breakfast then walked up over the Gordon Range and down back to the house (well it’s part of a huge old workshop) and I can see as I type mountains of 7,000 feet elevation maybe 18 miles away. So there are much worse exiles. I used my 5 lb weight, mid-18th century English rifle I made for such trips. Much prefer a light gun as all weigh gets to me in those hills.

I’ve been sort of busy in the US then doing biggish events over in the UK and touring with my Diane. Diane is from NJ and is actually Jerseys niece. We are due to marry at the Fort Ticonderoga F&I Grand Camp in June. She is coming over to New Zealand for January. Whether we will live here or the US I will leave til we decide. I’m easy. I expect to live in both and the rest of the world as per normal. But, we will see, they are talking here in NZ about gun registration by the year 2000 so it’s a good reason to decamp.

By the by. The Woodbury rendezvous is an enigma. No maps show it, the listings give no clue. It must be an in thing.

Lizard made some unkind remarks about Goex powder. I don’ t know the owners, I only know Goex powder. It is in my experience, the best of the powders that now reach these shores. Though I gather it is rather used up and no fresh stocks about. The Elephant powder I have seen endorsed as good powder is foul rubbish and weak, I won’t use it.

All modern powder is so poor in comparison to the original powders that even the best Swiss powders are poor substitutes. Goex was at least consistent and could be bought cheap at Friendship. Elephant wasn’t even in the running.

It seems ironical that with the volume of black powder shooting today, that the powders are so deplorably bad today. As for that plastic rubbish Pyrodex patent, I have never seen a grain and I have no desire to do so.

By the way, so far there have only been 3 people who have sent in their dues to date. One of them was Morris Taylor sending a $10 bill from New Zealand.

To keep the newsletter a manageable length, I had to cut out Whips letter about the woods walk that he put on last year. Look for that article in the next BA.

Lizard is going to start a technical column about some of the tests that he has run over the years.

We are looking for letters to publish in the BA. If you have an interesting hunting story, review of a rendezvous or whatever, send it in. Believe me, your spelling can’t be any worse than the Lizard’s. I have to run his letters through spell checker two times and then go back and catch all the punctuation and capitalization errors.

You've made a vehicle purchase decision based on how well it accommodates your kit and gets into and out of lost fields

...you can cruise through a fabric store in five seconds and determine whether or not it has accurate fabric.