My first purchase, Bob Watts custom in .45 caliber...I paid $475 for this gun in 1977...I've won many matches with her and until the late '80s when I built my .54 it was the only muzzleloader I owned...She has killed countless deer and squirrels and I even killed my first wild turkey with her with a wingbone call I made back in '79...I've been offered $2,500 for her as Bob Watts was one of the featured gunsmiths in Foxfire V and he has since passed away...When I finished my .54 I had Ed Rayle make me a .40 caliber barrel for her...I call her Sweetheart for the weeping heart on the thumbpiece...





This is my .54, I began her in 1988 and finished her in 1990...It took me 200 hours...I call her Daisy, because of the Lancaster Daisy patchbox on her...I decided to build her when a black bear walked up on me one day when I had my .45 on my lap...She belongs to my 26 year old daughter (my middle one)...She used to come to the basement and watch me work on her while I told her stories of The Revolution, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, etc...

Those stories paid off as she was a NC Teaching Fellow which paid about half of her tuition at UNC...When she graduated she had her choice of Duke or Wake Forest free for her Masters...When interviewed for these scholarships she was asked why she wanted to teach history...She said so she could pass on some of the stories her dad had told her so the kids would have a real passion for the sacrifices that had been made to make this great Country...She is married and teaches History in the Raleigh area...

I've also got a Knight Disc with a 3x9x40 Leupold on it...I've never taken a picture of it...