Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Working The Trapline — Cowboys, Pirates, And Astronauts

August 19, 2022, by JimC

Some fine news from my friend Craig Rullman:

At long last I can announce that our film will very soon be available on Horse TV. We are honored to join an excellent line up of films including Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait, Oceans of Grass, Cowboys Without Borders, Breaking Wild, and 7 Clinics with Buck Brannaman, among others. When you set out to make a film you hope that it will one day land in a good place with good company, and that has happened. My sincerest thanks to everyone who has helped, supported, and encouraged us along the way. It has been an incredible journey…and it isn’t over yet.

Craig and Sam Pyke of Hill Shadow Pictures and photographer Cody Rheault have truly put together a beautiful film. Mike Biggers song “It Doesn’t Matter Which Way The Wind Blows” and my own, “Charlie Russell Sky” are featured, which I count as a very great honor. I’ll keep you posted as to the where and whens.

*

From Indian Country Today:

Nicole Aunapu Mann will be making history as the first Native woman to fly into space this fall.

Mann, enrolled in Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northern California, will be aboard the SpaceX Crew-5 mission to go to the International Space Station no earlier than Sept. 29.

“It’s very exciting,” she told ICT referring to being the first Native woman in space. “I think it’s important that we communicate this to our community, so that other Native kids, if they thought maybe that this was not a possibility or to realize that some of those barriers that used to be there are really starting to get broken down.”

Hats off to her!

*

The pirate historian Benerson Little has served up a detailed study of the classic painting

“The Buccaneer Was a Picturesque Fellow” by Howard Pyle

Little has done yeoman’s work in laying out the true material culture and tactics of the buccaneers of the late 17th Century and the pirates of the early 18th Century. His books The Buccaneers’ Realm and The Sea Rovers’ Practice are key texts on the maritime Frontier Partisans. But Little is also interested in the pirate as a cultural phenomenon in literature and film (he was a consultant on Black Sails), and he does a lot of work on the intersection of fact and folklore, which is true Frontier Partisans work.

I was pleased to read his examination of our buccaneer’s arms, because I always found the Jaeger Rifle an odd — and tantalising  — touch.

His “musket” is a bit of an anachronism: it is a Jaeger or Jaeger-type hunting rifle. Developed in the late 17th century in the region later to become known as Germany, there is no indication they were ever used by buccaneers. These Caribbean sea rovers used the long fusil boucanier, especially among the French, and various other muskets at times. However, there are instances of carbines (Sp. carabinas) in use on occasion at sea and ashore, and we will assume this is what Pyle meant to represent.

Now, could we not create a dark and bloody backstory as to how the picturesque fellow obtained a Jaeger Rifle? Aye, so we could…

Little is hard at work creating an annotated edition of Rafael Sabatini’s classic Captain Blood. I wait impatiently to plunder its riches…

*

Speaking of rifles — as we so often do — Malcolm Brooks shared this article with me in an exchange about falling block single shots. Sporting Classics always has good stuff…

Hunting Africa with a Falling Block Rifle: The Dakota M10 Single Shot

Thom Eley responded to one of my many “shares” of John L. Rigby rifle posts with a link to D’Arcy Echols & Co. Rifles. Holy smokes!

We’re talking heavy-duty big bore African game thumpers — .458 Lott; .404 Jeffery; .505 Gibbs. Proprietary iron sights. The wood stocks are, of course, beautiful, but there’s something mighty sexy about the composites, too…

Do I need one? No. Can I afford one? No. Do I want one? Umm… does a bear shit in the woods?

UPDATE: The Terminal List keeps following me around. Turns out that James Reece’s sniper rifle is an Echols. From the Internet Movie Firearms Database:

The LX-1 is a custom-made, hand-built rifle made by boutique manufacturer D’Arcy Echols & Co. of Utah, United States, that are built around highly modified Winchester Model 70 actions. In the novels by Jack Carr, Reece is stated to use an Echols Legend in .300 Winchester Magnum. According to Xtreme Props, the rifle used in the series is also chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum and was built by Echols specifically for the series. It is fitted with a Night Force NXS scope.

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Comments

  1. Matthew says

    August 19, 2022 at 7:36 am

    That’s great news for you and Craig!

    I always liked that Howard Pyle painting.

    Reply
  2. John Maddox Roberts says

    August 19, 2022 at 9:51 am

    Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth pretty much created the “pirate look” we know so well today: the headscarves, bucket boots, hoop earrings, long sashes and so forth. There is no evidence that real pirates ever wore such things. They often used props they had lying about their studios, even if they were anachronistic, as in Pyle’s famous picture of Capt. Kidd wearing an 1832 Foot Artillery sword. The jaeger may have been a piece Wyeth had in his collection. They were more interested in atmosphere than in period accuracy.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      August 19, 2022 at 11:21 am

      Yep. Little acknowledges that, of course.

      Reply
  3. Quixotic Mainer says

    August 19, 2022 at 3:06 pm

    Great news about Outer Circle, can’t wait to see it!

    A Jaeger would be a pretty nasty weapon to face in the hands of a picked man up in the crow’s nest. You’d be using the backup wheel in the cabin fairly fast I wont, or else beyond caring much. Little really intrigued me with his description of fire supremacy through “buccaneer loading”, where the rovers were just dumping in powder and an undersized ball, and not even bothering with priming powder due to oversized vents.

    I believe some Jaegers actually needed the ball seated with a hammer. Different POU entirely.

    Reply
  4. Thom Eley says

    August 19, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    The astronaut is also a Colonel in the Marine Corps.

    Reply
  5. Thom Eley says

    August 19, 2022 at 6:13 pm

    Check out Tia Shoemaker who is an Alaskan bear guide, fishing guide and most pleasant on the eye as well. She carries a D’Arcy Echols .416 Remington Magnum and is very proficient with it. He dad is the guide who killed a charging huge coastline brown bear with a 9 mm. Quite the family.

    Reply
  6. J.F. Bell says

    August 23, 2022 at 7:59 am

    One of my great regrets from my time at Dakota was not picking up an M10 receiver and having it barreled in 7×57. As it happened, those was one of the items they wouldn’t sell to employees.

    Wouldn’t pay the retail for one now…but I have no plans to quit lusting after it, either.

    Reply

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