First I want to thank the dozens of you that have had me do work or contacted me about doing work for you. I had temporarily closed Dixie during the past few months because of my medical issues and had considered closing it for good. For those of you I've never talked to or who haven't read the write up on Dixie in Whitworths book I got into this full time after becoming disabled and forced into retirement from 22yr career as an Automotive Tech.

I have recently re opened on a limited basis and taken in a couple guns for minor work as my son will be up for spring break. He is a senior this year and is still up in the air on what he wants to do. The one thing he has picked up on is my love of all things mechanical. My career has included working on cars and heavy trucks as well as aircraft and industrial electric motors. This follows in the footsteps of my paternal Great Grandfather who was a German Machinist/Mechanic, Grandfather who was an officer in the Merchant Marines and served as the Ships Engineering Officer and my father who was a Senior Engineer for IBM and played a major role in the magnetic reading devices found in ATM's and other readers that are now common place. He helped develop ATM's in the 70's and continued work on them until his retirement in the late 90's.

So far my son has bounced from wanting to work on rotary wing aircraft, motorcycles and now automotive. I've offered him an apprenticeship in my shop which is why I'm bringing work in a little early. I'm hoping to have him work with me this coming week while he's here for spring break and possibly stir and interest in him for gunsmithing. I will never push him one way or the other and will support him in whatever he does but my hope is he'll take a liking to it. My goal is to be able to have him take over the business within a few years.

I know I'll continue to be plagued by medical issues with my back and I don't want a repeat of what happened this time with customers being made to wait for their guns longer than initially promised. I decided to keep the shop open because of the number of calls and emails about work that have come over the past few months. I have also been greatfull for the patience of the owners of guns I'm still working on as well as those that have told me they would wait until I was able to do the work for them. I have been flabbergasted by the response to Dixie and how fast it took off on me. It actually caught me off guard and if my son becomes involved I see no reason Dixie can't be as successful as any of the other custom shops with an investment of time, hardwork and of course capitol to upgrade machinery.

I also wanted to take this time to pass some news on to all of you. I have mentioned it to a few of you but I'm one for putting all the cards on the table. It appears that my younger years of hard living have done more than just damage to my back. My handgun hunting is coming to an end because of tremors and various other issues. It appears that the dozen plus concussions and dozens of lesser head injuries have caused a neurological issue. They are leaning toward something called CTE which has been in the news concerning football players the past couple years. The problem is there is no definitive test for it except for post mortem so for now I just have to take it a day at a time and see if things get worse. If this preliminary diagnosis is correct the prognosis is bleak but time frame is a big unknown as it could be years before it becomes a major issue.

I'll be resuming normal operations as soon as I'm cleared by the doc and feel like I can spend the time needed in the shop. If your interested in having me do some work shoot me an email. I won't be taking any conversions in at the moment until I'm caught up and/or have some help. I'll also pretty much be limiting my work primarily to Ruger single actions with the exception of action work and refinishing.

Thanks again to all of you who have supported myself and Dixie Firearms Mfg.

I for one am extremely pleased to see you back in business. Take it easy on the recovery, my friend, but keep marching forward!

Well Rod, let' just hope that you can keep doing what you love and be with your family. If there's anything I can do just let me know.

Take Care Buddy

Rod, I hope this doesn't sound selfish, but I'm glad your back to doing what you love. I hope for you and your son that it works out for the both of you. I often dreamed of having a successful business that my boy could work by my side and some day own and run. Don't over do it though.

Slow and steady wins the race,take it easy and do what you can.

Hey Rod, I know you can do it buddy; but you just have to be patient. Easy to say but tough to do. We are all pulling for you.

Glad to see you are back at it. Hopefully your son will enjoy it. I hope your health improves. If you decide to take on more conversions let me know. Maybe by then I'll have decided between a 5.5 inch 480 or a bisley hunter in 454.

Thanks for the update Rod!

Here's to many years B-4 the CTE test Rod. Enjoy the time spent with your son regardless of his career decision.

Good words...

Hey buddy, now just take it slow, go back and treat it like a hobby again until you can get some help in the shop. Will still be praying for you my friend!
God Bless,
Rupe

Glad for the update Rod. Praying for peace in your decision-making and of course for healing. God is good and "His steadfast love endures forever."

Keep on pluggin'!!!!

Glad to hear Rod. I agree with others don't rush it, and take your time. Enjoy the time with your son.

Your in our prayer my friend.

I am sorry to hear this Rod. I hope there is a way for you to continue, perhaps if something with a little less "kick" were involved?

All the best for the restart of your business Rod, and I'll be praying your health improves! Please let me know when you might be ablet o take on conversions again, despite being really quiet on this forum I still really want a 480 Bisley conversion from you at some stage. Take care.

well I was a little slow getting back in the shop this week, 12hrs driving put me in bed for a couple days. So far my son seems interested but we'll see as I let him do some more interesting stuff.

I did decide what to do with really nice FA 83 I have. I had it for sale on here for a while but pulled it to put it on GB which I never did. My son had asked his mom for a 44 for a graduation present but I think I'll give him the 454, that way he can shoot 45's until he gets used to it. I'll probably put his name on it and give it to him graduation night.

Wow, what a gift. Good thinking and a great place for it to go.

Yeah I'm proud of him, I have 4 kids with my first wife and so far I'm only 2 for 4. I have a daughter thats now a teenage mother. I love my grand daughter and wouldn't give her up for the world but she shouldn't have arrived for a few years yet. My middle son is a brawler that runs with the wrong people but he's 19 now so he's on his own. The other two are a different story, my oldest hit over 2000 on the SAT and is going to go to medical school. He wants to be a Neurosurgeon, he also scored a 96 on the ASVAB his Junior year of high school but he has asthma otherwise he had considered Annapolis or West Point. My youngest son which is the on graduating has the best work ethic of all of them and although he may not have the IQ of his older brother he makes up for it with a "can do" attitude which is why I think he deserves the FA. He's had to work a lot harder than his older brother but he still has a 3.5GPA. I can only hope the other two pull it together and than my youngest daughter from my current marriage will follow her brothers that are on the right track. It seems like society has really made it a lot tougher on these kids than when most of us were in school.

Rod,

Glad to hear your feeling good enough to get back into the shop more. I'm excited to see how my Bisley you have comes out. Excited is an understatement actually.

Hope you continue to have a positive recovery.

It's coming along good and I think I've got the wheels turning in the boys head.

I did change his grad present though, he'll still get the FA eventually but I decided for a first handgun the FA in 454 is alot of gun. Both the recoil and caring for that expensive of a gun. I ended up giving him the 44spcl I built a couple years ago on a 3 screw frame. He used it last summer to kill a rattler he almost stepped on but he loved the gun. The morning we left to go home from camping I noticed he was still wearing it on his hip. I figure even though I've let him shoot the big bores before the 44 will allow him to learn the basics without developing bad habits from recoil and the Ruger is a lot easier and more affordable to repair should he have a mishap.