Big Ed

One of my favorite places in the world to visit is Tombstone, Arizona, this last trip we made the drive down there. We drove down to Tombstone with my niece that lives in Casa Grande, her two kids and my sister. Oh, and Bentley the Pug. This was a general shopping and tourist trip for everyone but me, I had a specific reason for the trip, I wanted to meet Big Ed Douglas, the proprietor of San Pedro Saddlery one of the best makers of holsters for cowboy action shooting there is.

All of the gun and history buffs reading this site know that Tombstone is the site of that famous gunfight between the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday and the Clantons. Oddly in the 1880s wild west a gunfight with a body count of three was a real big deal, national news. Just a few days ago there were three people shot in a Dallas murder, it did not seem to make the national news. I love the ways the anti-gun folks always are yammering about how concealed carry permits will turn our cities into Tombstone or Dodge City when the crime rate is ten times (or more) what it was back then.

Oddly, the Gunfight At The O. K. Corral is poorly named, it was actually the gunfight in the vacant lot between the O. K. Corral and Fly's Boarding House. Does not trip off the tongue so well, though.

Anyhow, we walked down from the 'center' of the tombstone tourist area to San Pedro Saddlery having gotten directions from a feller selling tickets on the wagon tour...Rule # One, don't never believe how close the guy giving directions says something is. Don't walk, drive. I like to killed myself. Worse was walking back. Most worse was that I got there without my gun belt and shootin' irons, if most worst is the proper phrase.The whole purpose of that trip, for me anyway, was to pick out a better holster for my second revolver and to buy a pair of shooting gauntlets. Well, I met Big Ed, got the gloves and talked about that second holster. Big Ed is not particularly tall, he sure is broad, though. A friendly sort, thank the Lord, he has hands and arms that look as if he could crush anvils, barehanded. I suspect that it has been some time, decades perhaps, that he has seen his feet while standing. Ever see one of those guys with a great big belly that you just know that if you haul off and punch him in the belly you will break knuckles all the way to your elbow? That is Big Ed.
Anyhow, I have picked out my Christmas, Birthday and Aniversery gifts for the next five years, right there on Big Ed's site. If you have a desire for the old fashioned, hand made leathercraft, check out that website.

Udate...for some reason my server won't allow me to remove the wrong prefix from San Pedro Saddlery's web page. If you are interested in this website, just use the name and dot com.