* > Flatgate < *

[mr.deerstalker]

your digging deep..mike

 

[hittman]

your digging deep..mike

A pic stolen from Flatgate's album here a few years ago. I "think" he told me these were his holsters and his display but don't remember for sure.

Weird how they're all WRONG handed and not a double action in the bunch! LOL

 

[mr.deerstalker]

A pic stolen from Flatgate's album here a few years ago. I "think" he told me these were his holsters and his display but don't remember for sure.

Weird how they're all WRONG handed and not a double action in the bunch! LOL

you wrong handers are not taking over the world...

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Yeah, I was about to mention that. Wonder if Carl had at least one lefty holster he actually used?

 

[green_chile]

I only met Carl twice over 20 years ago but he was very generous of his time and knowledge. I was glad to have met him.

 

[Firsttimegrampa]

Just stumbled onto this one on the Tulsa show site:

Left side of bottom row is Carl's triple-consecutive set of rare convertible Bearcats

Always had some interesting talks .

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

That first pic in the original post was taken by my son who would have been 11 years old at the time, original file is dated July 5, 2004.

Three forum members, that's AZGunrunner on left, me in the middle, Flatgate on the right.

That was at AZ's condo in the Denver suburbs, I was out there visiting my mom and Carl drove down with a load of Rugers to show us. He must have had a hard time deciding what to bring, so he had a backpack, duffle, and gun case, all full of revolvers.

I remember teasing him about the hotrod that he drove down in:

 

[KRuger]

Although I never met Flatgate, he was always the "expert" to me when I started lurking on this site many years ago. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could still recover two of his responses to me when I asked a question in February of 2011.
Thanks again,
KRuger

 

[rugerguy]

thank you Bob, good memories, and NOW winter is coming the Lord is having Carl make us all some SNOW............
rest in Peace flatgate.....

PS I still think that picture of the 3 of you was after that Jimmy Buffett concert you guys went to........

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Worth noting . . . https://www.rugerforum.com/threads/missed-an-important-date-for-this-site.304021/

 

[Firsttimegrampa]

Just stumbled onto this one on the Tulsa show site:

Left side of bottom row is Carl's triple-consecutive set of rare convertible Bearcats

I have one of his convertible Bearcats .

 

[contender]

Nice!

 

[rugerguy]

Grandpa you got a good one, my wife sent about 3-or 4 of them early 3 digit New Bearcats out west years ago, but not sure which one Carl got,,,, only kept the one till I got her another 3 digit, last weekends show,,,,,she LOVED the numbers #777.....her Christmas present..........

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

I've been cleaning out an old file cabinet in the basement and just came across this. My son and I stopped in to see Carl at Jackson Hole on one of our trips out west, I think 2005. Carl didn't want my truck to get ticketed or towed, so he made me this fancy "parking pass" so I could be in the back areas where the public wasn't generally allowed to go.

When we rolled out of Carl's place the next day on our way to Yellowstone, I had his factory chrome plated SC6 in the box w/shipper in my truck and he had my promise to pay him for it as soon as I could afford to.

 

[golferboy426]

my dad sold him a bunch of day when Carl first started collecting.. I wonder where it all went

 

[HAWKEYE#28]

Seems most of Flatgate's hardware went down the road via some unnamed FFL, based upon what I could decipher from his widow, some years ago..........Sad............

 

[mr.deerstalker]

its still around. sadly another care taker...

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

Seems most of Flatgate's hardware went down the road via some unnamed FFL, based upon what I could decipher from his widow, some years ago..........Sad............

I know exactly what you mean by "decipher". It was her own little world inside her head. I did communicate with the FFL she used and even helped him try to sell the consecutive triplet of convertible Bearcats, but I failed to find a buyer to keep them together. I do know the RSSE was gone before I got wind of it, sold to a local guy for $6K. The dealer was local to Jackson. I got frustrated with him because he would not venture into the garage where Carl's safe and all his parts, books, and memorabilia were. But I also commiserate with him because with the snow piled so high outside, the only way into the garage was through the house and down some inside stairs, and the cat horde had been using the bottom of the stairway as their indoor plumbing for years with no cleanup and he said he got nauseated trying to go down there. Sounded like a real HAZMAT biohazard site. I was interested in Carl's display of bolt-on flatgate "upgrade" parts and accessories, and a few other pieces of memorabilia. I did get a few guns like the custom 7.5" flatgate that he built using a non-INC RSS9 barrel that I traded to him for that purpose. And the #100 S4440 which is consecutive to the #101 and #102 pair that I already had.

I don't know if Carl ever even finished the parts & accessories display but he was talking about it when we saw him in 2013 which was around the beginning of the end, or maybe even the middle of the end. Even at that point, they were too embarrassed about the the condition of their house to invite us over, instead they came to our hotel and we ate dinner in the bar and then went back to the room, my now-wife-then-girlfriend and Carl's wife kept each other company while Carl and I drank whiskey and he repeated several of the same old stories over and over. It was right in the midst of the opioid crisis and Carl got onto the pills when he threw his back out in 2010 and his wife, the retired nurse who knew best, kept feeding it to him even though he felt that he needed to get off of it. During a lucid moment, he described the display he had in mind which merged all of this stuff onto one historic informational panel:

I suspect that all his patches, pins, banners, factory memorabilia, parts, manuals, loose gun boxes, books, etc. all got sold off in lots at garage sale prices later that year after the snow melted. Either that or tossed.

 

[Cholo]

↑ That's really sad to read

 

[mr.deerstalker]

yes indeed. a whole different prospective on this guy. good or bad... but go's to show you that anyone can be hooked on the evel drug addiction. even a mid western gun collector! when your mind really don't know whats right or wrong. it just craves more. its takes a strong will to break the curse. often takes loved ones around you to break that cycle. sounds like in this case that was not what happened. Carls gone now. our memories of him should be in the good he created. I for one am thankful of that. FNC