Info On Roy Southgate Wanted

[Nit Wit]

I read that Roy Southgate was killed on the range in Friendship due to a magazine explosion in 1970. Is this true? Are there any details?
Just curious
Nit Wit

[JKL]

Is this the Roy Southgate you are looking for?
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21325391

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

...Charlie Southgate (R. Southgate's Brother) lives in Inglewood area of Nashville and still races motorcycles...(is in his 80's).....

[mikeyfirelock]

I dont have any new info on Mr. Southgate, but I remember going to his shop as a small boy in the 1950's.  My dad had been given a .29 cal. halfstock percussion rifle by one of his friends, and had somehow heard of Mr. Southgate.   My uncle was stationed in Nashville, and while we were visiting, my dad made a trip to Mr. Southgate's shop, which was in a building in the middle of a pasture.  Mom made him take my brother and I (ages 5 and 6.)   We had to stop, open the gate, and close it after us as I recall, because he had cattle in there.  One of the things he was doing at the time was rebarrelling  the little .310 Martini cadet rifles to .22 LR.  He had several in the rack on the wall.   He told my dad they made the nicest little squirrel rifles.  Dad bought 3 of them from Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago for $7.10 each when we got back home to NW Indiana.   I was probably 6 or so at the time and dont  remember anything else about the trip, so I must have been impressed with Mr. Southgate and his shop.
Mike Mullins  aka Mikeyfirelock

[smokinbuck]

Royland Southgate lived and worked at his home, Rebel Hill,  outside of Franklin Tenn.  I had the privilege of knowing him and his brother Baily well in the 70's. He passed away shortly after I left Tenn in 78. He was best known for his Tenn Maid rifles,
Flint in .40 caliber.  His brother Baily had a small shop behind his home in Inglewood,  a suburb of Nashville where he continued to do gun work after he was blinded in a cannon loading accident at the WENO ranch.  I don't recall when Baily passed away.  They were both part of a group of shooters and collectors  along with Charlie Haffner.
Mark

[smokinbuck]

Meant to say above,  I'm almost positive Royland died naturally and not in an explosion at Friendship.
Mark

[Bob Roller]

Meant to say above,  I'm almost positive Royland died naturally and not in an explosion at Friendship.
Mark

I don't remember any magazine explosion at Friendship in the 1970's.
I met Roy Southgate at Charlie Haffner's shoot in 1958. He had a
terrible accident with a Colt Single action 357 when the gun was dropped
and landed on the hammer and fired. As I recall the bullet traveled vertically
thru a lung and rib cage and exited at the shoulder.
At that time I was working for Dixie Gun Works which was the reason I was
at Charlie's shoot to begin with.

Bob Roller

[smokinbuck]

Bob,
You almost had it right.  The pistol that went off hit Baily, not Royland, and all but killed him. I agree about any explosions at Friendship.
Mark

[Bob Roller]

Bob,
You almost had it right.  The pistol that went off hit Baily, not Royland, and all but killed him. I agree about any explosions at Friendship.
Mark

Mark,
I hesitated when I wrote that but figured someone would help me out.
Thanks for setting the record straight.

Bob Roller

[Nit Wit]

Thanks for the info, I had never heard of an explosian at Friendship, do you suppose they got confused about the cannon incident?
NW

[smokinbuck]

I doubt that one was confused with the other,  someone probably heard a story and passed it on.  Stories tend to change with each telling.
Mark

[EC121]

There are some pictures of one of Southgate's rifles on my blog along with a biographical article.  www.bricestultzhisblog.blogspot.com

[Bill Paton]

I have an original John and Peter Moll FL swivel breech rifle with a previously unrecognized fore stock replacement, which I thought was original until, taking the barrels off, I saw a pencilled note, “Southgate 1947”! The rest of the gun seems original. I get fooled often in this business, but had to chuckle at that one.

Bill Paton

[Eddie Southgate]

...Charlie Southgate (R. Southgate's Brother) lives in Inglewood area of Nashville and still races motorcycles...(is in his 80's).....

    Charlie is Roylands nephew . He will be 75 this year . Charlie is the youngest son of Bailey Wright Southgate  who was Roylands older brother . Royland died as a result of strokes and heart attacks . Bailey was involved in an explosion at WENO Ranch Frontier Days and was busted up considerable and lost his sight but he lived at least another 25 years and died of a heart attack in his sleep in 1990.

   Closest thing to a fatal explosion at Friendship that I am aware of  involved a bunch of skulls . Don't remember what night it was exactly but it was at the big dance they had toward the end of the week . Pap (Bailey) and Fleming Williams  passed out ( un restricted ) 15 gallons of un proofed Little Texas bug juice . Next morning you could hear the skulls popping from 100 miles away .

   If you need any more info on Royland or Bailey I may be able to help .


   Eddie Southgate
     

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

.....HaHaHa......Have been to the Garner picknic many times in Little Texas.....always a fun time, good food & music.....Is Charlie still racing Motorcycles..?? ....haven't seen him in a few years....him and a son were racing flat-track british bikes out of their machine shop in Englewood...
 

[Eddie Southgate]

.....HaHaHa......Have been to the Garner picknic many times in Little Texas.....always a fun time, good food & music.....Is Charlie still racing Motorcycles..?? ....haven't seen him in a few years....him and a son were racing flat-track british bikes out of their machine shop in Englewood...
 

      Yes , both are still racing and Charley is still in my paps old shop on Gallatin Road . He started building a shop on his property on Brick Church Pike but kinda lost steam on it last time I talked to him . He keeps talking about closing the old shop and retiring to the new one but I doubt that will ever happen . We will find him croaked in the old shop one of these days . My dad is his older brother, I hate it but the family always called me Butch .

 Eddie

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

...Thanx...... Last saw  him & son racing on short flat track over in Lebanon couple years ago.....Mr. Charlie was in good form.....!!