[n
has been a lifelong passion for Eustace Conway.
- Hello, Mr. Conway.
- What do you say, Joe? Good to see you.
[narrator] And one of the most important mountain man
skills is learning how to hunt.
- Brought you a few guns. - Let me see what you got.
I'm hoping to get some guns, because I've got to have
some to teach with, you know?
I've got to have some for the campers,
and a shotgun or a .22 to get some food.
All those things help people control their destiny.
- There's the sweet little .22 I was telling you about.
- Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I can teach the young people with that.
- Yes, sir.
- Nice.
It's hardly a scratch on it.
You sure you want to let go of something that nice?
- I'm hoping to trade these guns on some lumber to do
some furniture work with--
stuff that you can't buy anywhere else
at any of the big stores
or the lumber yards.
- What else have you got here, Joe?
I just think people should know how to hunt, you know?
That's an ancient thing.
That goes back to the earliest humanity.
If you know that you can get food,
it empowers you as an individual and a family and community.
Just allows you to live.
- 30-06 with a scope.
- Oh, yeah, this is a classic.
[narrator] If Eustace likes what he sees,
he'll take the gun in exchange for an equal value
of lumber from his sawmill.
You like-- I mean, you can see it, I could use this,
but this scope is a little fogged.
- Yeah, it's been around a while.
- Yeah, I bet it has.
These would be great training tools.
These look like exactly what I want to work with.
Now we just need to get you some lumber, get you what you want.
♪♪
If you want some high character and you want live edge,
I'm thinking right here with all these knots,
like, all these swells.
Joe wants some special wood--
something that's just different than anything
you can buy at any lumber yard.
He wants high character, live edge, interesting
art opportunity, you might call it.
Put that on the mill and custom saw it.
Like, right now it's just in a log form.
- Right. - But I guarantee you
by the time you get all these big knots sticking out,
that you'll have character there.
I can't just saw this myself. You'd have to help out.
But if we saw this, you'll be able to see in it.
Once we open it up, it's like opening a book.
You can read it. - Right.
- You can see the grain pattern, and you can see the live edge.
- That sounds like that deal would be kind of hard to beat.
At least we get to see it that way.
- Yeah.
He's game to pitch in and get some sawdust on him,
a little man glitter here.
And so I hope he's happy with this lumber,
because, like, it's my opportunity to get the gun.
There is a lot of little parts to this.
[narrator] Eustace is getting a helping
hand to turn out the lumber he needs to seal a deal.
- So you'll be right here as a board comes out.
[narrator] Joe's job is to offload
the boards as they're cut.
- Just peel it off.
[narrator] But that's not as simple as it sounds.
- You might pull one off and let it sit here.
And pull the next one, get two or three,
and then carry them and then run back.
- Okay.
[narrator] And if there's one rule to remember when running
the 100-year-old sawmill, it's to steer
clear of the five-foot blade.
- It'll cut your head off. It'll cut you in half.
It'll cut your arm off.
It's totally unforgiving. It doesn't love you.
It doesn't love your mama. - It has no conscience.
- No.
I just give him a crash course
and say, Joe, it's dangerous.
Enter at your own risk, and let's go do it.
Any questions about all of it?
- When are we getting started?
- Yeah, right on.
[motor starts up]
[narrator] They've selected this furniture-grade log for its
unusual and distinctive shape.
The first slice trims the bark.
But deeper cuts reveal the character
and quality inside the heart of the wood.
♪♪
- Wow!
Look at that. - That is beautiful, buddy!
- Yeah! Some serious character.
It got some real shape to it.
- Oh, yeah! - Oh, man, look at that!
There's a lot of art could be created with all of this.
- Yes, sir.
Well, you've got yourself a trade.
[laughs]
- If you're happy, I'm happy.
I'm very happy.
Yeah, I love having these guns.
They're really going to empower me
to empower the people to learn how to use these tools.
- I'm tickled to death with it. That's some beautiful stuff.
- That's awesome. I'm glad we could
hook you up with just the right thing.
Well, let's go get those guns!
- All right, buddy, let's go square this thing up!
- Yeah!
[rifle shots]
[narrator] Eustace is taking aim.
- Yeah! Whoo!
Hot dog. [chuckling]
That feels right.
[narrator] He's now the proud owner of six new firearms.
- Not too shabby.
This will make a heck of a deer rifle, right here.
[narrator] Five of the guns are in perfect working order.
- Well, this is so foggy, I can't really see.
[narrator] But he can't be sure about the Remington
until he makes an upgrade.
- To give the rifle a fair chance,
I need to put a better scope on it just to see how it hits.
[narrator] A small price to pay for what's
otherwise been a favorable deal.
♪♪
- I think it could fit on here.
This is a whole lot better.
♪♪
It immediately looks
a thousand times more clear.
[narrator] To put the rifle to the test,
he first sights in the scope.
- Okay, let's see how this goes.
♪♪
Every time you put a new scope on...
you have to adjust it to get it zeroed in.
So you have to take a few shots, see where it's hitting,
and adjust the windage
and adjust the elevation there.
[narrator] The windage and elevation knobs
adjust the reticle and help shooters line their target
up perfectly in the crosshairs.
- It looks like it's just a little
down a little to the right.
That's very surprisingly close.
We've got left and right looking good.
Just need to raise it up a couple.
Let's go see what that is.
Yeah, I think that might work.
Right in the bullseye.
Nice to have one zeroed in nicely.
Now that we've got the guns sort of checked out,
we need to work on building a shooting range
so that Freedom Camp can have a good place and a known place.
Like, "meet you at the shooting range!"
I need some steel targets that'll make
a good plinking noise.
Kids will love it when it comes flying around.
"Ping! Ping!"
I'm not even going to wait.
I'm just going to build one right now.