My first DGW catalog was in 1968. I had been "tapped" to help out a Boy Scout troop near where we lived and was scheduled to meet with the Troop Committee after work on the day it arrived. I tossed it into my briefcase and went off to the meeting. The Chairman of the committee was a large former Marine named Jim Bell, and he noticed the Dixie catalog when I opened my briefcase to get a scratch pad. After the (successful) meeting, he invited me for coffee and asked about it. We became good friends and stayed so for more than 40 years. During all that time, Dixie was often my go-to source for supplies and information and I got acquainted with Turner and some of the DGW staff members too. Good people. The lady who was Marketing Manager for them for years went on to be the Editor and Publisher of Muzzle Blasts magazine.
One of the things I remember most vividly from that first catalog (and it stayed in later issues for years) was Turner's ad for a tomahawk, which he claimed was "just like" one that belonged to his grandfather which had had three new heads and four new handles but was still in good shape.
While I was still in school, I acquired an original 1858 Remington New Model Army, a well-used one with a holster made from an old worn boot top. The DGW catalog told me that an empty .38 Special casing would hold the right powder charge for that pistol and how to fashion a handle
for the empty shell too. It also told me what size round ball the revolver wanted and sold me a mold to make them. In later years, I got hold of an original 1868 Sharps Carbine which was functional but had a problem getting cocked or staying that way. Turned out the tip of the mainspring was broken off, and that little piece was supposed to act as the sear spring too. Dixie Gun Works came up with an intact original mainspring for it, and an original combination tool also, both for a very reasonable cost --- and sure enough,
in the back of the catalog were instructions on how to make paper cartridges for the carbine.