BUCKAROO BONANZA! - The Hats that Major Mike Moore Makes

[DJH]

Thanks, David. With a mere 3" brim and a C crown crease, this hat wouldn't be adopted as Western by many people in the horse community. It is more Western than Eastern, to be sure, but pretty tame by Texas standards. Maybe that's why it works for you. Don't worry, though. I have plenty of big cowboy hats as well.

I think you are right - by my standards it is pretty western.
What with your hat and that really nice light coloured fedora that Neo has, Major Moore does very nice work!

 

[Neophyte]

I just met a student in the school cafeteria who greeted me by asking "Did you get that hat in Covington?" It took me a minute to realize that he recognized Mike's handiwork and my picture on Mike's website!

I recognized him as one of the two other people on campus that I see that regularly wear hats (he dobs a straw Stetson). He said he had recently visited Buckaroo Hatters and was intent on eventually asking Mike to make a custom Lonesome Dove-style hat.

Congatulations, Major!

 

[Neophyte]

What was weird is that he recognized my burgundy western, which is not on the website presentation...oh well, the more publicity for the Major's work, the better.

 

[RBH]

Pretty cool Alex.. did you invite him to join the Lounge?

 

[Neophyte]

Pretty cool Alex.. did you invite him to join the Lounge?

I told him about it. I don't think it paid it much mind. He wears his hats, but I'm not sure if his interest in hats lies beyond that.

 

[Neophyte]

I think I finally have my custom western design hammered out (I know I've said that multiple times now, but I mean it this time, I swear! lol).
Originally, I was going to go with a BotP hat, with a 4.25''-4.5'' crown and a 3.5'' brim. As many of you know, I changed my mind incessantly, from BotP to Gambler to Gus to Cavalry to Gambler (again) to Bowler to Homburg...but I believe I have finally found the design that I will commit to. It will look similar to the "On the Dodge" model offered by River Junction Trading Co.:

Something was missing from the design, though...some kind of brim curl. Ever since trying on a Stetson Sheridan at the Hatco Outlet during FedoraFestIII, I've been dead set on getting a hat with some brim curl. Fortunately, on the presentation on the Buckaroo Hatters website I found an example of the kind of brim I was looking for. This customer pic shows a hat with a brim identical to the shape of the "On the Dodge" brim shape, with the addition of the curled brim:

Basically, I'm looking for a hat with this brim shape and a Tycoon/Teardrop crease.

Now that I'd figured out the shape (hey, only took 7 months of constant searching ), the other details were easy. From the felt strips that the Major sent me, I finally narrowed it down to Black (I also learned that my Moorelite is Silverbelly, not Bone). As for the quality level of fur, I will most likely go with 100x. Though I'll probably have the funds by May, I will probably buy a straw hat and put off ordering until about July or August, so that the hat will be in my hands as the weather starts to cool down here in East Tennessee. As much as I'd love to have the hat as soon as possible, the muggy summers here would make the darker felt hats unpleasant.

Whew! I gotta tell ya', it's a great feeling to finally have this figured out. I hope I'm super-satisfied with my choice because it would be difficult for me to go through all this again (and since I have a habit of bothering you Loungers with this, like I'm doing right now, I imagine it would be difficult for you, too ). Major Moore, if you read this, I'm looking forward to ordering my very first custom from you in the near future!

 

[RBH]

Looks like a winner to me Alex!!!!

 

[Neophyte]

Thanks, Rusty . I sure hope it is!

 

[fmw]

I like the one the woman is wearing in the image. If that's what you're after, it will definitely be a winner.

 

[Neophyte]

Well, it will have that brim shape, but with a Tycoon/Teardrop crown. It will also be Black. That hat she's wearing has tempted me before, but I've finally come to the conclusion that I just don't really like the telescope crown.

I figure the hat itself will look great. I'm just hoping I don't make it look worse by putting it on lol!

 

[fmw]

I would call what she is wearing a gambler and I suppose the telecope crown is part of the description. The Major makes great hats. I'm sure it will turn out great.

 

[Spats McGee]

The Covington

Fellow Loungers, I know that I've been absent more than not in the past few months. Sadly, that's been unavoidable. Today, I finally have a little bit of time to tell you a tale that I've been wanting to tell y'all for a while now.

Months and Months ago, RBH was kind enough to send me a hat. It was one that he had named The Covington. It was a Buckaroo hat, and simply a spectacular lid.

The more I looked at that ribbon, though, the less I thought it worked for that hat. The hat's felt is a lovely shade, and I kind of think that the teal ribbon overpowers it. I wanted a ribbon that came closer to matching the tone of the hat.

So I sent it to Mike, along with a Stetson, and emailed him. This is the result:





What say you?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also sent Mike a Stetson Rancher that I had, and he did a fantastic job of trimming the brim and binding it. Unfortunately I had, ummm, let's call it an incident before I could photograph it. Tragic incident, actually. I wanted to shape the Stetson so that I could wear it to work. I reached over, grabbed (what I thought was) a spray bottle of distilled water. I gave the hat a generous spraying. It was only AFTER the generous spraying that I smelled the bleach. . . . :eeek: I had just sprayed the Stetson down with bathroom cleaner. I got the hat under the faucet fast enough that the felt was not damaged. I cannot say the same for the ribbon. It will have to go back to Mike for another work-over. As soon as I've had that done, I will get pictures of that one up.

 

[Neophyte]

I like the new ribbon color, it looks great! I'm also jealous of that liner . :eusa_clap

 

[Spats McGee]

Interestingly, the pictures are fairly true to appearances. With the teal ribbon, the felt looked grey. With the brown ribbon, it looks brown. I'm just sad that summer's on its way and it's going to be too hot to wear felt soon.

 

[Neophyte]

You're telling me! After about 7 months of back-and-forth indecision regarding my first custom and finally, finally figuring it out, I now have to wait until about halfway through summer so I can time the 2-3 month wait with the decreasing temp of fall and winter :eusa_doh: lol


Speaking of ribbon changes, I'm thinking about asking the Major to change the ribbon on the Moorelite. The grey ribbon and binding look great but look wierd with my wardrobe of mostly greens, blues, oranges and whites. Since I wear jeans most of the time, and since summer is coming, I think I'd like to see the Moorelite with a blue ribbon and the edge binding removed. May change my mind, but we'll see.

 

[gtdean48]

.... Since I wear jeans most of the time, and since summer is coming, I think I'd like to see the Moorelite with a blue ribbon and the edge binding removed. May change my mind, but we'll see.

With the weight of that felt, you'll need a binding or an underwelt to give that brim some substance. You may be okay since your brim isn't wider than 2 1/2" cause once you get out there, something needs to be on the end of that featherweight brim....

 

[Neophyte]

Thanks for the advice, GTDean . Hadn't even thought of that...maybe a self-colored binding, then, if I even go through with it at all.

 

[Omne]

Hi,

This is my first post to the forum although I have been lurking for a couple of months. My wife convinced me to buy my first hat 2 months ago, a dark Guerra. Since hats are like potato chips I quickly bought a grey Bailey, a Stetson Breakers and a black knock about NY Hat Company stingy. I started reading the forum to get info on caring for them. I'm from Minnesota.

My wife was in Memphis the last week for work so I dropped in for the weekend. I went to Mister Hats first but they didn't have what I wanted in my size. I was looking around in the forum this morning and saw info on Buckaroo Hatters and decided to visit. My wife and I drove up there and I have to say the experience was great. Mike was terrific and I also met RBH and another forum member ( who's name unfortunately escapes me right now, but he was good to talk to as well). To make a long story short I bought 2 custom hats as well as a really nice straw that was made from blanks that were found in the back of a factory storeroom dating from 40-50 years ago. My wife ended up buying a straw too. So 4 hats later here we are. The quality of the hats Mike had on display were first rate and the service was great. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished customs. I'll post some pictures of the straws in a week or so and the customs when they come in. Overall it was a lot of fun talking to everyone and learning a lot about hats and custom fitting. Turns out I have an odd shaped head ( my wife has been having some fun with that since we left the shop... ) technically a 7 1/4 but elongated and narrow on the front sides so a 7 3/8 works better ( or as my wife says, "slightly pin headed"). Anyway, now that I've broken the ice I'll probablly start posting more often. I'd like to thank Mike, RBH and the other member ( please fill in the blank, he's a CPA with a really nice grey hat) for a fine time.

 

[gtdean48]

Welcome Omne. My first custom fedora was a Buckaroo Hatters by the Major also. Nice way to jump in head first so to speak.
As far as meeting Rusty right off, well....I'm just glad he was behaving himself for once....

 

[majormoore]

The hat she is wearing is a telescope crown that I made for her last year and a custom stone hat bandband. She make the hat look better than it really is.

Major Moore

I think I finally have my custom western design hammered out (I know I've said that multiple times now, but I mean it this time, I swear! lol).
Originally, I was going to go with a BotP hat, with a 4.25''-4.5'' crown and a 3.5'' brim. As many of you know, I changed my mind incessantly, from BotP to Gambler to Gus to Cavalry to Gambler (again) to Bowler to Homburg...but I believe I have finally found the design that I will commit to. It will look similar to the "On the Dodge" model offered by River Junction Trading Co.:

Something was missing from the design, though...some kind of brim curl. Ever since trying on a Stetson Sheridan at the Hatco Outlet during FedoraFestIII, I've been dead set on getting a hat with some brim curl. Fortunately, on the presentation on the Buckaroo Hatters website I found an example of the kind of brim I was looking for. This customer pic shows a hat with a brim identical to the shape of the "On the Dodge" brim shape, with the addition of the curled brim:

Basically, I'm looking for a hat with this brim shape and a Tycoon/Teardrop crease.

Now that I'd figured out the shape (hey, only took 7 months of constant searching ), the other details were easy. From the felt strips that the Major sent me, I finally narrowed it down to Black (I also learned that my Moorelite is Silverbelly, not Bone). As for the quality level of fur, I will most likely go with 100x. Though I'll probably have the funds by May, I will probably buy a straw hat and put off ordering until about July or August, so that the hat will be in my hands as the weather starts to cool down here in East Tennessee. As much as I'd love to have the hat as soon as possible, the muggy summers here would make the darker felt hats unpleasant.

Whew! I gotta tell ya', it's a great feeling to finally have this figured out. I hope I'm super-satisfied with my choice because it would be difficult for me to go through all this again (and since I have a habit of bothering you Loungers with this, like I'm doing right now, I imagine it would be difficult for you, too ). Major Moore, if you read this, I'm looking forward to ordering my very first custom from you in the near future!