“I finally talked her into marrying me, and said, “Hey, let’s go to Houston.” Carter got a job as an ironworker, and he made more money than he had ever made before. Ellen Carter worked at Hermann Hospital’s emergency room. When they got settled, he started doing work for his fellow ironworkers – his company based out of his garage, was called Custom Guns. He produced bolt-action rifles using barreled actions and custom stocks.

He tested weapons at Weaver Rifle & Gun Club on Aldine-Westfield about a mile north of FM1960, which was a desolate 2-lane road at that time, arriving at daylight on most weekends. Finally, the owner offered to sell him the place since Carter seemed to be there all the time anyway. The seed was planted…. He wanted $15,000 down for the gun club and the 15 acres of land he insisted on selling with it. “We scraped and scraped, and got the $15,000, with about 75 cents to spare, and closed the deal,” Carter said. They opened a small retail operation in a 10 by 10-foot metal building. Both kept their day jobs – he as an ironworker and she as a registered nurse. Sales that first-year were very slow, grossing only about $32,000. The gun club slowly became profitable. Bill’s extensive knowledge of guns was appreciated and was becoming more well known in the Houston area. He saw a lot of mistakes and solved them-mismatched rifles and scopes, for example-that people had bought elsewhere.