DECEASED ASHES

[DUNKS]

Hi I am sure this has been asked before but here goes.
A request has been made on a forum, a guy has passed away and his wish was that at least some of his ashes be shot as a volley with as many 12g BP muzzle loaders as can be mustered..
What would you guys recommend as a BP load FFG and what volume of ashes. I could of course experiment but perhaps someone has already done this for me. I would love to get a punt gun but they are few and far between here in the UK.

 

[oldwood]

A good friend of mine had his ashes shout out of a b/p cannon at a local sportsman's club. Do a test shot or two with some saw dust . A little newspaper wading should keep the ashes separated from the black powder and on top of the load , keep the ashes from migrating into the barrel ahead of the load , causing a barrel obstruction. Same rules of safety should apply to this , as to shooting a regular load with shot or projectile. Just an opinion........

 

[OldMaineWoodsman]

I heard a story of a guy who requested his cremains be loaded into shotgun shells and distributed to his duck hunting buddies.

Instead of a one shot send off, he gets to go every year until the shells are gone. Don't know if its true or not, but interesting.

 

[troy2000]

I heard a story of a guy who requested his cremains be loaded into shotgun shells and distributed to his duck hunting buddies.

Instead of a one shot send off, he gets to go every year until the shells are gone. Don't know if its true or not, but interesting.

Good story, and I'd like to hope it's true.

My mother wanted her ashes sprinkled on the desert property where she and my dad lived for years, until medical problems forced them back into civilization. She promised to come have a talk with us, if we didn't comply. Knowing my mother, we took her at her word...

 

[Treestalker]

After most of his cremains are distributed to the Four Directions, a small amount should be given to each person who loved the dead, and placed in their neck medicine bag to carry with them. A pipe should also be offered to the directions and smoked for the Grandfathers to welcome the`person into the eternal circle around the council fire of his elders.

 

[Whitworth]

Have friend who participated in a clay bird shoot that had the loved one's ashes mixed with the shot in hand loaded shells. I don't know if mixing the ashes with black powder and using that as a blank is OK or not. Someone will chime in.

 

[Brokennock]

I would probably use a paper shot cup to try and deliver the ashes further from the shooters before they become a dust cloud.
A nitro wad or a few overshot cards and a lubed felt wad in between the powder and the cup should protect the creaming from the black powder.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

What would you guys recommend as a BP load FFG and what volume of ashes.

So you roll two types of cartridges, one with powder, one with ashes.
Making Brown Bess Paper Cartridges

Since you're only laying ashes "to rest" and not trying to return North America to its rightful place in the United Kingdom, use 50 grains of 2Fg for the powder, thus making blank cartridges.

For the ashes cartridges it's the same thing, but you set the measure at 100 grains, as you put the ashes in a separate cartridge.

You load the powder cartridge by tearing it open, pour it into the gun, then insert the now empty cartridge tube into the muzzle, and ram it down onto the powder. Then you gently load the ashes cartridge, ensuring that it is seated against the wad that your formed when ramming down the empty powder cartridge onto the powder. Prime the flintlock or cap the smoothbore, and you're ready to complete the friend's burial.

LD

 

[Omahkapi'si]

I like this idea and asked my wife if she'd do it. She said how about next Tuesday....

 

[DUNKS]

Just what I needed thanks. Glad you appreciate where North America really should be.

 

[ppg1949]

Seriously, don’t shoot into the wind.
I have requested that some of my ashes be scattered on pistol range number four at the conservation club I belong to. Range #4 is where the forrest wilderness butts up to the ranges. Several police agencies use the club for night ops practice. I want some officer to ask “has anyone seen the shadow man on range 4 or is it just me?”. Good luck fulfilling his last request and bless you for doing it.

 

[user 48679]

.

My late hunting partner asked that his ashes be strewn in his favorite hunting area, and his widow asked me to take care of it for her (she accompanied me to the location, to witness his last wishes done).

My Mother wanted her ashes strewn into the ocean @ her favorite beach - so my BIL took me offshore in his boat to do the deed.

Yes - strew downwind......

 

[ZUG]

So I guess that none of you have actually seen the cremated remains of a person? I have and they are not reduced to dust or ash . There are bits of bone - teeth and small flakes but not dust or ash - that's TV stuff

 

[Sparkitoff]

We've done this with the ashes loaded with shot, not just ashes. The ashes will stick in the bore and leave fouling if fired in a smoothbore without a conventional plastic wad. We loaded the shot mixed with ashes in the plastic wad. It is a very small amount of ashes anyway. A better way to "shoot" ashes would be to use a paintball skin and fill it with ashes, it will pulverize on impact and the ashes will fly.

 

[oldwood]

Ranch Roper , now that's funny, I don't care who you are.......

 

[necchi]

Hi I am sure this has been asked before but here goes.
A request has been made on a forum, a guy has passed away and his wish was that at least some of his ashes be shot as a volley with as many 12g BP muzzle loaders as can be mustered..
What would you guys recommend as a BP load FFG and what volume of ashes. I could of course experiment but perhaps someone has already done this for me. I would love to get a punt gun but they are few and far between here in the UK.

Honestly?
If you are one of the participants in regard to his request,, I would have several questions to ask of you before I would offer advice.
Feel free to PM me with details

 

[bisleyjohn]

I always said that I wanted my ashes fired from the canon at Bisley.

I am leaving instructions that it be fired up-wind so that the last thing I do is get up people's noses.

Seriously, lovely idea. Blank musket cartridges with ashes in a tissue bag.

 

[Mulebrain]

I told a museum curator, that I would like to have my ashes fired from his original Civil War Napoleon.
He said he would honor my request

 

[Brokennock]

I just had the unfortunate occasion to spread some of the ashes of one of my best friends into a river in Florida.
There were no bits and pieces big enough to identify as anything. Nothing recognizable as a piece of tooth or anything like that.
This is not the 1st time I've spread ashes or helped spread then. While they are not fine lightweight ash like well burned wood or paper ash, they do have some mass to them, they are also have not had any sizeable identifiable pieces.

 

[deerstalkert]

the man that got me into muzzleloading made this request of me 30 years ago. i was loading lots of shotshell ammo at the time. when he passed, his wife gave his ashes to me to fulfill his desire. they went into 4 boxes of duck loads. these were given to his closest buds. each year i try to take a teal in his honor with one of those loads, though now with the restrictions on lead i have to sneak one shell in. i have 2 left. i figure when those are gone, i will be chasing ducks somewhere else.