I don't usually post on Tuesdays, but I couldn't resist: I think I'm on some spammer/scammer list.

Roughly every week for the past couple of months, I've received an email inquiring about the feasibility of "building" a rather odd gun. I just got the second one of the week.

The details vary a bit from email to email, but they have several things in common: they all want a custom made top-break revolver in a large caliber, they all are from foreign countries, and they all have a gmail return address.

The first couple I actually responded to; after noting the repeating pattern, I've elected to round file subsequent occurrences.

On the off chance that someone is truly, legitimately interested in having such a gun made, here are a few things to consider before contacting any gunsmith:

1) If you're not in the U.S., you can pretty much forget it. Don't even ask.
2) Having a custom top-break revolver made will cost money. Lots of it. Yes, more than the "$5,000 US Dollars" one such email offered.
3) I'm not the guy to be asking. In fact, I can't imagine who would attempt such a job, so please don't ask me that, either.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Portland, Oregon has for years had one of the highest numbers of movie theater seats per capita. Oregonians, it would appear, can't get enough of the silver screen. (Save for this Oregonian, who sees one theater movie every five years or so whether he needs to or not.)

It seems to have always been this way. Portland had a large number of neighborhood movie theaters up through the '60s, and many of those buildings are still standing. The theaters were converted to other uses, and some of them actually retained some of their former features. Finding and exploring those old locations is a hobby for some, an obsession for others.

Back in the early '80s, when I was doing some moonlighting as a commercial photographer, I was retained by an older gentleman to photograph the abandoned Egyptian Theater in northeast Portland. The theater, originally built as a vaudeville venue, had been converted to the newfangled "moving pitchers" in the early '30s. It operated until 1962, when it was closed and used as overflow warehousing space for the chemical company which had purchased the location.

The gentleman who hired me was a serious movie buff, and was writing a book on old Oregon theaters. He wanted me to shoot pictures of the interior of the Egyptian. (I got the job because i was the only photographer he found who could light an entire large interior without benefit of electrical outlets or a generator. The power in the building had been shut off for years, the wiring having been declared a fire hazard. I'll leave you to guess how I pulled it off.)

Once in the building we found many of the seats still in place; the entire balcony was intact, as were the Egyptian-motif decorations and appointments throughout. There were torn ticket stubs littering the floor and even remnants of coming attraction posters in the lobby.

When theater closed, the awning (shown in this 1933 photo) was removed, and the front of the building simply covered with a false wall. The ticket booth and original doors were still there!



It was a surreal experience, as if the building was simply waiting for the janitors to arrive to clean up for that evening's business.

The building was torn down in 1989; sadly, the book never materialized. I had a good time, though.

What brought this to mind was this article at WebUrbanist about abandoned movie theaters across the U.S. (Somewhere in storage I have my shots of the Egyptian, but exactly where is a mystery. Until I can find them, you'll have to make do with WebUrbanist's article!)

-=[ Grant ]=-

Sorry to be a bit tardy...I've spent the last 3 days down for the count with "food poisoning" (norovirus.) I'll spare you the gory details, but if you've ever had it you know it isn't pleasant. If you haven't had the pleasure, trust me - it sucks. I'm glad it's (pretty much) over with.

I'm still a little weak, though, and am told I won't be 100% for a few days yet. Compared to the last few days, however, it's paradise!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Yuck.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Big gun show last weekend...didn't find anything I wanted.

Another big show coming up soon...doubt I'll find anything I want there, either.

The problem with being "into" something, to the extent that I am (and many of you are) is that the things we want get more and more esoteric. That translates to "hard to find", which usually translates to "valuable" - which morphs quickly to "the seller thinks it's made of gold from King Tut's codpiece, and has priced it accordingly."

The things I'm looking for range from the admittedly unusual (Marlin Levermatic in .30 Carbine) to the mundane (Mossberg bolt-action .22LR) and lots in between. You'd think, with an extensive and wide-ranging list of "wants" I'd get lucky sooner or later.

You'd be wrong.

For instance, a 3" S&W "K" frame (of any model; I'm not picky) shouldn't be a problem - they made scads of 'em, and they were pretty common just a few years ago. Naturally, I haven't seen one in ages.

I'd like a 9mm Speed-Six (yes, I know they're unusual) but I'd settle for a good clean one in .357. Doesn't matter - they seem to be equally scarce around these parts.

How about a simple Winchester Model 67 (their cheap single shot, manually cocking .22 from the middle of the last century) under $225? Not around here. Come on, people, this is a thin-barreled "starter" rifle, not a rare target gun!

Maybe a Browning BLR in .308? Good luck. (I've given up on ever finding one in .358, which is what I really lust for.) Oh, I can find a Winchester 88 in .308 - and I'd like to have one - but I'm not about to pay $800 for the privilege!

For some reason I want a simple, plain, common Marlin in .35 Remington. If I lived in Maine I'd have my pick of 'em, but out here in the West if it ain't a thutty-thutty you won't find it.

And so it goes. Come the next show I'll drag myself into the exhibit hall, knowing full well I'll be disappointed once again - but I'll do it anyway.

Sigh. I wonder if there's a suitable 12-step program for this...

-=[ Grant ]=-

Remember a few weeks back, when I was wondering when Global Warming was going to take care of the foot of snow in my driveway?

Turns out that I probably won't get my fair share.

Darn it.

(Thanks to Kim du Toit for the heads-up.)

-=[ Grant ]=-

Let's see now...this is the view from my front yard:



Here in Oregon, we're getting historic snowfall amounts - even in our temperate valleys. Record low temps were recorded across the midwest recently, while south of the Mason-Dixon Line Tam has been freezing her tuchus. Personally, I wish someone would explain to me where my share of this "Global Warming" thing is, because I could use it right now...

---

This morning I got an email from AFGWWWTRA, who is en-route to the SHOT show. I'm hoping my secret correspondent will send me back news about neat new revolvers, though I'm not holding my breath. (Note to Taurus: revolvers that shoot shotgun shells are not my idea of "neat.")

---

Note to S&W: the "TR Special Edition" thing is getting a bit long in the tooth, and the guns themselves are getting uglier. If this keeps up, the next one will cost $5k and cause eyes to bleed upon opening the box. Please, no more.

---

...too much snow. (Big doin's afoot, though - I'm pledged to secrecy, but look for an announcement in a few days!)




-=[ Grant ]=-

Yes, I know this post was supposed to be up this morning. Hey, I'm usually on time, and let's face it - at the time I'm posting this, it is still Wednesday and thus I'm technically on time. So there! (Hey - no one gives Tam a hard time when her posts are late!)

Anyhow, this has been a busy, busy week. On top of everything else, we had a visit from our friendly local satellite TV installer (Dish, for those terminally curious types out there.) The reason we finally "bit the bullet" was because we wanted to see all the great shooting shows on the Outdoor channel. (Yes, Michael Bane - I wanted to see your show too. Are you happy now?!?)

I used to catch Jim Scoutten's "American Shooter" show on cable, but it bounced from channel to channel and ultimately disappeared. With all of the recreational shooters out there, it would seem a "no-brainer" to have shows that cater to their interests, but it would appear political correctness actually trumps the profit motive. Who knew?

(I've always thought it odd that ESPN considers poker to be a "sport", but not IPSC...or PPC...or CMP...or Sporting Clays...or SASS...you get the idea.)

So this evening my wife and I got to tune into a number of shooting shows for the first time. That Bane character is pretty good, but whose Idea was it to have Garry James and David Fortier host a show? Between the wooden expressions and stilted dialogue it actually made those poker tournaments look attractive!

James and Fortier are both great writers (I enjoy reading their work), but being a good TV host is a different skill set. Someone at the Outdoor channel has yet to figure that out...

-=[ Grant ]=-

Well, I enjoyed my little vacation. While I was out, the emails and snail mails piled up - it's going to take the rest of the week to get through everything!

In my post-vacation hyperactivity, I've decided to rearrange my shop's layout to make it a little more efficient. My parts cabinet, for instance, has always been across the room from my workbench. That's an oversight that has annoyed me for years. It's not a trivial task to fix the problem, as a) the cabinet is quite heavy, and b) lots of other things need to be moved to make the appropriate space. I'm doing it anyway.

In gun news, I found this expose on one of CeaseFire Pennsylvania's board members. I've always marveled at the difference in mental attitudes between pro- and anti-Second Amendment people, wherein the latter tend to focus on hyperbole and emotion, and the former tend to cite facts and scholarship. It comes as no surprise, then, that one of "their own" believes in such non-rational things as crop circles and extra-terrestrials. This is the "mainstream support" they're always bleating about?

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go answer the mail. I anticipate some long keyboard sessions!

-=[ Grant ]=-

...because I'm desperately trying to get all of the work promised for Xmas out the door. Apologies in advance if I'm not around as much as usual.

Oh, by the way: I'm going to take a short vacation after this is all over! Don't expect many (if any at all) blog entries from the 22nd 'til after New Year's. If you send an email during that time, expect to wait a while for a reply.

-=[ Grant ]=-

First off, thanks to those who sent emails inquiring about my welfare in the wake of the storms that battered Oregon. I guess we made the national news!

The storms dropped a huge amount of rain in our state, as well as our neighbors to the north in Washington. There were places that recorded in excess of a foot of rain inside of 48 hours, and the result was widespread flooding.

Particularly hard-hit are the smaller tributaries and shallower rivers. Interstate 5, the north-south route between California and Canada, is under water at Chehalis, WA and not expected to reopen until at least Thursday. Several towns in Oregon, notably Vernonia and Tillamook, are just now digging out from the muck left behind - that is, if the water has even receded yet.

Of course, the old debate about subsidizing (through government-backed flood insurance) the continuous rebuilding of houses in flood plains has been re-ignited, and the result will no doubt be the maintenance of the status quo. (Isn't that always the case?)

My wife and I live well above any flood-prone areas and have soil which is well drained; we have had no problems other than short power outages and some internet connectivity issues. I am glad, however, that last Saturday I looked up at my gutters and decided to clean out the maple leaves!

-=[ Grant ]=-

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

The problem with this holiday is not the surfeit of food, but rather the Friday after. No, I'm not talking about shopping crowds (my wife and I don't participate in that frenzy), but rather the fact that everything not retail is closed that day!

Every year I sit down on Friday morning to get what I hope to be a normal amount of work finished, only to find that the people I need to contact are out shopping. You'd think I'd figure this out by now.

The upshot is that this morning is twice as hectic as normal, which means today's blog entry is correspondingly short.

Gotta go...the FedEx guy needs my signature. Boy, does he look overworked!

-=[ Grant ]=-

I've gotten a number of emails and calls regarding the waiting list closure, and I appreciate the positive thoughts! I didn't think I'd ever get to the point that I had to do that, and I hope that when the list opens again people will still remember me!

(The only thing worse than being talked about, is NOT being talked about!)

Now I have to get back to work; the last couple of weeks of injury-related work slowdown have left me even further behind than I already was!

-=[ Grant ]=-

P.S.: I thought about starting up a collection to buy Tam a Python, just so she'd have a non-flat Colt. Then I thought "hey, what am I thinking? If I'm going to solicit contributions for a Python for someone, that someone is gonna be ME! I'm my own favorite charity! If she wants one, she can buy it for herself!" I then cackled maniacally until my wife hit me with a frying pan. I'm recovering nicely, thank you.

Anyhow, Tam, I just hope you're not too disappointed...about the Python, I mean.

Thanks to the many people who have entrusted me with their guns, I am enjoying a surplus of requests for work. In fact, for reasons that are not entirely clear the requests keep increasing, especially in the last number of weeks. This is both gratifying and concerning.

Up until this point, I've taken everyone's name and put them on a waiting list. This worked nicely when I was only a month or two backlogged, but now I'm up to a year behind - and the list keeps growing with no end in sight. The management of the list (answering inquiries, etc.) has now become a time-consuming endeavor unto itself.

To tell you the truth, when I first started in this endeavor I sort of harbored the dream of being able to casually say "oh, I'm so-many-years backlogged", accompanied by a flippant wave of the hand. Now that I'm at that point, it's not as pleasant as I thought it would be, because I'm more concerned with the positions of my clients than with my own. I have so much work to do that guns anticipated for holiday gifts won't make the date, and mostly not even the season - and that bothers me.

I'm sure that some other 'smiths are in the same situation, but I've come to the conclusion that it is unconscionable to continue to accept "reservations" which are so far out, I can't possibly predict whether or not I'll be able to make the date. I'm acutely aware that my skills at time estimation are not as good as they should be, and I find my chronological errors growing in scope as the length of the list increases. That's not fair to you, my clients and prospective clients.

So, as of today I am no longer accepting new clients until I've worked the waiting list down to a more reasonable level. Those who are on the list are, of course, still on the list - I just won't be adding to that list for a while.

If you have wanted to have me work on your guns, but are not on the list, I apologize for my unavailability. As soon as the list has shrunk to the point that I feel comfortable putting people on it, I'll make an announcement and open the list for new work.

Of course, the Blog will still be here to amuse and - hopefully - inform you.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Remember my declaration of geekiness? Well, a fellow I've been known to hang around with (also a ham radio enthusiast - go figure) sent me this:



Yes, that's me in a nutshell. Except I'm not an engineer - but I'd play one on TV if someone paid me.

-=[ Grant ]=-

If you've hung around here for any length of time, you've noticed that on Mondays and Wednesdays I try to keep the blog somewhat on the topic of firearms, preferably on revolvers.

Today is not going to be one of those days.

Why? I was so busy over the weekend I didn't even get a chance to think about the blog, let alone write anything! Well, that - and the fact that my elbow hurts like heck!

As you may recall, I'm suffering from a very painful occurrence of tendonitis in my right elbow. So painful, in fact, that it hurts to type! As I mentioned last week I took it fairly easy for several days, and was feeling vast improvement until I did something so innocuous that I am startled at the outcome. It involved a Junkyard Dog.

No, not the kind you're thinking of - this kind of Junkyard Dog.

As it happens I live equidistant from the knife companies of Kershaw and Benchmade (and, by extension, the firms of Gerber, Leatherman, and Lone Wolf Knives. I guess you could call this "Edged Alley"!) Over the years I've bought many Benchmade knives, and generally avoided the Kershaw brand. Kershaw just didn't have the quality of blade that I desire in my knives, and despite having met Pete Kershaw himself I was never persuaded to carry one of his products.

When Kershaw moved a lot of their production from overseas to right here in my own stompin' grounds they got my interest, but not enough to make me want to put one of their products in my pocket every day. It was when I found that they were transitioning from the use of cheap 440A and 440C steels to Sandvik steels that I became truly interested.

(Bear with me - this does eventually get back to my tendonitis!)

I have quite a bit of experience with Sandvik blades, particularly with their 12C27 steel as used in the famous Swedish Mora knives. It is, in my estimation, one of the better 'all around' steels that one could use on a general purpose knife. It holds an edge well, is very resistant to breakage, and is easy to sharpen. The fact that there were almost no folders made out of that superb yet underrated steel annoyed me greatly, and I was left to console myself with my Moras.

It was when I found out that Kershaw had gone to Sandvik steel (13C26, a very close relative of 12C27) that I decided I had to have one. The Junkyard Dog II had gotten rave reviews over at Bladeforums, so I decided that I was to get one.

(Luckily my wife intervened, and got one for me as a gift, thus saving me from the guilt of buying it for myself!)

It arrived at the end of last week, and from the start I was smitten with it. Fit and finish is quite good, easily up to the Benchmades that I own, and at the price point it is astounding. I haven't gotten a chance to resharpen the edge and really test it yet (any factory edge is downright primitive compared to what a few minutes with a set of stones can achieve), but I expect great things.

The trouble is that the blade is really quite heavy, and flicking it open delivers a solid "whack" to one's muscles. I was absentmindedly doing that while watching television the other night: opening and closing it repeatedly, just because it's fun to do. After about a half-hour of such foolishness I found that my elbow was as sore as it ever was, and then some!

So now you have, as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story."

-=[ Grant ]=-

Light blogging today, owing to a nasty recurrence of the tendonitis in my right arm. A combination of hard work and shooting way too many lightweight, heavy recoil revolvers is starting to take its toll!

It hurts to type or hold tools firmly, and work in the shop has slowed to a crawl in the last few days. I've decided to take it easy the rest of the week, which (in my experience) should allow enough healing to enable me to "hit it hard" again next week.

Sigh.

I never thought I'd get old enough to complain about getting old enough to complain!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Massad Ayoob was in the area the last couple of weeks for his yearly round of teaching up at Firearms Academy of Seattle. We generally try to get together for a meal during his stays, and finally managed to do so last Saturday evening. We had our usual good time, catching up on family news and the latest gossip in the industry.

Interestingly, for the first time in a long while he was actually teaching with one of his own guns as opposed to using a test/evaluation piece. The gun in question was a Langdon-prepped Beretta 92. I'm not a big fan of bottom-feeding handguns, as you know, and the 92 series is - for my little hands - the worst of the lot. I had to admit, though, that this one was pretty darned nice (for an auto, you understand.) I wouldn't have believed that a Beretta double-action trigger could get as light as this one and still ignite primers, but he reports it to be completely reliable.

When it rains, it pours, and Monday morning found me having brunch with AFGWWWTRA (who?!?), who was on a quick pass through the area. What did we talk about?

Cattle. Yes, cows. Well, there was also some talk about hunting, and of course the obligatory chat about how wonderful revolvers are, but cattle were the subject du jour.

Yes, this is a glamorous job alright!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Last week I told you about our trip to my cousin's ranch, during which we hoped to help rid the place of the nefarious Sage Rat (aka Ground Squirrel.) Today let's talk about the shooting aspects.

Normally a field infested with Sage Rats is a "target-rich environment." When they are at their peak, you almost can't reload the guns quickly enough! In those conditions, an open-sighted .22 rifle is more than sufficient for the plethora of targets that pop up in the 5-50 yard range.

In really good years, I've taken many with a Dan Wesson Model 15 in .22, shooting the bulk-packed Remington "Golden Bullet" load. This ammo doesn't shoot worth a darn in my rifles, but in the DW it is superb. (Anyone who has shot any real amount of .22 ammunition will immediately recognize the truth of the round: you never know what will shoot well in which gun, and there is no such thing as a prediction!) I usually use the 8" barrel, though I've also used the 6" to good effect.

Nevertheless, this is really a job for a rifle, and most Sage Rat shooters gravitate to the very popular Ruger 10/22 platform. I've shot one fairly frequently myself, but in the last couple of years I've been using a very nice early Marlin 39A (which I picked up for a song a number of years back.) The accuracy and 18-round magazine are much appreciated on those small targets, though it wears only open sights; somehow, a scope on such a classic rifle just seems "wrong."

Last year I ended up visiting two different cousin's ranches (my family is big in the beef business.) The first was heavily infested and the Marlin was the right tool at the right time. The second ranch, however, is at a higher altitude; their population comes out of hibernation later, and as a result they didn't have nearly as many to shoot. Most of the shots were well over 50 yards, and the open-sight Marlin (coupled with my aging eyes) was severely handicapped. I wished that I'd had the presence of mind to bring along the scoped 10/22!

As a result of that experience, I installed a Marble's tang sight on the old Marlin. This year I was ready - and good thing, too! This trip was just as the rodents were emerging from their burrows, and once again long shots were the rule. The tang sight greatly extended the range of the unscoped gun - I made quite a few shots in the 90-100 yard range, and a couple that were actually verified to be 115 and 128 yards. Not bad for a .22!

My ammunition preference is for a hollowpoint round to provide a quick, clean kill at all ranges. (Regardless of the problems the little buggers cause, I still live by the old hunter's credo of causing no more suffering than is absolutely necessary.) Since so many rounds are expended - on a good day it's not uncommon to shoot several hundred rats - I look for the most accurate bulk-packed ammunition. This usually limits the choices to a high velocity 36gn load.

For the last few years my choice has been the Winchester Xpert hollowpoint bullet. The wide hollowpoint cavity gives it some of the best terminal effects I've seen in a .22 cartridge. Accuracy is a bit better than average in this rifle, and It's available in bulk at very attractive prices. That doesn't stop me from desiring something better, of course; I'd like to find a load that is a little more accurate but not much more expensive. I've heard good things about the Federal Champion hollowpoint loading, and when I get time I plan to take some to the range and test it against the Xpert.

The search for the "perfect" .22 ammunition never ends!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Well, I had a nice weekend...took Friday off, went to Eastern Oregon (so capitalized because it is like a completely separate state.) The destination was my cousin's ranch, where we were to exercise our trigger fingers in decreasing the population of a local pest known as the Sage Rat (spermophilus townsendii mollis kennicott, aka "Townsend's Ground Squirrel".)

Many folks live their lives in the city and are unfamiliar with the problems ranchers face in producing the food they eat. To those who think that beef originates in the supermarket, this may seem to be a barbaric blood sport. It is anything but.

The Sage Rat is widely distributed in Eastern Oregon. They prefer to burrow in irrigated fields, and they eat green grasses. (Beginning to spot the problem?) If that's not enough, their muli-tubed burrows can be up to 100 feet long.

Imagine, now, that you're a rancher who has spent a not inconsiderable amount of money turning the desert into an oasis; you've dug a deep well, bought the necessary irrigation gear, and plowed and seeded the field. Remember, you're doing all this out in the middle of nowhere, in what's known as the High Desert (and for good reason.) Your green and tender alfalfa shoots are just poking out of the soil, and you anticipate being able to easily feed your cows during the long, cold desert winter.

Along comes the sage rat, who promptly sets up shop in this wonderfully soft soil you've toiled to prepare. He meets a cute female sage rat, nature takes its course, and they are soon blessed with a litter of junior sage rats. Like all adolescents, the kids are eating machines - and they just happen to have made their home in the middle of a rodent supermarket!

You can only imagine what a large number of sage rats can do to a field; it's not unusual for a good sized field to harbor many thousands of the little critters, every one of which is bent on eating everything he can get his little incisors around.

That's not the end of the problems, though. Their burrows, which are below the root level of the alfalfa, take the irrigation water and channel it away from the plants that need it. The sage rats attract badgers, which dig huge holes in the fields, holes that can easily break a large animal's legs. They also attract the coyotes, who bring assorted problems of their own.

When you consider this, you can see why the ranchers and farmers need to control the artificially large populations of sage rats. Hence, the reason for our seven-hour drive out to my cousin's ranch.

To be continued....

-=[ Grant ]=-

I know you've always wondered: how does a jet-setting gunsmith work with all of those adoring fans hanging around? Well, I hate to disappoint you, but unless you count an overindulged rabbit, no one is hanging around waiting for me to pay them any attention!


Tyler, the spoiled rabbit

Since my shop isn't open to the public, I get to dress and arrange my environment as suits me. I usually work in sweatpants and a sweatshirt (rarely matching), over which goes my little green grocer's apron.

(You read that correctly; I have two old-fasioned green cotton grocer's aprons, which I acquired when I worked in a grocery store during high school. How long ago was that? Well, let's just say the White House refrigerators were stocked with Billy Beer!)

My shop has no windows, so I'm forced to entertain myself as best I can. I usually do so by playing music at somewhat louder-than-normal volume. One might think this would be a rock-n-roll custom, but not usually - I've been known to play Scottish dance reels, Aaron Copland, Baroque trumpet concertos, and Red Rodney at the same transducer-destroying level. (Eclectic? Hey, I was a music performance minor in college - I'm allowed!)

So if you call and I don't answer the phone, it's because I can't hear it over the noise of the shop equipment. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

-=[ Grant ]=-

This last weekend was the large wedding of one of my close relatives. Since we're known as the "Second Amendment Family", the day would not be complete without some sort of ballistic celebration. What we came up with fit the occasion perfectly.

One of my cousins handloaded some special 12ga shotgun shells with birdseed. (That's right, SEED, not SHOT!) He used a 100% cotton wadding for biodegradability, and a very small amount of powder. (We had originally thought that primers alone would be sufficient to propel the lightweight charge out of the barrel, but that proved to not be the case.) The resulting rounds sent their payload out of a vertical barrel some 25 to 30 feet, and the sound level was approximately that of a .22 Short - just enough to attract attention but not so much that anyone's hearing would be in jeopardy.

After thoroughly checking the shotguns for non-approved ammo, and making sure that no one had any such ammunition on their person, our little Matrimony Militia (a grand total of 4 people) met the happy couple at the entrance of the reception area. We announced them, and (with the best military precision that a bunch of civilians could muster) fired our rounds straight into the air - muzzles held high, well above anyone's head, of course.

The effect was perfect - the birdseed rained down and thoroughly covered the bride and groom, who were surprised and greatly amused at their "shotgun wedding." Their photographer even stifled her laughter enough to thoroughly document the prank, and I'm quite certain that this was a first for her too!

If you are moved to try this, remember SAFETY FIRST. We made sure that everyone involved behaved in a safe manner, from the loading of the rounds to the storage of arms afterwards. The rounds were completely biodegradable (save for the hulls, naturally) and we made sure that all of the standard safety rules were obeyed. Of course, this was well before the bar was opened and absolutely no alcohol was permitted until after the arms were stored in locked trunks. (The fact that this event was held outdoors on private property made the whole thing possible. DO NOT try this at a church or indoors!)

-=[ Grant ]=-