www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/16/ncart16.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/16/ixhome.html

Husband's ashes used for shotgun cartridges

By Auslan Cramb
(Filed: 16/02/2004)

The widow of an expert on vintage shotguns had her husband's ashes loaded into cartridges and used by friends for the last shoot of the season.

Joanna Booth organised the shoot for 20 close friends on an estate in Aberdeenshire after asking a cartridge company to mix the ashes of her husband James with traditional shot.

A total of 275 12-bore cartridges were produced from the mix and were blessed by a minister before they were used to bag pheasants, partridges, ducks and a fox on Brucklay Estate.

Mrs Booth, of Streatham, south London, said it was a marvellous day out and her husband would have loved it. "It was not his dying wish, but I remembered that he had read somewhere that someone had had their ashes loaded into cartridges and he thought it was very funny.

"One of our friends, a woman who had never shot before, got four partridges with James's marked cartridges."

Mr Booth, an independent sporting and vintage gun specialist for Sotheby's in London, died two years ago, aged 50, after 18 months in a coma following severe food poisoning.

Julian McHardy, of the Caledonian Cartridge Company in Brechin, Angus, said it was the first request he had received to put ashes in shotgun cartridges. "He was loaded in our Caledonian Classic, a 28 gramme load, No 6 shot with degradable plastic wadding."

Before the first drive, the cartridges were blessed by the Rev Alistair Donald, the Church of Scotland minister from the nearby village of New Deer, who said he had no qualms. "It was a perfectly normal scattering of ashes, a few words and prayers. After all, he had a lifelong interest in ballistics."

The special cartridges accounted for 70 partridges, 23 pheasants, seven ducks and a fox on Jan 31.

My Dad wanted this done at one time, he changed his mind and wanted to be tossed in the Mississippi River where we did most of our duck hunting. He was.
AB

Now thats going out with a blast.

I want my ashes poured into restaurant soup, so that I can literally touch the hearts of all those around me.

It would probably be best to keep this on the DL until the deed is done, however.

[b]"He was loaded in our Caledonian Classic, a 28 gramme load, No 6 shot with degradable plastic wadding."[/b]

Actually, I find this somewhat appealing.

If I could be fired at a few selected politicians, it would be even better.

i want to be cremated, and the ashed dumped in the gas tanks of all of the new fordas at the dealerships, it will be my contribution to the war against the ford mo co, they are polluting the market with their junk on a daily basis, and overcharging on parts to repair them

I'll pass on the grouse today. Give me a Big Mac please.
Ack!

/sarcasm
Wow, you can still own shotguns in the UK?  Aren't they, you know, dangerous instruments of the devil or something?


This is a an interesting way to go out...  I think I'll put this in my living will.   I wonder what it'd cost?

Every time I hear about ashes being spread I think about the look on Jeff Bridge's face when John Goodman pours them all over him in the Big Lebowski.

[ROFL]

hahahaha yeah me too.

I watched a thing on cemetaries the other day on one of the Discovery channels, and they said that after cremation, the result isn't really "ashes" but bone fragments.  Everything else is burned cleanly away.

I wanted my ashed placed in .45 ACP rounds and shot through a few 100 round drums of a Colt 1921.