As you might imagine, after that experience he was hellaciously careful about firearms safety in all its multitudinous forms and drummed it into all three of his sons, as well.

After it happened... a quick glance showed blood on the front sight... uh-oh... "Chuck, look what I did!"... followed by Chuck stretched out in the grass gasping for air while laughing...

It was kinda funny, so we both started laughing. Disturbed Charlie enough that he was headed down the hill to the firing line because once he heard the laughter he "knew one of us was hurt bad". Then my wife with the camera... Chuck had that pic under glass on his desk at the S.O.

Odd how something like that becomes a favorite memory.

I miss Charlie something fierce.

I have often wondered about a full wadcutter out of a 44 or 45 caliber revolver at 900 to 1000 fps. Might have to play with that idea some day. I can also attest to it being unwise to shoot at pins with low velocity loads, bounce-backs can be very painful.

"You'll put your eye out with that thing, kid!"

That old WWII MK VII 174gr bullet was caught between cordite and concrete and the strain was more than it could bear, ah reckon.

Don't shoot a frozen tree with 246 grain RNL, from the first-ever .44 Special Bulldog in Morgan County, MO. A fella carried that slug on his keychain after it bounced off my noggin'. And I didn't even get a damned T-shirt.

Never, ever shoot any kind of snake load at plywood from less than 50 feet away.

Life's been good to me so far... probably because my Momma prayed a lot.

Kids heal fast, tho.