Tuesday, December 13, 2005
At midnight on December 31, the world will enter the year 2006.In quite a few places on the Globe we'll no doubt hear the sound of gunfire.That gunfire will be directed towards an enemy,not to celebrate the new year but to celebrate his/her death.In my community of Cape Ray,Newfoundland we'll also hear the sound of gunfire but in this case to celebrate the arrival of a new year.It's been a tradition here long before my birth that on the stroke of midnight,New Years Eve residents fire shots in the midnight sky.Rifles & 12 gauges sound through out the whole community announcing the arrival of another year.Im sure Newfoundlanders have more guns per capita then any other Canadian province but a lower crime rate with guns.I daresay this annual event of gunfire is illegal but yet goes unnoticed by the RCMP?Hopefully like many other traditions in Newfoundland it'll continue for years to come.
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13 comments:
Don't you just love illegal traditions that the local fuzz never seem to get around to cracking down on? I sure do, the bastards have ruined so much all ready. Around here we make homebrewed explosives and blow shit up on the 4th of July. No one's gotten killed or thrown in jail yet, notice I say yet. Newfoundland sounds like my kind of place, 4 wheelers and guns, great scenery, friendly folks that like to have good clean fun, what's not to love?
I remember being outside as a kid and having to run for cover because all of the BB's started coming down around us. They were bouncing of off out aluminum boat which was turned upside down in the yard LOL.
I would recommend cutting the end off of your shot gun shells and taking out the BB's so as not to injure anyone.
I so bad want to ggo out and do this time honored tradition up here on the main land but I don't think it would go unnoticed up here amongst the Mainlanders.
Also had a similar thing happen when I was in the former Yugoslavia when they won the Soccer championship. Only it was AK 47 projectiles that were coming down LOL. Real war zone no pun intended.
Good day to you Wayne, know what you mean about tradition around here sorta gone south know one pulls out the guns anymore and fire them off, maybe a few fircrackers and a occasional cherry bomb but that is about it. I was reading nl-expatriate's comment on removing the end of the shotgun shell which contains the BB's. not a good idea once you do that all of the pressure is taking off the powder and just enough left to get the wad about 3/4 of the way down the barrel, plus it leaves not much of a sound, now if you decide to take and put another shell in the gun with BB's still in it, I will give you one guess what happens..you got it it, you will blow the friggen end of the barrel right off, you know how I know that, done it once myself and I was lucky that no one got hurt from the barrel pealing back like you just pealed a banana, so you are much safer just shooting it off into the air.
HMM Dixie
I've done this quite a bit and never had a problem, but I do see where your coming from and it could result in exactly what you described because that is how we destroy confiscated field pieces.
Wayne did you see the post made over on my site where a guy has some old NFLD stamps hes looking to unload I pointed him your way because I remember you stating that you were a collector.
When are you going to put some more pics of the Table mountains up? I truely do love that area of NL.
Townie Bastards blog has some sort of pic flip thing that allows you to have a photo album on you blog.
Just checked its called
www.flickr.com
I consider myself pretty knowledgable when it comes to guns and I've never heard of a shotgun wad getting stuck in the barrel by removing the shot, not unless it was a mighty loose load anyway, nor of one having sufficient resistance to blow a barrel if another shell is fired. Are you sure that you weren't using an incorrectly loaded handload shell, or using smokeless powder in a Damascus or other black powder barrel? I'm not saying that it couldn't happen, I'm just saying that the odds are probably about as slim as the odds of somebody getting hurt by falling shot, possible but not likely.
Anyway, I'm not trying to be an annoying know it all, I just don't want to see another fun tradition fall victim to the safety police, seems that down here in the "land of the free" there's somebody trying to outlaw everything that's sharp, fast, flammable, or goes bang in the name of being everyone's nanny. Common sense is good, but sometimes you gotta take a risk or two if you wanna have some fun. ;)
i'll run this one across you guys.have you ever cut off a shell?years ago we done it several times while hunting.not having a 12 gauge slug available we would cut the 12 gauge shell off through the plastic that seperated the powder and shot.placing it back in the barrel it could then be used to kill a moose or caribou at about 50 yards max.we did it several times.
Justin if you do not believe what I say give it a try, cut the top off take the BB's out and then put it in the shotgun and shot it, after shooting.. make sure you do not check the barrel and then put a full load in and let er' rip...let me know the results...I have done a lot of loading of shotgun shells and believe me you need pressure on the powder to make it work and the pressure comes from the BB's being placed into the wad, once you remove the crimp all of the pressure is gone...please give it a try and let me know the results..
OK, Dixie, no reason to be that way about it pardner. I have done exactly what you describe several times and I've never seen a wad get stuck in a barrel, or a barrel get blown by such a slight restriction that's all I'm saying. As I said, I'm not saying that it's impossible, just unlikely. I fully understand the principles behind pressure and it's effect on powder, but if the wad is tight in the shell it isn't going to lose pressure by the crimp being cut off. Here's a test for you, go buy a box or two of factory shotshells, take them out of the box and shake them. Do any of them rattle? If none of them do I'd be really surprised. Now if the shot in those shells can rattle that means that the crimp isn't what's holding the pressure on the charge, the fit of the wad is. Even then it doesn't matter. How many rifle shells are loaded to the point of compression? Some are, some aren't, but whether or not it's a compressed load, it will still fire and propel the bullet out the barrel with plenty of energy to spare won't it? When powder burns it creates gas that expands exponentially, as in thousands of times, plenty of times to fill the barrel of a shotgun and therefore push the wad out the end. If you blew a barrel that easily it was probably ready to blow anyway. But like I said, I'm not saying that anything is impossible.
Not to get off the shotgun shells, went and bought me a 1851 Navy U.S. Marshal .44 Caliber Revolver 4 3/4in barrel, black powder, never done any black powder shooting but going to give it a try. You can take a peek at it here..http://www.cabelas.com/products/Cpod0006191.jsp nice thing about black powder do not have to run them through the FLL they just mail them right out to you, can't wait to get that bad boy and take it out to the woods to shoot, it will go real nice with the Beretta 45 Long Colt that I have, love them six shooters.
Those ones that Cabellas sells are pretty nice, but do yourself a favor and work it over before you shoot it. My brother in law has one, (I'm not sure exactly which model, they sell 10 or 12 different ones if I remember correctly, if you pay more you get more polished brass and engraving but other than that they're basically the same) you can do wonders on it by tightening up the lockup and working on the trigger a little with a whetstone, if it's anything like his anyway. His cylinder was so sloppy that it would have probably burned his hand from the powder flash between the cylinder and the barrel. I'm not trying to be a know it all really, as you can tell I know absolutely nothing about firearms. ;) Good luck with the pistola Dixie, black powder is a pain in the ass but you're right about the lack of G man involvement in the whole deal.
"sorta reminds me of lee harvey oswald" I never gave that a thought but you are right.
I've done that Wayne. Perforate the plastic on a shell so as to create a make shift slug works pretty good in theory and practice on inanimate objects.
Never actually used it on a moose or anything. But if a pumpkin is any indication we'll be haing moose for supper MMM.
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