An English widow has commemorated her gun-loving husband by having his ashes loaded into shot cartridges for use by his close friends in the last shoot of the season, the Daily Telegraph reported Monday.
| This is from Brunei-online, so I guess they can be forgiven for being slow with it. We carried it on Sunday, of course, prompt as we are with all important, breaking news... |
Joanna Booth organised the shoot at the end of last month for 20 close friends on an estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, after asking a cartridge company to mix the ashes of her husband James with traditional shot. James Booth had been an expert on vintage shotguns until his death at the age of 50 two years ago. He had been in a coma for 18 months after suffering food poisoning. The Telegraph reported that 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.
PETA will have a fit.
Mrs Booth, of Streatham, south London, said it was a marvelous day out and her husband would have loved it.
Any day hunting is a good day.
Julian McHardy, of the Caledonian Cartridge Company, said it was the first request he had received to put ashes into shotgun cartridges. "He was loaded in our Caledonian Classic, a 28 gramme load, No 6 shot with degradable plastic wadding," he said.
Humm, wonder who I’d have to see to get my ashes loaded in a JDAM?
Alistair Donald, the Church of Scotland minister from the nearby village of New Deer, who blessed the cartridges, 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," he said.
"Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition."
| I wonder where they found the old-fashioned vicar? I didn't think there were any left. |
|