Shooting Mistletoe from trees!

[Muddy Creek Sam]

When I was 7 or 8 yrs old my Mother's older brother Junior took us kids out during the Christmas reunion at my Grand Parent's Farm to get some Mistletoe out of the trees behind the Tobacco Barns. This was accomplished by shooting it out with a 22 rifle. We also shot what my Grandfather called mush Mellon's. This was my first experience with real guns. Seeing what A gun could do to a Mellon gave me an understanding of the amount of Danger the gun can cause in the wrong hands and a respect for it proper use and the care needed to be safe. Why don't liberals understand that Kids aren't as Stupid as they are, and allow these kind of experiences for kids?

Sam :D

[Jim]

Sam, that's exactly what I did to teach my son, when he was about 3 or 4, what a gun could do to a little boy. I lit off a .357 into a cantaloupe. He got the idea, and quick, too!

[Bomberman]

I remember shooting Mistletoe as a kid...my grandfather would take a couple of us along with a .22 pump action...man we couldn't wait for our turn to shoot that gun! Fond memories. I also remember my Dad giving me my very own .22 when I turned 12, and a 20 gauge single shot shotgun for Christmas later that year. I kept those guns in my bedroom unloaded but with ammunition handy...I had to make sure they were kept clean and in proper working order...my Dad would check on them from time-to-time...usually after dinner he would say "Go get your shotgun, I need to check something." I knew that it had to be right or it would be gone...I learned to take care of my stuff.

Thanks for the memory jogger.

[Larry Gibson]

I discovered that trick with an errant shot (missed because I closed my eyes and jerked the trigger) at a squireel up an oak tree from a single shot Savage 16 ga when I was 12, gobs of mistletoe came raining down instead of a dead squirrel[smilie=l: The length of pull was way too long for me and it kicked the snot out of me. Later,after some need repair due to beating a deer to death with it (a long story) the barrel was shortened and then cylinder bore and the stock was also shortened, had a slip on recoil pad on it and I wrapped a rawhide strip around the grip to fix the boken stock which helped with a solid grip:redneck: After that I could actually hit something, intended any way, with that shotgun:razz:

Anyways I would slip out with several #7 or #6 shells and "harvest" enough mistletoe for the entire family. My mother would always admonish me to be careful not to fall out of the trees......I never told her the truth...........took credit for being so "brave" and "skilled" to get the mistletoe[smilie=l:

Larry Gibson

[Finster101]

Mush melons? The looks I used to get from people till I clarified "cantaloupes". Didn't know what a cantaloupe was till 17 or 18.

[Sensai]

Shooting down the mistletoe for Christmas is a tradition at our place. The kids are all grown up and the grandkids get two generations of instruction, but everyone loves the excitement and fun. The cantelopes are saved for hot buttered biscuits in the morning, though.

[Tom-ADC]

Few years back one of the local scout troops went out to get mistletoe to package and sell at Christmas time, they had it laying in the back of a van, well it was cold so no windows open, a bunch got sick from being in the van.
I like the 45 LC to harvest it myself.

[1Shirt]

Called them mushmellons until someone told me they were cantalopes. Don't know how old I was, but probably a teen. Some people where I grew up still call them mushmellons.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[casterofboolits]

Heck! I still call them Mush Mellons!

[Tom-ADC]

We called them Muskmelons still do.

[gnoahhh]

Well, you learn something new every day! I never heard them called anything but a cantaloupe.

[timkelley]

They were Mush Mellons at my house too.

[Tom W.]

I thought a shotgun was the only way to get mistletoe.

We also used the shotgun to get a Christmas tree. We'd find a nice looking cedar tree and shoot the top out of it. I never did see much sense in killing a whole tree when the top would do just fine....

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Uncle Junior always said to give the target a fighting chance. He never would have let us use a shotgun.

Sam :D

[DIRT Farmer]

Cant elope means Daddy is aginst the marriage, musk mellon is good with the hollow filled with ice cream.
There wasn't a lot of mistletoe around here but several knew of a few trees. A 22 will get enough in a hurry.

[crabo]

When I was in 4 grade, I cut a bunch and would go door to door and sell it for 15 and 25 cents a bunch. I bought Christmas presents for my family with the money.

[Moonie]

On an episode of "Good Eats" Alton Brown explained that Cantelopes do not grow in this country and that it is illegal to import them. What we Cantelopes in this country are actually Muskmellons...

I'm not saying that is the truth, just passing along the information.

[curiousgeorge]

Muskmellons or Mushmellons was all I knew them by until my future wife corrected me at around age 16.

Just so that everyone can get a good laugh, the only time I had ever heard the word cantaloupe used before then was when an older teenage boy from "up North" was visiting one of our neighbors. After meeting my older sister, his comment was "Wow, just look at the cantaloupes on that girl!" I was terribly confused and a little embarrassed when my girlfriend / future wife corrected me at a family function several years later about what they should be called.

Steve

[Artful]

On an episode of "Good Eats" Alton Brown explained that Cantelopes do not grow in this country and that it is illegal to import them. What we Cantelopes in this country are actually Muskmellons...

I'm not saying that is the truth, just passing along the information.

:hijack:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantaloupe
Cantaloupe (also cantaloup, mushmelon, muskmelon, cantalope, rockmelon or spanspek) refers to a variety of Cucumis melo, a species in the family Cucurbitaceae which includes nearly all melons and squashes.

The cantaloupe originated in India and Africa.

Cantaloupes were originally cultivated by the Egyptians and later the Greeks and Romans.

Cantaloupes were first introduced to North America by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1494. The W. Atlee Burpee Company developed and introduced the "Netted Gem" in 1881 from varieties then growing in North America.

Cantaloupes are a source of polyphenol antioxidants, chemicals which were thought to provide certain health benefits to the cardiovascular system and immune system by regulating the formation of nitric oxide,[citation needed] a key chemical in promoting health of the endothelium and prevention of heart attacks. However recent research has indicated that they may overcompensate, as the body already has mechanisms to deal with oxidation.[citation needed]

Cantaloupes also are an excellent source of vitamin C.

At old homesteads you could find patches of wild melons lots of time - good afternoon of shoot'n 'em to help the critters get fed and spread the seeds.
And yes used to as a kid harvest mistletoe and take into town, and have used a shotgun to trim a tree or two in my day. Now I'm off down memory lane.
[smilie=2:

[beagle]

Steve, I have a wife like that too. Don't know all those old "southern english" words. You say mushmellon and she'd say, "What?"/beagle


Muskmellons or Mushmellons was all I knew them by until my future wife corrected me at around age 16.

Just so that everyone can get a good laugh, the only time I had ever heard the word cantaloupe used before then was when an older teenage boy from "up North" was visiting one of our neighbors. After meeting my older sister, his comment was "Wow, just look at the cantaloupes on that girl!" I was terribly confused and a little embarrassed when my girlfriend / future wife corrected me at a family function several years later about what they should be called.

Steve

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Shotgun harvested mistletoe was ALWAYS considered to be more efficacious.

BvT

[felix]

The musk/mush connotation came from the cotton fields, and the melons were prolly called that back in Angola. Possibly a English/Spanish/French like translation from Swahili or something. My home town, New Madrid, MO, was 50 percent black. ... felix