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Thread: Remebrance Loading of Cremation Ashes

  1. #21
    Boolit Master Castaway's Avatar
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    About 30 years ago, my good friend Rob and I were sitting around and decided when one of us died, the other would load his cremated trigger finger in a shot shell. A few years later, after I’d retired from the Army to the state of Florida, I received a call from a mutual friend Rob had died. His widow requested the funeral director remove his finger and cremate it separately. He responded he couldn’t do that, but could send the body to a surgeon in Baltimore to remove the finger. She requested a knife and said she’d cut it off herself. A compromise was reached whereby he would set aside a small portion for our use. I flew up for the funeral and afterwards the mutual friend and I took those ashes and loaded shells. That was in February. In April, his son and friends and I converged on Clark Range, TN, found a dogwood tree in bloom and took Rob hunting one more time. Each friend in turn shooting his ashes over the tree. The empty case sits in my gun safe. If I hear noises in the bedroom, I just tell myself Rob is just rummaging around inside fondling my guns.

  2. #22
    Boolit Master Handloader109's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 725 View Post
    Having made key fobs from cases w/ bullets then seated, I have used cotter pins inserted in the primer hole and then opened the split with a flat blade screw driver to form a mechanical lock. A drop of epoxy thereafter firmed up the lock and sealed the fringes of the pin / hole junction. Setting the bullet w/ lock tight or epoxy after was never a problem. A cotter pin isn't jewelry quality but the technique is solid and adaptable to other materials more suitable. Just another way to skin the cat.
    Best way to do it.... and would be small enough to 'load' the powder and seat the bullet with it in place. For sure any SS press would have clearance. I would just crimp the bullet really well. Oh, engrave as last step before a light seal coat of acrylic.

    Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

  3. #23
    Boolit Buddy
    Scorpion8's Avatar
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    The cotter pin for the win!



    A light touch with a drill just to enlarge the flash-hole a tad, and a ~good sized small cotter pin fits in and yet won't disappear into the primer socket. Am going to look for some brass cotter pins to match the rugs to the carpet. A drop of epoxy as the cotter pin seats should do the trick also.

    And I have tried, and cannot get the cotter pin head into the shell holder to use the bullet seating die once the shells are topped with a bullet. Thoughts? A Classic Lee Loader to just tap the bullet down?

    Remaining questions: (1) do they have to be marked as "inert" to satisfy TSA?
    Last edited by Scorpion8; 10-27-2022 at 10:15 PM.
    Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory ... lasts forever.
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  4. #24
    Boolit Master Wag's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Castaway View Post
    About 30 years ago, my good friend Rob and I were sitting around and decided when one of us died, the other would load his cremated trigger finger in a shot shell. A few years later, after I’d retired from the Army to the state of Florida, I received a call from a mutual friend Rob had died. His widow requested the funeral director remove his finger and cremate it separately. He responded he couldn’t do that, but could send the body to a surgeon in Baltimore to remove the finger. She requested a knife and said she’d cut it off herself. A compromise was reached whereby he would set aside a small portion for our use. I flew up for the funeral and afterwards the mutual friend and I took those ashes and loaded shells. That was in February. In April, his son and friends and I converged on Clark Range, TN, found a dogwood tree in bloom and took Rob hunting one more time. Each friend in turn shooting his ashes over the tree. The empty case sits in my gun safe. If I hear noises in the bedroom, I just tell myself Rob is just rummaging around inside fondling my guns.
    THAT is a great story!

    --Wag--
    "Great genius will always encounter fierce opposition from mediocre minds." --Albert Einstein.

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scorpion8 View Post
    A friend of the family wants a special project that I've agreed to help. Their deceased son loved the .223, so they want his cremation ashes loaded into some specially engraved .223 casings (they are getting the casings) and have the ashes loaded, topped with a bullet, but made into a pendant. As the project is in it's inception, I am trying to plan out a path.

    The shell casings should be already de-primed as they are new from a LGS before being engraved.

    Using a single-stage Hornady press to be careful with the shell casings and not scratch or mar the newly-engraved cases. I have an assortment of .223 bullets, so no issue there. My plan is to not touch the casing or bullet in trying to make into a pendant.

    Am thinking I should drill out the primer socket, to allow the ashes to be loaded with a funnel, because.... I think I will epoxy a craftstore chain coupling into the primer socket to allow a neck chain to be used. I think I need to load the bullet before the pendant item is epoxied into the primer hole, because once that is in the primer socket, am unsure if it will fit into a standard shell holder to press the bullet in on top of the ashes.

    It would be easier to load the ashes from the case-mouth instead of the (enlarged) primer hole, but the whole seating/shell-holder issue has me over-thinking this.

    Anybody ever do a project like this?

    Thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
    A GREAT source of info on the cartridge/case may be viewed at: https://www.accurateshooter.com/cart...guides/223rem/ which surely should provide much info for you.

    Re the "remains", my curiosity ("curious George?") was piqued. A Goggle inquiry provided, " While there are many variables to calculating the amount of ashes there will be after cremation, here is a simple rule of thumb: For every pound that the person weighed prior to cremation, there will be one cubic inch of cremated remains (i.e. ashes) after cremation. For example, the remains of a man weighing 175 lbs will generally equal about 175 cubic inches." Another site suggested the average cremated remains/ashes would be roughly the same size as a grocery-store 4-pound bag of sugar to the size of a five-pound bag of flour.
    If you were to load all the ashes into .223 cases... wowsers! ... that'll take one heap of cases!
    BEST wishes!
    geo

  6. #26
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    Okay, another thought occurred to me. Shell holders are fairly cheap, so I'll just procure another 223-base spare shell holder, use the band saw to cut a slot to the primer seating hole to allow the cotter pin extensions end stub to slip in. There should be enough support on the shell casing base to support the shell while the bullet is being seated, and la' viola. That shell holder will be disposable anyway since this is a one-off project.

    As regards the amount of ashes....not really an issue, but thanks!. The family is only sending us a portion along with the 20-engraved casings. Thus we'll fill those 20, and give the rest back.
    Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory ... lasts forever.
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  7. #27
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Have you considered the mesh size of the ashes? Trying to get them into a case through a funnel sized to fit into a hole drilled primer pocket size sounds like a nightmare. I would tap the cases for a jewelry stud in the pocket, tuck a bit of Dacron in the cases, drop the ashes through the neck and seat a bullet. Then a drop of epoxy on the threads, screw the stud in oriented to keep the engraving forward and let it dry. Finish up with an alcohol degrease and jewelry lacquer.
    ”We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, yet they are still lying.” –Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

    My Straight Shooters thread:
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...raight-shooter

    The Pewter Pictures and Hallmarks thread:
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-hallmarks

  8. #28
    Boolit Grand Master

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    dont ruin your saw blade use a cutoff wheel The shell holders are very hard

  9. #29
    Boolit Master
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    Couple days to ponder, I think I figured out how I would approach if task. Sterile brass for starter, drill pocket for brass rod with formed eye or a (custom brass button inserted from inside created) and if rod bent over internally and then soldered in place sealing rear. If access to a lathe a piece of brass rod and cross drill for hole and turn to diameter of pocket with a base then radius and shaping top would be a custom job and could be pressed in from internal with epoxy removing soldering. After installation of cremation epoxy/crimp projectile in place, faking something in place of shell holder on press. The loop in base allowing them to use whatever to hang or secure of their choice and allowing variables.

  10. #30
    Boolit Master
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    A few years back,
    My current wife had ashes from her mother and late husband.
    She asked me to load up some ashes in 30-06 casings.
    She then went on a trip and visited the cemeteries where her dad was buried.
    She drove a steel stake into the ground to make a deep narrow hole .
    She then inserted the loaded with her mother's ashes into the hole at her father's grave.
    Her late husband liked the ocean.
    So the casing with his ashes was placed in the ocean.
    She also had jewelry pendants made with some of her late husbands ashes to give to their three daughters.

  11. #31
    Boolit Buddy
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    The shell holder was easy to cut with a metal blade on the bandsaw, and then opened with a grinding wheel on the angle grinder. Piece-o'-pie. I spent more time rigging the shell holder in the drill-press vise to make sure the bandsaw blade didn't launch it somewhere than I did actually cutting the shell holder. But in any regards the shell casing with the cotter pin now slides easily into the press to fit a bullet, when the time comes.

    I am thinking of cleaning/degreasing the primer pockets, inserting the cotter pin and then a drop of epoxy from a syringe-style epoxy glue, or perhaps Bondic to cure it quickly. Anybody use Bondic(R)?
    Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory ... lasts forever.
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  12. #32
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Use stainless steel cotter pins

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy
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    I found some brass-finished cotter pins that match the shell casing brass almost exactly. Still waiting to get my hands on the engraved shells and ashes.
    Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory ... lasts forever.
    Retired USN
    NRA Life

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check