Sam came out on a weekend and brought this fancy gun in a case--it was rifle, a powerful rifle-I don't know the caliber but I think it was an elephant gun--no maybe not that big but big ole shells and a big scope--might have been from his dads collection.
Sam said I'm gonna show yall something--if the message was --stand behind that gun--I had an A already!
Sam set up a bench with a sandbag for a rest and said Rick have your boy run up the mountain and set up some milk jugs with water in them.
Todd ran up the road going up the hill and when he got to the top Sam motioned for him to set down the milk jugs--they were a good 300 yards away.
Todd came on down the hill and Sam loaded that rifle--set it on the sandbag and lined up the shot--Sam squezzed the trigger and the left milk jug exploded in a halo of water 10 feet around--the sound and the destruction was amazing. He then blew up the right hand milk jug. I told him that was the most powerful gun I had ever seen---I'm not sure I should have said that because ole Sam got into his demonstration---He put that rifle up and said --you think that was powerful wait till ya see what's next.Sam went on over to the house to the room he kept there and came out with a handfull of what looked like long licorice strings--sort of grayish black--he said those were fuses--old ones and they were for different amounts of time--and he proceeded to light one and I stepped back--it burned steadily.
He said he had some blasting caps too--no dynamite--thank god---but he carried a can with him of black powder.
He said follow me--and up the hill he went--right to where the milk jugs had been--He said lets see---here we go he said--there was a large rock about two feet across and some varmit had wallered out a hole underneath it--Sam said this will do just fine.
He poured that whole can of black powder in that hole--and inserted what he said was a 48 second fuse--where we would have plenty of time to get down the hill.
I had already started down the hill just before he lit that damn fuse--seeing what could be a dangerous demonstration--boy was I right---
Sam lit that fuse which was supposed take damn near a minute but it took off like bat outta hell--Sam said "O" "NO" and started to run toward me-I was trying to go fast but only made it about 40 feet down the hill,Sam was only 20 feet when that damn Rock exploded--smoke and flying debris showered out in every direction-I personally saw a hunk of rock that weighed 20 pounds fly by Sams head-in my general direction----neither of us got hit but--it was pure luck---
That 48 second fuse was more like 5 seconds or less!!
Sam luaghed about the incident--that damn country boy was nuts---good ole Sam--------------more Sam stories later The CodgerMan