Rhino Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 (edited) Author Unknown...except for some verbal editing I made. Too funny not to share. Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little compound bow beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our land sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did you know that a 1955 40horse Farmall tractor will take 6 rounds before it goes down? Tough. That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazzard fan that I was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up T-shirt doused in chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all over the place. Keep in mind this was 99.999% humidity swampland so there really wasn’t any fire danger. Ill put it this way- a set of post hole diggers and a 3ft. hole and you had yourself a well. One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (ether). The light bulb went off. I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would probably just spray out in a disappointing manner... lets face it to a 10 yr. old mouthbreather like myself ether really doesn’t "sound" flammable. So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of pyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles). At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the can of black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit around the ether can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie... 1lb pyrodex and 16oz ether should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker you know? You know what? The heck with that! I’m going back in the house for the other can. Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now we're cookin'. I stepped back about 15ft and lit the 2stroke arrow. I drew the nock to my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrow launched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my dad getting out of the truck... UH OH he just got home from work. So help me God it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to the can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a “what the heck” look in his eyes. I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow pierce the starting fluid can right at the bottom. Right through the main pile of pyrodex and into the can. Uh Oh. When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I don’t know if it was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex jerk back from 235 decibels of sound. I caught a half a millisecond glimpse of the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1ft above the ground as far as I could see. It was like a little low to the ground layer of dust fog full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a crawfish or two. The daylight turned purple. Let me repeat this... THE DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE. There was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into the pasture. Notice I said "was". That sucker got up and ran off. So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with my thundercats T-shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the carport having what I can only assume is a Vietnam flashback ECHO BRAVO CHARLIE YOUR BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE…CEASE FIRE!!!!! His hat has blown off and is 30 ft. behind him in the driveway. All windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a slow rolling mushroom cloud about 2000ft over our backyard. There is a Honda 185s 3 wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are drooped down and are now touching the tires. I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don’t know- I know I said something. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t hear inside my own head. I don’t think he heard me either... not that it would really matter. I don’t remember much from this point on. I said something, felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp pain, blacked out, woke later.... repeat this process for an hour or so and you get the idea. I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR so dad could beat me some more. Bring him back to life so dad can kill him again. Thanks mom. One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump again. Mom had been complaining about that thing for years and dad never did anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business. Dad sold his muzzloaders a week or so later. And I still have some sort of bone growth abnormality either from the blast or the beating. Or both. I guess what I’m trying to say is, get your kids into archery. Its good discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in life. Edited January 26, 2009 by Rhino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWSmith Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 :DWhoops...Geuss that did'nt turn out like it was planned:D Kinda reminds me of a model aircraft carrier from my younger days...never did find that thing, or any piece of it, after it went up. Filled it with 3f BP and laid a trail to it. Reached down, lit the end of the trail, promptly burnt off my right eyebrow and some of the hair on the right side of my face. Took awhile for the hair to grow back..and for me to be able to sit down in a chair:o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJL Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 The main title is somewhat misleading............. I still do that kind of stuff, only in a safer more controlled manner. :D The best part of moving to Colorado is that now I have good friends who work in the mining business. Anybody with access to C4 is a friend of mine..........................BOOM..........ha ha ha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clrj3514 Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 wow thats a doozie there lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevebeilgard Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 i wasn't quite that bad, according to me. my specialty was keeping the neighborhood rabbit population under control. or at least that was my guise. many a cat got carried away and disposed of.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aksheephuntress Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 ...reminds me off the time that we tried to put in a well up at the cabin with blackpowder, instead of a gravel point....lol- -what a fun story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aujack Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 thats hilarious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruttinbuc Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 Thanks for sharing that, Al! That is funny! :D:D Think maybe you coluld re-enact that for video?.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 lol. That was a great story Al. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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