In Memory

Richard Eshelman

Richard Eshelman



 
go to bottom 
  Post Comment

10/22/10 11:41 AM #1    

Kathleen Maine (Peterse)

It was so nice to have had  time with you and Shirley at the 40th reunion. You will be missed.


11/01/10 09:56 AM #2    

Bill Turner

richard,bobby vaughan and i,use to get slugs go to waldorf and get $$ from slot machines,had fun with them


01/26/15 07:31 PM #3    

Victor Agresti

Richard was my best friend in high school, at least until he met Shirley (who he later married!).  We liked hunting, shooting guns, and archery – all potentially dangerous endeavors.  

Here’s a tale about the dumbest thing we ever did – about 55 years ago, well beyond any statue of limitations.  Bear with me, as I explain.

It involved reloading 30/06 ammunition, a low-serial number Springfield 03/A3 rifle (used by USA in WW-I), and a basement shooting range.

Low-serial number Springfields were dirt-cheap since their receivers (the part the barrel screws into) were weaker, therefore less safe, than later models.  The problem was, they wouldn’t necessarily withstand the pressures of full-powered ammo.  Not having much cash, and having a teenager/what-could-go-wrong brain, I bought one.  Since factory ammo was expensive, Richard & I became re-loaders; that’s where you make new ammo from a spent round.  I.e., pop out the old primer, insert a new one, resize (shrink) the brass case, add a specific weight/type of powder, seat a new bullet – and presto – a fresh round ready for firing.  We fired our reloads at paper targets in the basement “range”.

One day while target shooting, we ran out of slow-burning (lower-pressure) Hercules powder, the type that was best for that old Springfield.  Rather than stop shooting, as of course, we should have, one of us had the bright idea of using our fast-burning pistol powder.  Pistol powder is designed to burn thoroughly in the length of a pistol barrel, rather than a long rifle barrel as was the powder we ran out of.  Too much pistol powder in a rifle cartridge creates tremendous pressures – we’re talking 40 or 50,000 psi here.  Our reloading spec book had minimum and maximum grains for that powder in a 30/06 round – we started with the minimum; and made the first pistol-powder 30/06 round.  One of us fired it at a target, and it worked just fine.  We’d make another round, upping the load .5 grain of powder at a time – then the other guy would fire.  After a half dozen cycles like this, it was again Richard’s turn to shoot.

While he was firing, I’d stand behind him with my hands over my ears, hunched over facing the other way, and my eyes shut tight – just as he did when I was firing.  Even a lowered-load 30/06, fired inside, is extremely loud.  But when he fired this shot, there was a much louder bang than before with a scream from Richard in the same instant.  I turned around and he was standing in the firing position where his arms had been holding the rife, but there was nothing in his hands.  Nothing. The gun had exploded and was gone...  Richard only had a small scratch on his face, with no other injury. The wooden gun stock was blown to smithereens, small metal parts were everywhere, the rifle barrel, although intact, was now in a far corner of the basement, and at least initially, we couldn’t even find the bulk of the receiver (about 8" x 3" x 1.25" of hardened steel).  After a long search, one of us spotted it – its broken end was embedded in the sub-floor of the room above, 10' ahead of where he had fired; i.e., it was jammed in that ceiling.  When the rifle blew apart, the receiver flew downward at hyper-speed, an end cracked-off, it bounced off the concrete floor, and ended up stuck in that sub-floor.  That Richard wasn’t hurt was pretty much, a miracle.  I’d like to say we laughed it off, but even teenagers realize when they’ve narrowly avoided disaster.

We took up somewhat safer hobbies after that, like making really loud fire-crackers, one of which – oh never mind, you get the idea.  In that era, lots of guys did this.  In fact, another buddy (a classmate!) told me that he and his brother had set a large firecracker (technically, a bomb) at the bottom of one of the  4x4 posts supporting a porch roof, and blew the whole thing off the house.  Their own house!  Imagine his Dad’s reaction to that!


go to top 
  Post Comment