Alabama Company Puts Cremated Ashes Into Live Ammo


If you have a deceased loved one who was a gun enthusiast or a fan of the outdoors, an Alabama company will put his or her cremated remains into shotgun shells or pistol or rifle cartridges.

As London’s Daily Mail quipped, “A bizarre new service that allows you to lock and load your loved one’s ashes is blowing up on the internet.”

The company, Holy Smoke LLC, was launched by two game wardens. As the company’s website explains, “We offer a way to honor your deceased loved one by giving or sharing with him or her one more round of clay targets, one last bird hunt, or one last stalk hunt.”

Co-founder Clem Parnell described the ashes-to-bullets idea to NPR:

“Wouldn’t it be cool to put some ash in a shell, to the point of a 250-round case of shells, and all his friends could go out and have a day on the range and celebrate the way this guy used to be? The way he was when he was alive — vibrant and enjoying life.”

The company says that it can place ashes into almost any caliber or gauge of ammunition after it receives the remains from the funeral home. “Upon receiving the ashes our professional and reverent staff will place a measured portion of ash into each shotshell or cartridge.”

As The Inquisitrpreviously reported, about 41 percent of deaths in the United States result in the remains of loved ones being cremated, a noticeable increase from eight years ago when it was just 30 percent. With more and more people choosing cremation over traditional burial and funeral services, there comes an increasing demand for alternative ways of handling the remains rather than just keeping them in an urn.

Would you consider turning a relative’s remains into bullets rather than scattering the ashes in the traditional way?

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