[Jeff Higgins]

Well, I was either younger or stupider than that. Like many gravel pits taken over by shooters, one of my old favorites also quickly turned into a dump. Guys dumping anything from old furniture and appliances to cars. Of course they all got shot up in very short order. As an aside, some folks wonder why these gravel pits get shut down. Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea to shoot the compressor motor on the bottom of a shot up old fridge, so I unlimbered what I considered to be the proper tool for the job. My .44 Mag Virginian Dragoon, with a 300 grainer doing about 1200 fps. Well, the damn thing bounced right off that compressor motor, which sat there defiantly, undamaged. "Is that all you got?..." It hit me right in the stomach. Luckily, it was a cold winter day, and I had a couple of heavy sweaters on under a heavy Carhart jacket. Even more fortunate was the fact that I was wearing a pretty stout belt buckle and, unbelievably, it hit me right in the buckle. Not to say I didn't buckle; I don't think Mike Tyson could have hit me that hard. I had a bruise about the size and shape of a football on my abdomen by the time I got home. And it ruined my jacket. I learned a lot that day about a lot of different things...