Brigid has a post about the .38 Things I Learned From Shooting. (Incidentally, I have no idea why she wasn't on my blogroll. Fixxored!) There's something on that list that every shooter should be able to identify with. I snarfled at this one:

(28) Bullets don't multiply but they do migrate. (How did this stripper clip end up in my sock drawer).

This is SO damn true in my life. A few weeks ago, MrsZ decided to clean out my truck, which has a habit of accumulating a winter's worth of detritus and hunting clutter every year between mid-September and ... oh ... summer. She piled the vast majority of it in one place designed to get me to sort it. (Blocking the access to the DVD player - the pile got shoved, not sorted.)

However, with company coming for the holiday weekend, I finally shoveled some of it into more appropriate places. In the pile, I found:
- my turkey vest, containing my calls, gloves, and no less than ten shot shells of various shot sizes and weights
- my woodland-pattern BDU jacket
- a pair of SureFire Sonic Defenders
- a tub of cover-scent wafers (fresh earth, mmmm!)
- my turkey hunting seat (a fold-down 4" tall mesh affair. Worth its weight in gold.)
- two feet of 550 cord sheathing, missing the core strands
- two winter hats
- one pair of winter gloves
- an UnderArmor camo hood
- three snow brushes
- my Dammit Stick (a 3/16x36" brass rod, rounded on one end, for clearing bores and chambers at the range)
- no less than six loose (and one full box of) Remington CopperSolid 12ga sabot slugs
- my electronic coyote call, with external speaker and speaker wire

And that was just from the back seat. I'm sure there's a partial box of slugs in the console still, and probably a magazine of .45 floating around in there somewhere.

It's not uncommon for me to hear, "Hon ... why is there a bullet on the kitchen table/garage floor/bathroom counter/bookshelf/coffee table/dresser/etc?" The answer is always - always - a shrug and, "Dunno." The top shelf of the safe has become something of a repository for loose ammo, and right now, off the top of my head, has a 12ga slug or three, a couple rounds of buckshot, a couple rounds of high-brass field loads, a handful of .22LR, a .22 CB Short or two, a .380, a few 9mm, a couple .44Spl, a box of .44Mag, a few .38s ... essentially, something for everything! (It's not unusual for spent brass to show up in the washing machine, too.)

While in my home state, this isn't an issue. In fact, in most states, it's not an issue. However, if I cross into Massachusetts, that empty case stuck in my floor mats is a felony. If I slide down into New Jersey, that loose sabot slug in my console is probably illegal - if you can make sense of that particular bit of law, more power to you.

And completely off-topic - to whomever in the 817 area code sent me the 4th of July email, thanks! ... Now, who are you???