Update

The Knox ballistics gel worked better than expected.  The 8oz box yielded a cylinder of gel about 8” tall with a 5” diameter. The gel stopped a BB and a .22 round but allowed higher velocity rounds to pass through it and split into 3 sections when struck by a 20 gauge slug. The gel was surprisingly dense and resilient to breaking. Even when thrown high into the air and subsequently falling to the ground the sections thrown did not break apart.

On other matters it turns out that brown corduroy pants that have outlasted their usability produce black smoke when given a Jedi’s burial over a camp fire.  I loved those pants. I was sad to see them go.  I take comfort in knowing that the carbon sequestered in their worn down wales will be absorbed by the wilderness that claimed their last usefulness and converted back into sugars, proteins and the other components that assemble to create a most beautiful wilderness.