Stockton residents and game wardens Thad Holmes and Clem Parnell founded their business, Holy Smoke, because they wanted to provide sportsmen, members of the military and gun lovers with a way to for their families to celebrate their lives.

Holmes, Parnell and the four other ATF licensed ammunition reloaders that make up Holy Smoke provide families with a professional service that is hard to find — for $850, they load 250 shotgun shells or bullets with cremated remains, and these rounds of ammunition can be fired just like regular bullets.

“It gives the individual an opportunity for the family and friends to celebrate a life well spent,” Holmes said. “It’s an added step that gives people a chance to mourn in a different way. It gives them a chance to celebrate that person’s life and remember the good times."

Since they opened the business in July of 2011, Holy Smoke has attracted customers from all over the nation, from as far away as Michigan, Illinois and Texas.

“We’re doing constant business,” Parnell said. “There’s not a week that goes by that we’re not on the phone with someone.”

But they never imagined their business would garner international media attention.

They’ve done hundreds of radio interviews, have been featured in national newspapers and have even been mentioned on the Colbert Report, a popular satirical news program on Comedy Central.

And tonight at 9 p.m. CST, the Stockton duo will make their debut on National Geographic’s “Taboo” in an episode called “Bizarre Burials.”

All the publicity has paid off, Holmes said.

“Already we have copycats, but we’ve jumped on it and rode the wave of media sensation,” Holmes said. “It’s not new, putting ashes into shotgun shells, but marketing it is new.”

Because they’ve done so many interviews, people all over the country have found the business in hunting magazines, online articles or even on Fox News.

Drake Larsen in Ankeny, Iowa discovered Holy Smoke during the last 30 days of his father’s life.

“My father had always talked about that concept,” Larsen said. “And I always envisioned me fulfilling that wish, but I was very happy to know this was a possibility through professional route. I always thought it would be me in the basement having the gruesome job of trying to hand load them unprofessionally.”

Larsen contacted Parnell and Holmes and talked with them about their services, and then he had the funeral director call them.

“I wanted to get the funeral director’s perspective on whether these guys were legitimate,” Larsen said.

After his father’s death Aug. 25, the funeral home shipped the cremated remains to Holy Smoke, and two weeks later, Larsen received 250 shotgun shells, neatly packed and organized.

“We got back a great product,” he said. “The shells were all very professional. We could tell they took the time to do it right.”

Parnell said he and Holmes pay their reloaders twice their normal rate to ensure perfection.

“We want to make sure they’re perfect, that they’re done reverently and they’re handled correctly with respect to the family that sent them to us,” Parnell said. “We have to use people who know what they’re doing, who keep things real clean and organized.”

Each shell is meticulously loaded by hand, and the ash is not mixed with the gunpowder. It is placed in the cup that holds the shot.

Parnell said they have had some questions and criticism about the safety of the practice, especially when people may eat the animals they shoot with the product.

But Parnell said lifelong sportsmen know better and are completely comfortable with the idea.

“If you make a clean kill shot on an animal, it’s dead,” he said. “Its heart stops pumping blood. Ash isn’t going anywhere. Wherever that animal is struck, no one eats that meat. They always throw that piece away.”

Drake Larsen’s father, LaVal, was an avid waterfowler and enjoyed duck hunting so much he named all three of his children after ducks — Drake, Teal and Woodie.

Drake said he distributed the shells amongst close friends and family who also hunt.

“So far, he’s been to a hunt in Saskatchewan, he’s recently been to North Dakota and I’m getting ready to take him to North Dakota myself next week,” Drake said. “We really feel that it’s prolonged our time with him in the field. My dad was quite the storyteller, so we made it a prerequisite when we gave friends and family the shells that they had to tell stories about my dad while they were in the field. It really brought it full circle for those folks.”

And some of LaVal’s shells are being saved for future generations.

“There’s no grandchildren for him yet, but one thing we’re really excited about is setting some of these shells aside, and we hope that gives his future grandchildren a chance to hunt as well,” Drake said. “We think it will help us tell stories about grandpa Val and it’ll be great to have him along in spirit and a little bit of physical presence on a hunt.”

For more information about Holy Smoke, visit www.myholysmoke.com.