Received the following e-mails on this late last night.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-- From: Tom Burczynski
Gentlemen -
It was verified last night that Joe Zambone (former owner of MagSafe Ammo, Co.) died as a result of a motorcycle accident in New Zealand on February 7th, 2000. After a relatively low-speed collision with a truck, Joe suffered two broken arms and a broken pelvis. Within a minute, a trauma doctor appeared on the scene, provided what assistance she could and called for a rescue helicopter which arrived almost immediately. Joe was coherent for a few minutes after the accident and told the doctor that he was not in need of any pain medication at that time. Joe's wife, Kay, was quickly at his side as she had been following in a van some distance behind (Kay did not actually witness the accident). Joe spent the last few coherent minutes of his life in conversation with his wife, there at the scene. Apparently, a bone shard had pierced the femoral artery in his leg and Joe expired from loss of blood aboard the helicopter while en route to the hospital.
Joe is survived by his wife, Kay, his daughter, Janna, his father, Joe Senior, and his mother, Jane.
Joe will be remembered by all, and missed by many.
Tom [/quote]
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-- From Dean Speir
To Tom's sad message I would add:
I'd known Joe for almost 14 years. At my first ever SHOT Show, Joe a recovering gunwriter, dragged me all over the Dallas Convention Center introducing me to people he thought that I should know.
I was an early supporter of the MagSafe concept, and still have quite a collection of the stuff as it evolved over the years. We had some acrimony about five years ago about one of the ways that he was promoting it (Joe was nothing if not convinced), but we still kept in touch, by e-mail now, rather than by 'phone.
It's ironic that his penultimate event was said to be "a relatively low-speed collision," for Joe adored speed. After he sold MagSafe several years back, he was spending all his time racing boats and charging across two continents. He'd come to adopt the "land down under" as a second home, having spent a fair amount of time there the last decade using 'roos as a lab for his MagSafe developments.
In late November, after I had forwarded him something someone had posted about MagSafe on Rec.Guns, Joe had written me:
=========
Hi, Dean -
Sounds like the MagSafe worked as designed. It really is some pretty evil stuff in snubby .38s - I've had a lot of verbal reports from users who had the same results.
I sold MagSafe to a guy named Khalid Akkawi, who owns a couple of gun stores and shooting ranges in the Orlando, Florida area. His biggest store is "Shoot Straight," in Apopka. He was one of my best dealers for many years. He works gun shows too, with a big crew and as many as 500 guns on display at a show.
Akkawi is marketing through distributors like RSR and EllettBrothers.
Reason I sold is that I burned out and decided to live life instead of dying while pouring epoxy into teensy bullet mouths. Watching my wife die in 1990 had a lot to do with this attitude, but I didn't have any dough back then to just quit work and start screwing off.
Now I do fun things like ace "jetsprint" boats, a little-known sport done only in the Pacific Northwest, Australia and New Zealand. It's fun, if you can imagine a 1200-pound aluminum boat 13 feet long, with the driver and navigator sitting a foot in front of a 450- horsepower Chevy small block churning at 5200 rpm.
Propulsion is via waterjet, which makes life interesting because the intake grate's suction sort of glues the boat to the water. This allows for full-throttle 180-degree turns at 50+ miles an hour, pulling up to 4 Gs sideways. Oh, yeh, we also do this in a foot of water, meaning roll cages, flame suits, neck braces, helmets and all that sort of stuff. I've never done anything that scared the **** out of me as much as my first year racing jetsprints (1998).
We also spend time on the Snake River with our 22-foot jetboat,since we live in the dinky town of Asotin, Wa, about five miles from the Speer factory in Lewiston, Idaho. We live in the highest home in town, overlooking the Lewis & Clark Valley, and have a wondrous view of the Snake as it takes a bend towards Clarkston.
So it's only natural that I get a jetboat to take up into Hells Canyon, running rapids and getting huge adrenaline rushes (like when I ran aground on a submerged island in October...
And of course I've become a motorcycle bum. Kay and I spent a month in New Zealand just before Christmas, 1998, riding 3600 miles all over both islands. I go down there every winter, because it's summer and I can have two riding seasons this way. I leave Dec. 29th this year to visit NZ again (8th time) and return Feb. 15th. Makes my winter a lot shorter
Kay and I returned on Oct. 10 from a 38-day motorcycle ride around America, as far as Presque Isle, Maine, putting a total of 9018 miles on our Gold Wing. That bike is a '96 model, and already has over 40,000 miles on the clock. My other bike (1995 BMW R1100R) gets a lot of local miles too, because there are so many twisty roads around here that are a hoot to run at balls-out velocity.
We spent 18 days this spring touring the Holy Land, Athens, the Greek Isles, Rhodes, Crete, Israel and Turkey. Wanted to do that before they had another holy war. Or an earthquake, which we missed, Thank God.
So, Dean-o, I guess things are OK in my neck of the woods. I don't ever have to work again, and at nearly age 60 I'm living a life some folks would consider a "dream." I've been really lucky, my friend. God has looked after me well, and despite minor setbacks such as having a terminally sick wife for four years, living in a crummy little trailer in a crappy trailer park for years, almost blowing my left hand off in a shop accident in 1993, and other assorted trials and tribulations, I am still better off than I ever thought I'd be.
I hope life is treating you as well. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Cheers, Joe
=========
I feel especially for his young daughter who lost her mother Ruth to a protracted bout with cancer in 1990. But her Dad died with his boots on, and he clearly wouldn't have had it any other way.
- Dean [/quote]
A Brother has fallen... a moment of silence.
------------------
Schmit
GySgt, USMC(Ret)
NRA Life, Lodge 1201-UOSSS
"Si vis Pacem Para Bellum"
[This message has been edited by Schmit (edited February 12, 2000).]
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-- From: Tom Burczynski
Gentlemen -
It was verified last night that Joe Zambone (former owner of MagSafe Ammo, Co.) died as a result of a motorcycle accident in New Zealand on February 7th, 2000. After a relatively low-speed collision with a truck, Joe suffered two broken arms and a broken pelvis. Within a minute, a trauma doctor appeared on the scene, provided what assistance she could and called for a rescue helicopter which arrived almost immediately. Joe was coherent for a few minutes after the accident and told the doctor that he was not in need of any pain medication at that time. Joe's wife, Kay, was quickly at his side as she had been following in a van some distance behind (Kay did not actually witness the accident). Joe spent the last few coherent minutes of his life in conversation with his wife, there at the scene. Apparently, a bone shard had pierced the femoral artery in his leg and Joe expired from loss of blood aboard the helicopter while en route to the hospital.
Joe is survived by his wife, Kay, his daughter, Janna, his father, Joe Senior, and his mother, Jane.
Joe will be remembered by all, and missed by many.
Tom [/quote]
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>-- From Dean Speir
To Tom's sad message I would add:
I'd known Joe for almost 14 years. At my first ever SHOT Show, Joe a recovering gunwriter, dragged me all over the Dallas Convention Center introducing me to people he thought that I should know.
I was an early supporter of the MagSafe concept, and still have quite a collection of the stuff as it evolved over the years. We had some acrimony about five years ago about one of the ways that he was promoting it (Joe was nothing if not convinced), but we still kept in touch, by e-mail now, rather than by 'phone.
It's ironic that his penultimate event was said to be "a relatively low-speed collision," for Joe adored speed. After he sold MagSafe several years back, he was spending all his time racing boats and charging across two continents. He'd come to adopt the "land down under" as a second home, having spent a fair amount of time there the last decade using 'roos as a lab for his MagSafe developments.
In late November, after I had forwarded him something someone had posted about MagSafe on Rec.Guns, Joe had written me:
=========
Hi, Dean -
Sounds like the MagSafe worked as designed. It really is some pretty evil stuff in snubby .38s - I've had a lot of verbal reports from users who had the same results.
I sold MagSafe to a guy named Khalid Akkawi, who owns a couple of gun stores and shooting ranges in the Orlando, Florida area. His biggest store is "Shoot Straight," in Apopka. He was one of my best dealers for many years. He works gun shows too, with a big crew and as many as 500 guns on display at a show.
Akkawi is marketing through distributors like RSR and EllettBrothers.
Reason I sold is that I burned out and decided to live life instead of dying while pouring epoxy into teensy bullet mouths. Watching my wife die in 1990 had a lot to do with this attitude, but I didn't have any dough back then to just quit work and start screwing off.
Now I do fun things like ace "jetsprint" boats, a little-known sport done only in the Pacific Northwest, Australia and New Zealand. It's fun, if you can imagine a 1200-pound aluminum boat 13 feet long, with the driver and navigator sitting a foot in front of a 450- horsepower Chevy small block churning at 5200 rpm.
Propulsion is via waterjet, which makes life interesting because the intake grate's suction sort of glues the boat to the water. This allows for full-throttle 180-degree turns at 50+ miles an hour, pulling up to 4 Gs sideways. Oh, yeh, we also do this in a foot of water, meaning roll cages, flame suits, neck braces, helmets and all that sort of stuff. I've never done anything that scared the **** out of me as much as my first year racing jetsprints (1998).
We also spend time on the Snake River with our 22-foot jetboat,since we live in the dinky town of Asotin, Wa, about five miles from the Speer factory in Lewiston, Idaho. We live in the highest home in town, overlooking the Lewis & Clark Valley, and have a wondrous view of the Snake as it takes a bend towards Clarkston.
So it's only natural that I get a jetboat to take up into Hells Canyon, running rapids and getting huge adrenaline rushes (like when I ran aground on a submerged island in October...
And of course I've become a motorcycle bum. Kay and I spent a month in New Zealand just before Christmas, 1998, riding 3600 miles all over both islands. I go down there every winter, because it's summer and I can have two riding seasons this way. I leave Dec. 29th this year to visit NZ again (8th time) and return Feb. 15th. Makes my winter a lot shorter
Kay and I returned on Oct. 10 from a 38-day motorcycle ride around America, as far as Presque Isle, Maine, putting a total of 9018 miles on our Gold Wing. That bike is a '96 model, and already has over 40,000 miles on the clock. My other bike (1995 BMW R1100R) gets a lot of local miles too, because there are so many twisty roads around here that are a hoot to run at balls-out velocity.
We spent 18 days this spring touring the Holy Land, Athens, the Greek Isles, Rhodes, Crete, Israel and Turkey. Wanted to do that before they had another holy war. Or an earthquake, which we missed, Thank God.
So, Dean-o, I guess things are OK in my neck of the woods. I don't ever have to work again, and at nearly age 60 I'm living a life some folks would consider a "dream." I've been really lucky, my friend. God has looked after me well, and despite minor setbacks such as having a terminally sick wife for four years, living in a crummy little trailer in a crappy trailer park for years, almost blowing my left hand off in a shop accident in 1993, and other assorted trials and tribulations, I am still better off than I ever thought I'd be.
I hope life is treating you as well. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Cheers, Joe
=========
I feel especially for his young daughter who lost her mother Ruth to a protracted bout with cancer in 1990. But her Dad died with his boots on, and he clearly wouldn't have had it any other way.
- Dean [/quote]
A Brother has fallen... a moment of silence.
------------------
Schmit
GySgt, USMC(Ret)
NRA Life, Lodge 1201-UOSSS
"Si vis Pacem Para Bellum"
[This message has been edited by Schmit (edited February 12, 2000).]