Big bangs: ‘Sons of Guns’ reloads for third season - Entertainment, TV, Television - Navy Times

Big bangs: ‘Sons of Guns’ reloads for third season

Marine-turned-master armorer Will Hayden and his fire team of insuppressible gunsmiths at Baton Rouge, La.-based Red Jacket Firearms have locked and loaded for another season on Discovery Channel’s “Sons of Guns.”

Hayden says the third round of the show features plenty for military fans to zero in on, including the resurrection of a 2,000-ton World War II vessel and the restoration of one of the first aircraft-mounted machine guns. They also trick out the local sheriff’s patrol boat with a custom dual-mounted MK19 grenade launcher alongside an M240G machine gun.

The Fletcher-class destroyer Kidd fought for its life off Okinawa in the waning days of World War II. “They were torpedoed, bombed, strafed — they had a hell of a day,” says Hayden. With aircraft, machine guns, pyrotechnics and high explosives, Hayden’s re-creation of the boat’s biggest battle is coming up this season.

Black powder charges in the 5-inch guns? Check. Retooled 20mm Oerlikon cannons? Twin 40mm Bofors? Massive homemade smoke pots on deck to simulate damage? Check, check and check.

“It was pretty damn incredible,” he says. “We rocked the boat. Literally.”

With the third season premiering Dec. 7, Hayden says production crews are still filming the last episodes.

He’s been lobbying producers for an episode focusing exclusively on high explosives, but he thinks he may need some help lighting the fuse.

“The things you can do with det cord, plastic explosives and gasoline, brother, it just boggles the mind.”

Only problem: The producers aren’t feeling it.

“They keep saying, ‘Yeah, yeah — we’ll get to it.’ But I think if they had a big viewer push coming up their tails, they might get a little more interested. A few hundred thousand letters to Discovery ought to get them moving.”