Wetness at Boomershoot

When it is dry enough to farm Boomershoot is dry enough to be pleasant. This year things are still wet.

My brother sent me an email late last week. He hasn’t started farming yet this spring because it has been too cold and wet. He came back to the farm 25 years ago and kept records of various dates such as when he planted, fertilized, and harvested various crops. In those 25 years the latest he has ever started the spring work was April 21st. Hence every day he can’t get into the field it is setting a new record for him.

I was on site last weekend on both Saturday and Sunday. It was dry enough to get around okay in my 4×4 but the ground was very soft in places and I cut into the mud when driving to/from the Taj. There is also a small draw between the “Main” and “Lowlands” shooting positions. The range officers (and others) cross this area many, many times during the event. It had standing water in it and was very soft. If it is still wet on Sunday I will bring some concrete “stepping stones” to help keep people’s feet dry.

Both Saturday and Sunday it was warm and sunny and I’m sure it dried up a lot of the water but even at the end of the day on Sunday it was still wet enough that driving across the field multiple times to do build and place targets will create deep ruts. Yesterday was cloudy and it rained some in Moscow (my home) but the weather radar indicated the Boomershoot site missed most of the rain. The forecast for today is still on the cool side with a high of 47F but the sun is shining bright and the wind is blowing. That will help some.

The forecasts for the rest of the week indicate very little precipitation except for early Thursday morning (2:00 –> 5:00 AM). And possibly on Friday (with a chance of snow as well). Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be partly sunny and partly cloudy with highs of 53F and 59F. I expect this will result in a minor but net move toward dryness from what I saw last weekend.

I predict Boomershoot 2011 will be mostly comfortable but people are going get mud on their shoes and I wouldn’t be too surprised to see some vehicles get stuck in the mud.

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8 thoughts on “Wetness at Boomershoot

  1. Same deal here in Pennsylvania. I’ve lived at my current location for a bit over 15 years and had standing water in my driveway for three days last week. My land sits atop what was a riverbed during the last glacial melt and therefor the ground is very much like a “French drain”, once you get the topsoil off (about 18″ down) it is mostly rounded rocks, gravel, and sand. It drains amazingly well and I can’t remember having standing water for more than about a day even when there has been severe river and small stream flooding in the area. Normally we would have done a winter/spring machinegun shoot at my friend’s farm in northern PA by now but the ground is WAY too soft for us to drive in to where we shoot…and there is standing water in many of the fields I see driving around the area. Looks like last year’s bumper corn crop is going to be followed up by a real stinker!

  2. The one thing I’ve learned about the weather at the Boomershoot site is that it doesn’t matter what it is right now, if you wait 15 minutes it will change!

    I remember one day several years ago where withing 30 minutes I was freezing, (put my Carharts on), the sun came out and I started sweating, (took the Carharts off), the wind started blowing and clouds covered the sun, (put my Carharts back on), and then the sun broke through and it killed the wind and I started sweating again. (Said “screw it” and left the Carharts on, unzipped everything and left the legs flapping!)

    Whatever the weather is, it will be better than doing ALMOST anything else you can do those three days!

    Joe, where do you get your weather reports? Mine says the highest temp for the three days (Fri-Sunday) will be 49 degrees! I like yours much better!

  3. I get what seems to be the most accurate for Boomershoot here.

    I give them the GPS coordinates (N 46.5433 W 116.39128) of the Boomershoot site and they extrapolate from the nearest weather stations.

  4. There will be enough 4 x 4s and tow straps for anyone who might get stuck. If any one gets stuck; don’t dig yourself deeper. Just call for help and we’ll get you pulled out.

    It rained like hell in Moscow and Palouse yesterday.

  5. Will it be wet enough to dig out the tracers or API ammo? Or is it still a risk you are not willing to risk?

  6. Rolf,
    I’d say we’ll evaluate the day of, but the weather right now looks like rain off and on – which probably means no go.

    Pisses me off, as I have thousands of 223 tracers I bought just for the shoot. I’ve been sitting on them since 2005 or 2006.
    Ry

  7. Sounds like your weather is almost mirroring ours in PA. Torrential rains last night, more earlier this evening. Still under a severe thunderstorm watch another six hours and the river, which has been flirting with the flood stage seemingly for weeks, is apparently going to go over the banks here (Susquehanna Rover at Bloomsburg.) The timing is good for me as I’ll be sitting down for dinner in Pittsburgh at the NRA Banquet…the farms near where I work which had standing water in them now look like swamps with small lakes. If the drought ridden areas of Texas could rustle themselves up a few buckets, I know where their water is!

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