A Target Rich Environment

I was going through some Boomershoot pictures Oleg took in 2010 for someone who wanted a few for “Boomershoot art” to caption.

I happen to like this one particularly well to which I gave my own caption:

_MG_4186A Target Rich Environment

Last year with very little wind and extraordinary detonation rates we ran out of targets early. Assuming great shooting conditions and the same or greater number of shooters we will have a lot more targets. I’m planning on a total production of over 3,000 pounds of explosives if we can swing it. We’ve never made that much in two days before.

And from 2019, here you can see the rate at which targets detonated was rather high:

image

The following pictures were by daughter Kim.

And here we have boxes ready to be filled with Boomerite. This is just a sample. We filled hundreds of boxes and over 99% of them detonated last year.

DSC_0290

The fireball was much hotter last year than it usually is. The radiant heat was too much for the photographer:

DSC_0506

DSC_0507DSC_0508

The fireball will be further away from EVERYONE this year.

Boomershoot 2020 is the first weekend of May. Sign up here.

Share

10 thoughts on “A Target Rich Environment

    • Not sure how your finances work out, but a 3-day Boomershoot weekend is the second most economical vacation I get. Orofino is very inexpensive compared to anything near Seattle.

      My most economical vacation is Scout summer camp, twice as long. Food and bed are better in Orofino, though.

      • I guess I should have mentioned I live in South Carolina. Too far to drive and I live alone and retired, and nobody to watch the house and pets if I went.

        • This year I have one person driving from Maryland, one driving from the Toronto area, and, I think, one driving from Newfoundland.

          But, I understand. It’s a big commitment in time and effort.

    • Spectators are free. Every year we get spectators who drive all the way from Seattle. So you would only be out your travel and lodging costs.

      If you want to participate it gets more expensive but the travel and lodging still dominate unless you live local.

  1. Story of stupid “It’s hotter than you think”. A number of years ago, the group I was living with had a nasty break up and my family was forced to leave. One of the things I was doing for the group was making simple fireworks. I.e. the things that blast into the air, go boom and throw sparklies. I was also the person making roads to different parts of the property, some of which required moving parts of granite ledge.

    To this end I had been making black powder.

    Being forced to leave left me with a requirement of getting rid of a few pounds of BP and other firework compositions in a fast and safe manner.

    We had a hired hand helping us. So when I started getting rid of the BP I went to the launch area, about 50 yards away, pored the BP into a pile on the ground, stuck a slow fuse in the side of the pile, placed a rock over the fuse so it was held far away from the bp. Then lit the fuse and moved back 20 or 30 feet.

    Woosh! Big cloud of smoke, bright light, no bang. BP is low explosive. It burns fast but doesn’t explode unless contained.

    Four or five of these burns happen but I’m busy moving other things ’cause anything I don’t have off the property that day is going to be lost.

    Hired hand shows me another container of BP, asks if he can go do the burn off. He’s watched and helped me do all the previous burns. I nod, say ok, go back to work.

    Suddenly there is a “Woosh” and then screaming.

    Hired hand had stuck the fuse on top of the pile of BP. The fuse had coiled on itself so the end was maybe two or three inches from the pile. He had used his lighter to light the fuse. It has sparked, the BP had caught and the pound or so had gone up almost instantly.

    Hired hand had major second degree burns over half of his body. His plastic sun glasses had melted, his hair on that side was completely singed off.

    We got him over to where I was and I started spraying him with cold water. According to the doctors, that is why he had no scaring and the burns were not deep. The water bath, while causing him discomfort kept the pain away until EMTs arrived. Stopped the cooking of his flesh.

    He was transported to the local hospital and from there air lifted to a major burn ward at a big hospital.

    Stupid, never trust another person unless you have verified that they actually know what they are doing with low or high explosives.

    So those things do get very hot, very fast, and the fact that the heat goes away almost as rapidly doesn’t mean the heat can’t cause major damage.

    Follow Joe’s instructions and be safe.

  2. Do we have any particular Wuhan Coronavirus related protocols to consider during our preparation for Boomershoot, outside of the usual day to day precautions?

    I’m still coming, and by then myself and family will have been isolated for about 6 weeks. Still, I don’t think Orofino will thank us for bringing the Kung Flu to their small town, and my immunocompromised wife wouldn’t be happy for me to bring something back.

    • I advise, but won’t enforce, skipping the handshakes. Most of the time people are outdoors with plenty of moving air and space between people other than their shooting buddies. So, I can’t think of much that needs to be done.

  3. At least it didn’t burn his shadow into the grass? Looks like it could have. To much fun!

    • Yeah, he was moving too fast for a shadow to develop. He did get a mild burn that we treated.

Comments are closed.