Mental Health Reminder: Before you get into an online shouting match with someone, remember that it’s quite likely that there is no one there. It’s a bot. Often best to move on, putting your efforts into something that’s actually productive. Like reloading. đ
Tom Gresham @Guntalk
Tweeted on October 21, 2022
[This is probably good advice.
Reloading, practice, and building your underground bunker.âJoe]
This stage design tool is cool:
This is a web application. No installing on your local machine is required.
Other features (from an email I received from them):
If you scroll down while on the web page there are a lot more target types to chose from.
You can save your stages online, include a stage description, print them out.
25 years ago when I was working for Microsoft on Direct X I fantasized about writing an application like this but with the added feature of using 3D and allowing you to walk through the stage and visualize it from any angle.
There are many other stage design tools. Some even use augmented reality which would be cool because you could superimpose your stage over your shotting bay using your phone camera.
Another type is, basically, Legos for stage designers.
With my own range now I think just the simple web app works for me. I can do the 3D visualization in reality rather than virtual space.
A week before Boomershoot 2022 we held a private event for a local company, Erber Auto. On Sunday I received a link to their final video of the event.
It is awesome!
Last month I received an email from Widenerâs. This is the important part of our conversation:
I’m reaching out to see if you’d be interested in reviewing some ammo on blog.joehuffman.org. Product reviews are an opportunity to increase website traffic and build a stronger relationship with your audience.
Think of your readers for a minute. They likely see ads for ammunition placed by manufacturers every time they go online. Wouldn’t it be better if they were receiving real information from a trusted resource like your website? Given your experience in the industry, I thought you would be interested in receiving some free ammunition to review.
If you are interested in receiving some free ammo for an unbiased product review. I’m sure we can find a caliber or two to send your way.
If there’s anything I can help you with, just let me know. Thanks!
—
What type of ammo do you have in mind?
My primary calibers are .22LR (Steel Challenge type matches and practice), .40 S&W (Steel Challenge and USPSA matches) , .223 Remington (precision rifle out to 500 yards), and .300 Win Mag (precision rifle out to 700 yards).
—
Thank you for the fast reply. That sounds great, below is a $250 gift card code for you to use to get started. After you add items to your cart, enter the gift card code and the website will walk you through the rest of the checkout process. Orders are processed through a secure server and fulfilled remotely by our warehouse, so your blogger identity remains anonymous to us.
I ordered 1,000 rounds of CCI Mini-Mags 22 LR 40 Grain CPRN and 500 rounds of Federal American Eagle Suppressor 22 LR 45 Grain CPRN. That was on a Tuesday. The following Tuesday the ammo arrived at my underground bunker in remote Idaho:
I was a little concerned because the package had been damaged in transit. Iâve opened ammo shipments that looked similar to this and found hundreds of rounds rattling around loose in the box.
This time the interior packaging was more than adequate and the ammo was contained:
Iâve fired many thousands of rounds of the Mini-Mags with excellent results. Because of the high reliability itâs the only .22 ammo I use in competition. Hence, I didnât bother to test it.
I was really interested in the Federal American Eagle Suppressor 22 LR 45 Grain CPRN. Would it work in my somewhat finicky competition gun? I had thought I had my suppressor in my range bag but I couldnât find it. Without the suppressor to give some additional backpressure I thought there was zero chance of it working. I was wrong. I fired two magazines without even a hint of malfunction and with excellent accuracy.
That was almost a month ago.
Last week I put in an exhaustive search for my suppressor to finish off the review. I finally found the suppressor laying on a shelf in the gun safe rather than in a range bag or gun case like I expected. I went to the range for a late lunch one day (itâs about five minutes from work) and, as I had hoped, I had a few minutes when I was the only person in the bay. I put on the suppressor and took off the ear protection. There was the usual mildly intense pop with the first round then the rest of the rounds were not much more than the sound of the action of the gun cycling. Again, with perfect reliability and excellent accuracy.
Nice!
Thanks Widnerâs!
Awesome drone video from Devin Miller:
Restoring Hearing: New Tool To Create Ear Hair Cells Lost Due to Aging or Noise
Hearing loss caused by aging, noise, and some cancer therapy medications and antibiotics has been irreversible because scientists have not been able to reprogram existing cells to develop into the outer and inner ear sensory cells â essential for hearing â once they die.
But Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a single master gene that programs ear hair cells into either outer or inner ones, overcoming a major hurdle that had previously prevented the development of these cells to restore hearing, according to new research published today (May 4, 2022) in the journal Nature.
This is great news! I grew up driving extremely noisy tractors without hearing protection. And even with hearing protection after shooting some guns under certain conditions I can tell I had too much exposure.
I like living in the future.
Boomershoot went reasonably well this year.
Dinner was good. I really like this food vendor. This is the second year for them and will probably will continue to be the vendor of choice.
MTHead (frequent commenter here and sometimes quite quotable) showed up and helped with Saturday target production.
Our Saturday night dinner speaker Kim du Toit spoke on how he believes individuals can help Make America Great Again. He says there is a Boomershoot report to follow once he returns to Texas. Also, he has a plan to sponsor a free Boomershoot dinner for all participants. We will discuss the details and give his idea serious consideration.
The weather was mixed with showers on Saturday but Friday and Sunday was dry and a bit cool. The targets had a high detonation rate. We did not find any targets which failed to detonate when they received a solid hit. There were the usual targets which were torn and lost content when hit by projectiles of wood, rock and ammonium nitrate prills from other targets which detonated.
We had a last minute problem with the land owner on the hillside informing us the USDA Conservation Reserved Program had recently informed him the rules were being interpreted much more strictly than in the past. Hence we couldnât put any targets on the grass. This limited the most distant targets to about 690 yards to 700 yards and about 30 feet in width. We put targets in this area out in two batches.
The muddy 375 yards berm was handled in a special manner as well. In previous years with extreme mud we found the blast from targets would completely coat remaining targets with mud which was near perfect camouflage. To prevent this we put targets in this area out in three batches. The targets were given greater spacing in depth as well as elevation. This was a huge help. There was virtually no mud coating of nearby targets.
The first two batches at the 375 yard line were the usual mix of small (4″x4″ and some 3âx3â) and a few 7âx7â targets. The last batch was a last minute idea of mine. Instead of putting the remaining 140 7âx7â targets out near 700 yards we put them at 375 yards. This made the end of the event easy, fast, and exciting. A Boomershoot Grand Finale! It seemed to be a great hit.
I had one shooter tell me, âI had my bench and everything packed up and then I saw there were a whole bunch of big targets at 375. Thatâs like a bank setting a bunch of cash out in the open for everyone. I had to unpack my gun and shoot from the ground. I got another 10 targets and one probable.
Some of the more elaborate setups.
One of my co-workers and his wife with heads down.
The remainder of this post is high in image intensity and so I have split it to save people bandwidth.
This is rather cool. Iâve been hearing a lot of chatter at Boomershoot this year about building guns. This would be very useful for those building high end custom guns, people doing 3D printing, and everything in between.
Online Gunsmithing Library with 21,583 printable Gun
Schematics, Blueprints, Manuals, and
Catalogs
Impressum Media Inc., Los Angeles, CA (www.FirearmsGuide.com)
â April 28.2022 â For gunsmiths and shooting industry professionals worldwide,
Impressum Media Inc just published new Firearms Guide 13th Edition
that is not only the largest searchable guns & ammo reference guide, gun
values guide, but also largest online Gunsmithing Library.
Published since 2009 at www.FirearmsGuide.com
for shooting industry professionals, Firearms Guide is used worldwide by
private, police and military gunsmiths, gunsmithing schools and students,
ballistic labs, sheriffs and police departments, gun shops, public defenders,
and law offices in the USA and Internationally.
âThe New Firearms Guide 13th Edition
is the worldâs largest searchable guns & ammo reference guide that presents
over 80,000 antique and modern firearms, air guns, and ammunition from 1,633
manufacturers from 62 countries. With its 14 search criteria, Firearms Guide
enables fast, complex searches of 80,000 antique and modern guns and
side-by-side comparisons of search results. Guns are cross-referenced with the
huge ammunition database. Firearms Guide searchable Ammo Database has over 7,000
different rounds with ballistics and ammo pictures and is often used by
ballistic labs and police departments. Guns and ammo are presented with prices,
tech specifications, features, gun values, ballistic, and up to 12
high-resolution zoomable color pictures. With over 58,000 gun pictures (in
resolution up to 4000 x 1240) and with the biggest online visual (graphic) Gun
Codes, Proof Marks, Stamps, and Crests Guide, Firearms Guide is a great tool for
fast and precise firearms identification of antique and modern civilian and
military guns from 1,633 manufacturers and 62 countries” says Chris Mijic,
publisher of Firearms Guide.
âGunsmiths will love the fact that the Gunsmithing
Library of the new 13th Edition
has over 21,583 zoomable and printable high-resolution gun schematics,
blueprints, manuals, and antique catalogs that they can zoom in on their large
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hours/money for gunsmiths that can now get schematics, parts lists, and armorers
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gun, they can print the manual for that gun and give it to their clients. It is
a nice touch that your clients will appreciate.â
âMany Firearms Guide users love the fact that they can
use the Firearms Guide completely anonymously, without Google or any search
engine or internet provider tracking and archiving the gun-related searches that
they can later sell to any client or deliver to the government,â says Chris
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privacy.â
Published since 2009 for shooting industry
professionals and gun enthusiasts, with its new 13th Edition published at www.FirearmsGuide.com, Firearms Guide
is:
1. A Reference
Guide that presents over 80,000 antique and modern firearms, air guns, and
ammunition from 1,633 manufacturers from 62 countries.
⢠Presents models with Tech Specs, Hi-Res Color
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better results than Google⢠Over 58,000 high-resolution color pictures of guns in
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zoomable and printable hi-res gun schematics, blueprints, gun manuals, and
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Media Inc.
Iâve been on site doing Boomershoot stuff on and off since last Friday. We had a private event on Saturday and tonight the first participants and volunteer staff showed up. Aaron (a regular in position 65) drove by my encampment about 7:00 PM. I did a few things before going over to visit with him.
Then as Aaron and were talking Barron, Janelle, their kids, and Bradley up.
Tomorrow daughter Kim and I will prepare Boomershoot Mecca for target production, do some inventory verification, pick up some last minute supplies, get the U-Haul trailer, and prepare for site preparation by the volunteers on Thursday.
The rented portable toilets were supposed to arrive last Thursday but the day before I got a call from the rental place. She sounded almost scared when she told me, âWe no longer serve your area and we wonât be delivering the toilets tomorrow like we agreed.â
I told her I would have liked to have had more than one day notice. Did she have a suggestion for who might service our area? She did suggestion a competitor. I called them and they declined. I called a place in nearby Orofino I tried to contact months ago and they failed to return my call. I got voice mail again.
I was feeling the panic creeping up on me. Over 100 people here for a long weekend, 30 minutes from their hotel rooms and no toiletsâŚ
Then the phone rang. It was the Orofino rental place. âSure! We can get three portable toilets to you next Wednesday.â That will be tomorrow. Iâm still a little apprehensive because I have never done business with them before and I got burned with the other company last week after having the agreement in place for months. Iâll believe it when I see three clean and serviceable toilets sitting in Boomershoot Field sometime before midnight tomorrow.
I was going through my list of unprocessed suggestions for blog posts and found this one from almost six years ago. The outline is:
Read the whole thing for some good insights.
She didnât say this in the article but my guess is the order is by priority of things to work on for the average person.
My excuse isnât listed. I havenât been going to the range or matches enough. I have my own range well suited to the type of shooting I want to get better at but itâs 300+ miles from where I currently live.
It’s too early to argue about penises and guns.
Just enjoy both and remember, if you don’t know what size you need, go rent a few at the gun range to see what fits you the best.
Or ask a friend to try theirs.
Shirley Johnson @ShirleyJwriter
Tweeted April 3, 2022
[While closely related this isnât an example of Markleyâs Law. Iâm not certain it was intentional but I found it funny. The follow-up tweet contributed to the humor:
My husband does not like this post. He never goes to the range with me and now I am in trouble.
This in her profile doesnât hurt, âI don’t need a 38. I need 38DD.ââJoe]
If I could afford it, it would be cool to reload for this caliber. It would give Boomershoot a whole new meaning:
Of course I would need a new press and reloading dies. Does anyone know where I could get a press and dies which could handle 16â projectiles?* Oh, I also need a new gun and new range.
* Yes, I know, these projectiles didnât use a shell casing. I was just making a joke.
As I mentioned a month ago I and many others have have problems with the Labradar smart phone app connecting to their chronograph.
My old phone worked with the app. That phone died and my new phone, a Galaxy S21 5G, would not make the Bluetooth connection. I purchased a few relatively cheap ($30->$90.00) phones for testing. The Nokia 2.1 – Android 9.0 Pie (Go Edition) actually worked most of the time. I have no plans to put a SIM card in it and use it as a real phone. Itâs just an remote control accessory for the chronograph.
Last Thursday I received an email from Labradar:announcing (highlighting added):
The new Labradar App for iPhones/iPads and Androids is now available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store*. New features include.
- Improved Bluetooth connectivity
- Create notes for each shot and series
- Add weather conditions
- Create custom names for each series
- Ke can be displayed in Joules and Ft.lb
- Export files via email in CSV format
- Create a custom name for your LabRadar
- Quick entry of bullet weight for Power Factor calculations
Great. Iâll bet I wasted my money on the phone as a remote control, right?
Wrong. My Galaxy S21 still wonât connect. To be fair, they did say, âimprovedâ, not âfully functionalâ. The Nokia 2.1 now works all the time instead of just most of the time. It is an improvement.
I have a Labradar chronograph. It is more expensive than previous chronographs I have owned but as I have outlined before it has some major benefits.
There are some some issues with it too. Itâs not required, but there is an app for use on your Android or iPhone. The app improved the usability considerably even though it wasnât the best design and it would disconnect when the phone turned off the screen.
Then my phone had to be replaced. I bought a Samsung Galaxy S21 5G. Name brand, should be good, right? The Labradar will not connect with it. The phone recognizes the chronograph Bluetooth is up and running but cannot make the connection. It turns out many other people are having the same problem with other Android phones and tablets as well as iPhones.
The Android app hasnât been updated since it was released on June 14, 2018. I have two very cheap older Android phone scheduled to arrive in a day or two and Iâm hoping one of them will work.
Another issue is that you have to have the unit pointed at your target such that the bullet stays near to the center of the radar beam. You are supposed to use the notch on the top as a sight:
This is far from the best sight and is marginal at best.
While looking for a solution to the Bluetooth phone application issue I ran across a solution to the sighting issue. Actually, three solutions:
I ordered option three on Saturday afternoon (Christmas day!) and it arrive today just four days later.
It took me less than 25 seconds to install it.
It fits perfectly and solidly. It deserves the average of five stars on the reviews it is getting.
Now if I can just get a phone to run the out of date app and connect to the unit. I think I could reverse engineer the API and write my own app but that is an extreme last resort.
Update: I tried two different phones:
The View 2 would not connect. The View 3 would sometimes connect five times in a row. Then it would fail 20 times in a row. I returned both of them and ordered a phone using Android 9 with 1 GB RAM. I have my suspicions that it is a timing problem. It seemed that if I were to reboot the phone then immediately try to connect to the chronograph the odds of connecting were better than 50%. But I didnât try that enough to have a good sample size. Iâm hoping that with not much RAM (and reviews complaining about how slow the phone is) that it may reliably connect to the Chronograph. The phone should arrive late next week. Iâll let you knowâŚ.
I will have an AK-47 and a croissant.
Chance Coleman @ChanceTyColeman
Tweeted on December 23, 2021
[I donât think I see any croissants or AK-47s being offered. I prefer maple bars and AR-15s anyway. But I donât fault Coleman for his choice. To each his own.âJoe]
Thomas Massie and Lauren Boebert, two of the most blatantly fascistic Republican members of Congress, are dreaming of a White Christmas â with the emphasis on “White.”
In the spirit of holiday cheer, Massie and Boebert recently shared family Christmas photos on social media â in which every family member is brandishing a gun. There’s nothing unique about them. Such a “tradition” is fairly common among a particular subculture of American gun fetishists and “ammosexuals.” This is but another symptom of America’s unhealthy infatuation with gun violence.
Chauncey DeVega
December 24, 2021
White supremacist Christmas: Those Boebert and Massie “gun photos” are a direct threat
[Reading the article was like reading about the trial in Darkness at Noon, propaganda from Nazi Germany, or the twisted reality described by the mentally ill. It is an elaborate tale constructed upon the flimsiest of scaffolding for evil purposes or from a delusional mind.
Even the pictures supplied were distorted.
These are the pictures supplied for the article:
The pictures supplied by Boebert and Massie:
It is my belief normal people are catching on to the disconnect from reality. The political left cannot bear to slow âprogressâ and push their delusions all the harder. Furthering the rife between reality and their âprogressâ.
This will not end well. Prepare appropriately.âJoe]
A fair amount of my online gun related purchases are from Midway USA. The prices are reasonable, the shipping is quick and the selection is excellent.
They also have something I havenât seen other places. This is Birthday Pricing:
This fantastic program is available to you once per year to help you celebrate your special day. Your special promotion code is activated 7 days prior to your date of birth and expires 7 days after, or once it has been used.
It is a nice bonus that I took advantage of this year to purchase a set of steel targets for my new gun range. I had planned to wait until next spring but I was shopping for something else and the alert about Birthday Pricing popped up when I visited the Midway USA site. I thought about it some and then a couple days later decided I probably wasnât going to get a better price on a complete set of Steel Challenge targets. Last weekend I put them in a dry place for the winter:
Entry for Boomershoot 2022 (April 29th-May 1st) is opening for everyone 12/5/2021 6:00:00 PM Pacific Time.
Sign up here: https://entry.boomershoot.com/
Don’t miss out!
If you have questions send an email to Boomershoot Entries or give me a call.
When Rolf and I shot the ASI match last month I commented:
My powder puff loads failed to reliably cycle the action. The cool weather probably contributed to this. In the hot (for the Seattle area) summer the loads cycled the same gun just fine. I think I need to add another 0.1 of a grain to the load to make sure they work in the cooler weather.
I tested my new loads today. They worked great. I tested them in two different guns and also tested the old load. Both guns cycled the action without a problem with the new loads. The old loads had a few problems in the cool weather.
The 0.1 grain increase in charge also decreased the standard deviation:
| Gun | Bullet Weight | Powder charge | Mean velocity | PF | Sdev | ES | Min | Max |
| 1 | 180.00 | 3.1 | 785.60 | 141.41 | 15.3 | 59.0 | 762 | 821 |
| 1 | 180.00 | 3.0 | 745.00 | 134.10 | 26.6 | 118.0 | 673 | 791 |
| 2 | 180.00 | 3.1 | 761.38 | 137.05 | 14.3 | 62.0 | 738 | 800 |
| 2 | 180.00 | 3.0 | 713.15 | 128.37 | 22.8 | 85.0 | 667 | 752 |
The group size was significantly smaller as well. This may have been because of the decreased standard deviation. A 140 PF is still very pleasant in a .40 S&W gun.
The bullets were polymer coated lead bullets. The powder was Hodgdon Clays.
John is my son-in-law:
He brings up and talks about Boomershoot.