I just got an email from Red.  He probably will bring his anvils back to Boomershoot this year.  Says he can launch an anvil up to 100 feet in the air now.  Plan on an after lunch show.  You might also consider the possibility that parking further away from the shooting line has advantages as well as disadvantages.

The primary goal of the National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle program is not to safeguard children, but to protect the interests of the NRA and the firearms industry by making guns more acceptable to children and youth. The Eddie Eagle program employs strategies similar to those utilized by America's tobacco industry-from youth "educational" programs that are in fact marketing tools to the use of appealing cartoon characters that aim to put a friendly face on a hazardous product. The hoped-for result is new customers for the industry and new members for the NRA.

Violence Policy Center
From http://www.vpc.org/fact_sht/eddiekey.htm as of April 15, 1999

[Either the VPC has never viewed the Eddie Eagle materials and presentation, they are so blinded by hate they didn't see and understand what was being said, or they are just flat out lying because they think no one will check out their story.  Also, of interest is that Marion Hammer created the Eddie Eagle program.]

Barb and I approached the butte from three different sides without luck.  Barb commented that this was a Ry type adventure.  Those that know Ry will understand.  We had driven by a driveway with a name I recognized as a Boomershooter so we turned around and went to ask his advice.  Jim told us we couldn't get to the top without crossing some private property that did not belong to him.  He suggested we walk most of the way to the top on his property so we accepted his offer.  Elevation wise we were within about 600 feet before we turned around and came back.

Pictures are here.  The weather was just a bit unsettled but pleasant enough for a hike.  It made for some nice cloud pictures.  If you know what to look for in the first four pictures you can see the Boomershoot site. 

We went on to the Taj Mahal to test the new mix.  The material did not turn into a solid mass like some of the previous mixes had.  It was just slightly caked however.  Overall it looked good:

Another really good sign was that the small sample I had left out had not spontaneously combusted when it was exposed to sunlight for a week:

Next I fired a shot from the .22 that should have hit with a velocity of about 1170 fps.  It did not detonate the target but it did tip it over.  I loaded the high velocity ammo and shot it three times on the edge.  It did not detonate.  I put the target upright and it then detonated on the first shot.  Estimated target velocity--1540 fps.  The edge hits were going through three layers of cardboard so I suppose it's possible that the extra cardboard slowed down the little 38 grain pellets enough to cause the failures.  At this time I am pleased with the new mix and packaging.  It's rare that we will ever store things more than a week and if it still detonates with a 38 grain bullet at 1540 fps that is probably good enough.  In another couple of weeks I'll do the final tests.

We stopped by the new shooting positions we created last fall and looked at the grass Ry had planted.  It seems to be doing well.  In another six weeks (Boomershoot 2005) I expect it will be usable.

Barb and I are going on a drive and a hike up Teakean Butte near the Boomershoot site.  It's the highest hill for many miles around in that area.  And it's going to be the site for a wireless Internet broadcast tower late this summer.  I want to see if we will have good coverage of the site as well as just enjoying the hike with Barb.

If we have time we will check on the reactive targets I put away for storage tests last week.  Pictures and stories when we get back.

The most labor intensive portions of Boomershoot is the building of the reactive targets.  Each year we learn more and improve things for the next year.  One of the things that has been a pain has been the pouring of “Fuel 0“ into a small measuring cup.  A couple weeks ago I spotted this the store (click for a bigger picture):

I picked one up at the store today along with the little stand which it is setting on.  This will allow us to dispense the fuel easier, cleaner, and faster than before.

A few days ago I purchased 50 pounds of “Fuel 2”.  I only expect to use about 35 pounds but it was cheaper to buy 50 pounds than to buy 40 pounds (so I make sure I don't run out) in the next size smaller package.  It came in a paper sack which I was certain would draw moisture and fall apart during storage.  I bought the plastic containers pictured below, transferred it into the containers, and managed to clean up the kitchen (it's rather messy stuff) before Barb got home (click on the picture for a larger view).

I've got my eye on some more kitchen appliances to speed some other aspects of the process up from last year.  Boomershoot 2005, over 600 targets, over 1000 pounds of high explosives.  It should be a snap this year.

The anti-freedom crowd is “outraged“ by this:

TALLAHASSEE — The pistol-packing grandma about to be inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame is the most controversial appointment since its inception 22 years ago.

Why?

Because Marion Hammer, a squat senior citizen with a soft Southern twang, was the first — and only — female president of the National Rifle Association.

Gun control advocates and women's rights groups are outraged at the selection of Hammer, one of three women Gov. Jeb Bush tapped this year to join writer Zora Neale Hurston, tennis star Chris Evert, former state Education Commissioner Betty Castor and Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings among others "who have made significant improvement of life for women and for all citizens of Florida," according to the Hall of Fame's Web site.

During the campaign against initiative 676 in Washington State a few years ago I got to meet Ms. Hammer.  She and her NRA staff helped defeat the proposed gun registration law.  I was impressed with her determination and her strength of will.  She seemed smart too.  I have no reservations about her being inducted into the hall of fame.  I'm sure she deserves it.

The article goes on to say:

Hammer, who said she never tells anyone how many guns she owns because "it's nobody's business," remains nonplussed.

"Isn't that a hoot?" she chuckled when told that the National Organization for Women and others plan to protest her nomination on Monday, the day before the induction ceremony takes place in the Capitol.

Yup.  That's a hoot alright.

Our fighting system is as non diagnostic as can be, very little conditional branching, and works against either side attack without mirroring. It is reactive from the stand point that the bad guy has to attack but after that it stresses that you be the actor forever after that.

My simple combat philosophy: My turn, my space, your pain.

Greg Hamilton
Thu 7/19/01 6:47 PM
Email to Insights discussion group

I just received email from a producer at the Seattle TV station KING asking about Boomershoot 2005.  I told them we would be thrilled to have their attendance.  Here is their home page.  The producer is John Stofflet.  Does anyone have an idea as to whether they will be friendly or hostile?

I can remember the exact moment I fully appreciated the enjoyment that can come from using explosives... The old car body disintegrated into a shower of metal shards from the impact of the HE (high explosives) round.

The concussion from the shot threw up sand and bits of rock in a gritty, dusty shower.  Trapped between the explosion and the little basalt canyon as I was, the blast about washed me off the tank.  It was as if the steel monster had run into a wall of Jell-O.

All the sagebrush and wire grass in front of the tank was uprooted and destroyed.  Any living thing up to sixty feet under and in front of the main gun would have been killed by the muzzle blast.  It was at that moment, sitting in the basket as I rode through the tank commander school on the desert south of Boise, Idaho, that I realized I was addicted to high explosives.  The smell was exhilarating, the effect of the tank a charm, and the return rumble of the round as it detonated downrange a pure delight.

 

Ragnar Benson
From: Ragnar's Guide to Home and Recreational Use of High Explosives
Page 109,110, Copyright 1988

After reading the email to her this morning Barb asked me if there really are people that stupid.  I don't know about stupid but he certainly is clueless.

The power and potential abuse of the licensing of gun owners lies with who owns and controls the database.  They (your government) have already demonstrated that their intentions cannot be trusted.

Brian Bourgoin
June 23, 1994 10:56AM

I was out running errands when Kim called a little before 19:30 to announce she had arrived safely.  There was lots of laughing and giggling with Kayla in the background.  Barb and I will sleep better tonight.

As of 18:15 Kim had passed San Pablo Bay.

I ordered the boxes to be used for the medium and large sized targets for Boomershoot 2005.  Just 50 each to test and make sure everything is going to work.  Assuming they work as planned I'll buy enough for the entire event.  Since these are standard off the shelf items there are no significant lead times and zero setup charges--contrary to last years target bodies.

The medium size targets are 6 x 6 x 1 inches.  The large targets are 7 3/8 x 7 3/8 x 1 3/8 inches.  All dimensions are interior.

I just called her.  Says she is doing fine.  She had some stop and go traffic for a while but made it past Sacramento.  She seemed to be in a much better mood this time.

PICATINNY, N.J. -- Mar. 04, 2005 -- The Army has approved its new long-range .50 caliber sniper rifle, the M107, for full materiel release to Soldiers in the field.

 

...

The M107 was funded as a Soldier Enhancement Program to type classify a semi-automatic .50 caliber rifle for the Army and other military services. It underwent standard type classification in August 2003. A production contract was awarded to Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Inc., Murfreesboro, Tenn., the following month.

It's a bit hard to see from the picture shown here but I expect the M-107 is very similar to the gun shown here at Boomershoot 2001:

More from the Army website:

The weapon is designed to effectively engage and defeat materiel targets at extended ranges including parked aircraft, command, control and communications, computers, intelligence sites, radar sites, ammunition, petroleum, oil and lubricant sites and various lightly armored targets.

In a counter-sniper role, the system offers longer standoff ranges and increased terminal effects against snipers using smaller caliber weapons.

The complete system includes: the rifle itself, a detachable ten-round magazine,a variable-power day optic sight, a transport case, a tactical soft case, cleaning and maintenance equipment, a detachable sling, an adjustable bipod and manuals.

The Army plans to modify the M107 in the future by adding a suppressor to greatly reduce flash, noise and blast signatures.

“No one said to take the San Francisco exit on 80.  They just said follow 80.”

Kim is not happy.

A while back I reported a video I had worked on was going to The Whitehouse.  It apparently hasn't made it that far yet but my co-worker “from downstairs“ just popped her head in the door of my office to report the customer showed it to his boss and was “dancing up and down with joy” about it.  Everyone is very, very pleased so far.

I finally put up Kim's final target from Monday afternoon.  According to this site she will need to increase her speed by a factor of about 2.4 to qualify and will need to become just a little more accurate all while using a full power handgun instead of a .22.  I expect once a week for a year should do it.

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away.  It is time to go elsewhere.  The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

Robert Heinlein

Last night after Kim went to bed I continued to work on her navigation problem.  I started guessing alternate street names and got a hit in a city just outside of Santa Cruz.  The street Kim was to take as an exit off of highway 17 was close by so everything matched.  Kim apparently misunderstood the street name.  She had one letter wrong.  I sent her a message on her cell phone to call me before she left.  She called me a few minutes ago and I gave her the MapPoint directions which avoid I-80/880 through San Francisco which Kayla had given her and instead routed her south on I-5/205/580/880 to highway 17.  We also discussed how she should leave the GPS unit on to enable back tracking should she need that and finally I gave her the lat/long of Kayla's house.  I think I have prepared her as best I can now.

Kim was supposed to call when she arrived at Aunt Susan's place near Sacramento. ETA was 18:30. At 19:13 I called her. She said she got turned around and got lost for a while but was on a particular street that meant she only had to make one more turn to be on the street that Aunt Susan lived on. I figured five, maybe 10 minutes maximum and she would be there. At 19:21 I received a call from Kim. Happy moment! Whoops, celebration started too soon. She was lost worse than before. The street she was on changed into some highway and she didn't have a clue which way to go. From her description of how she got there I couldn't find the highway she was on. I had her give me her GPS coordinates, used my calculator to convert them to a matching format for Microsoft MapPoint and found her location on the map. Some way or another she had been going west when she thought she was going east. For the next 39 minutes I navigated as she drove. At 19:29 call waiting said Barb was trying to call me. I ignored her as Kim was going through one of many tough intersections. Kim then reported Barb was trying to call her. We agreed to ignore her for a while. Kim ended up in the wrong lane once and was forced to make a turn she didn't want to. No problem, she took the next easy turn into a residential area on Winding Creek Road and I navigated her past Random Lane (honest!) back to the street she wanted to be on bypassing that tough intersection. At 19:45 Barb called again. Kim had it easy for a while and I took the call, quickly said things were under control and to leave us alone for a while. Barb wanted to offer suggestions and I wasn't particularly polite in my response. I switched back to Kim and continued to navigate for her. At 20:00 she recognized Aunt Susan's house. I called Barb and reported the safe arrival.

Tomorrow Kim drives to her friends place in, supposedly, Santa Cruz. Kim just called a few minutes ago with the address but that address and other streets with the directions she has don't show up on MapPoint. It's going to be an interesting day for both of us tomorrow.  GPS, MapPoint, and cellphones will get us through.

I just got a call from our oldest daughter--Kim.  She just entered CA from Oregon and is on schedule to be at her Aunt Susan's place near Sacremento by tonight.  She spent yesterday afternoon and last night with me in Richland before continueing her trip to visit her friend in Santa Cruz.  She quit her job on Sunday and on Monday got her old job back from her previous employer.

While visiting me in Richland we went to the range to start her training towards meeting the handgun proficiency requirements of a being a Federal Air Marshal.  You can see a few pictures in the photo album I created to track her progress.  I have another target I still need to take a picture of which should go up tonight.

I love making empties.  The size and shape of the targets that I miss are rather irrelevant to my joy.

Kerry Pierce
IPSC email list
April 8, 1999

From the Toronto Star: $1B gun registry branded `useless'.  And some critics think the true cost is pushing $2 B now.  The proponents have been feeding the monster money “under the table”.  Alphecca has quotes and an analysis of the Star article.  One thing he didn't mention was this:

Alex Swann, spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, who is responsible for public safety and emergency preparedness, defended the registry.

"Obviously, no measure can strip away all risk in society, but the gun registry is a frequently used tool for police," Swann said.

He said he could not discuss Roszko's specific case, but emphasized gun registration ensures accountability for guns, and tightens ownership. That can help track the transport of guns, he said, including whether legally registered guns are moving into the hands of those who are not licensed.

Swann said police make about 2,000 queries on the firearms database every day.

Two thousand queries a day does not make people safer.  The only valid objective of restrictions on firearms ownership is to make people safer.  The defenders of the registry don't make that claim.  Reporters and the general public should be asking just one question.  When the defenders of the registry stammer, pause, and avoid the question they should be given the same sort of treatment one would give any other con artist that defrauds the public of over a billion dollars.  The Canadian people wasted that money in an experiment to answer a question.  We have the answer now.  Let just hope the politicians in this country can learn from the billion dollar mistakes of others.

The truly and deliberately evil men are in a very small minority; it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind; it is the appeaser's intellectual abdication that invites them to take over. When a culture's dominant trend is geared to irrationality, the thugs win over the appeasers. When intellectual leaders fail to foster the best in the mixed, uninformed, vacillating characters of people at large, the thugs are sure to bring out  the worst. When the ablest men turn into cowards, the average men turn into brutes.

Altruism as Appeasement
Ayn Rand
TO, 1-66, 6.

Executive summary:

Ry, his kids, and I spent the day testing reactive target mixtures in two different types of target containers. We discovered the target bodies we used for the first time last year were part of our problem with failures to detonate. Those problematic target bodies will not be used for Boomershoot 2005. We also found modifications to our procedures and to our mix to make the mixture more sensitive. With the new mix and the new target bodies but with small sample sizes we got 100% detonations with .22 caliber bullets (CCI Stingers) going about 1420 fps at the target. We got 100% failure to detonate with a target velocity of 1170 fps which means the targets are safe to handle. We did not do sufficient tests to determine the actual threshold for reliable detonation but do not expect it to be much if any below 1400 fps. The new mix has a lot more "punch" to it that the old mix and there is a very noticeable flash.

High level view of Boomershoot reactive targets:

The chemistry of our shoot.

History of Boomershoot reactive targets:

Explosive Experiments.

In 2003 we changed to a new type of fuel that cut the costs considerably and make things more sensitive at the same time. Since that time we have kept the fuels proprietary. The mixes listed on the web page work and are "good enough" for most purposes but our later mixes give us an edge in some areas. Yesterday was spent testing new fuels, a couple of catalysts, and the target containers.

Boomershoot reactive target innovation:

Almost all of our innovation to make the mix sensitive enough to detonate (not ignite, that is something completely different) and yet safe enough to handle has been with changing the amount of potassium chlorate and using different types of fuels. This has been an ongoing learning experience.  I have purchased probably twenty books and spent countless hours learning about explosives and the detonation mechanisms.  Then a friend (usually Ry) and I would test my latest hypothesis on how to make the mix better.  Most attempts were disappointments.  Only occasionally would we have something that worked better than what we had used before.  For the last three years we used the same components in the same proporitions with only an involuntary change in the grade of the AN we received from our supplier.  Yesterday was the first time we had a significant advance in a long time.

Yesterdays experiments:

Yesterday we took four new fuels with us but only had time to test three of them and only two in enough detail to be confident we found the "sweet spot" in the proportions. The two fuels insufficiently tested looked to be poor performers on paper and we probably won't investigate those anytime soon unless the storage tests being done turn out very poorly.

We use two different oxidizers in our reactive targets. Ammonium Nitrate (AN) is the main ingredient and Potassium Chlorate (PC) is used to increase the sensitivity. These chemicals are mixed with a fuel to create an bullet sensitive mix.

The fuels we used will be called:

• Fuel 0--the liquid fuel we have been using since 2003.
• Fuel 1--new solid fuel which looked the best on paper but is a little difficult to find and slightly more expensive than some others.
• Fuel 2--new solid fuel which looked second best on paper, is very easy to obtain and is cheap.
• Fuel 3--new solid fuel which looked poor on paper but is commonly used in the fireworks industry, is easy to obtain and is moderately priced.

As many people know the discovery of Penicillin was an accident. And so it was yesterday for us. One of the changes we adapted was because I made a mistake on the very first batch. From a chemistry and common sense point of view we should grind the AN. We buy it in prilled form (spheres about 0.1" to 0.13“ in diameter) with a very thin coating which protects it from moisture. But what we have found in the past is that either it didn't make any difference (Boomershoot 2001, 2002) or better performance was achieved with only some of it ground. In 2003 our supplier of AN had fertilizer grade material instead of the usual explosive grade material. It sort of went "POP" instead of "BOOM!!". We tried grinding the AN and it made a better boom but wasn't sensitive enough. We ground half of the AN to get a compromise. Since then we have had the best results when half the AN was prilled and half was ground. Yesterday the first batch was made entirely with ground AN. Whoops! Well, rather than just burn it (our disposal method) we decided to box it up and test it. We found that with the present fuels having all the AN ground made a huge positive difference in sensitivity. Another accident was that we used just a small amount of Fuel 0 "to keep the dust down". It turned out the presence of Fuel 0 was crucial to detonation. Without it there was no detonation even with a .223 at close range.

We ended up making 13 batches of reactive target mix. Each of the batches made from two to four targets depending on the size of the target and volume of fuel we used. Except when we intentionally left out Fuel 0 and only used Fuel 1 we could detonate everything with the .223 at 12 yards. The high velocity .22LR got at least partial detonation on most mixes. By observing the points at which we would start having failures to detonate we could bracket the acceptable limits of the proportions of the fuels.

We explored the limits of Fuel 0 and found that we had been using too much in previous years for optimum detonation sensitivity. We explored those limits and found the optimum proportion for maximum sensitivity. The power was a little lacking but the detonation was very reliable. We then adjusted the proportions of Fuel 1 for optimal sensitivity with the previously determined amount of Fuel 0. Fuel 2 was explored in a similar manner to Fuel 1. At the optimal levels of either Fuel 1 or Fuel 2 we could not distinguish a difference in performance between the two. Both would detonate in the new target bodies with the .22LR at velocities of about 1420 fps. And both would generate a significant flash upon detonation with a much better "punch" to the chest than mixes of previous years. Since Fuel 2 is cheaper and easier to obtain we decided it was preferable.

We tried optimal mixes of both Fuel 1 and Fuel 2 in the 6" target bodies from last year. We could only get rare detonations with the .22LR at velocities of about 1540 fps. The target bodies were creating an effective loss in velocity of something well over 120 fps with the 32 grain .22LR bullets! The .223 would detonate them every time at these short ranges.

With the Fuel 2 mix we added Catalyst 1 and tried it again in the 6" target body. We got one detonation out of four with velocities of 1540 fps. Not good enough.

We were in the process of trying Catalyst 2 when we had a big scare. I mixed the fuels with the AN and then added Catalyst 2. Within about five seconds there was a very strong smell of ammonia and I turned off the mixer and took the mixing bowl outside. There was no apparent heating or visible problems with the mixture but the smell was still very obvious. I dumped the mix on the burn pile for later disposal without ever adding the PC.

Next we tried Fuel 3 combined with Fuel 0 in the 6" target bodies. Zero out of three detonations with 1540 fps .22LR. The time was 1700 and Ry and the kids had to leave. I stayed to make one more batch of the optimal Fuel 2 mix in the new target bodies for storage tests, cleaned up, and then came home later.

Next week Barb and I will go back and test the stored product for sensitivity and then a couple weeks after that we will test again.

To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so.

To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assesed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harrased, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored.

That is government; that is its justice, that is its morality.

Pierre J. Proudhon
General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century