The weather isn't great (cold and cloudy) but it's better than yesterday.  And I'm out of town for the rest of the week and I really need to get this done so I'm headed to the Boomershoot site in a few minutes.

A few tests need to be done.

1. Was the latest mix stable over time?  It's been four days in storage.  Did it get hyper sensitive?  Did it go dead?
2. If it still detonates with a .22 LR at reasonable ranges I'm putting it out at 700 yards and trying to detonate it with a .223.  The weather report says winds from 0 to 1 MPH so I have a chance.  I put a different scope on my most accurate AR-15 so that shouldn't be an issue.
3. Boomer Clays.  I bought a box of clays and several different boxes of high velocity shotgun shells.  I'm going to load up the underside of some clay targets with "Joe's Special Recipe" and see if they can be detonated at a reasonable range.  Reasonable being far enough away that we don't get our outer layers of clothes and/or body parts shredded by pieces of clay pigeons.

If the results are interesting enough I'll post pictures and perhaps video later this week.

Oh, I probably will be blasting a rock at the local gun range on Work Day this coming Sunday.  If you are in the area show up to help make it a better range and then watch me make small rocks out of a big rock and explosives.

See also:

Twenty pounds of HE versus a rock 
Rocks and explosives video
Little rocks from big rocks and explosives

I believe a self-righteous liberal Democrat with a cause is more dangerous than a Hell's Angel with an attitude.

Ted Nugent

Some people say that I have no heart. I am here tonight to tell you that I do have a heart. I have the heart of a liberal.... It's in a jar on my desk.

Sen. Phil Gramm
1992 Lincoln Dinner at the Middlesex Club in Waltham, Massachusetts

[Something very similar is also attributed to Colorado Sen. John Andrews.  -- Joe]

I'm about to head off to the range for a special IPSC match (they call it "Action Pistol" to be more PC).  I think we are going to have five classifier stages.  I reloaded lots of ammo and have been dry firing quite a bit recently.  I got lots of sleep last night and after a shower and breakfast I'm ready to go.  I may "crash and burn", but I'm as well prepared as I have been in a long time.

Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.

Edmund Burke
(1729-97)
Irish philosopher, statesman.

I completed the Distance is your friend class of the Looter Shooter rifle postal match today.  This was inspired by the events following hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.  I wasn't able to conjure up a hurricane here in north central Idaho but we did have rain, wind, and a flood watch:

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED

FLOOD WATCH

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MISSOULA MT

224 AM MDT SAT OCT 1 2005

CLEARWATER-LINCOLN-MINERAL-SANDERS-

124 AM PDT SAT OCT 1 2005 /224 AM MDT SAT OCT 1 2005/

...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON FOR

PORTIONS OF EXTREME WESTERN MONTANA AND NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MISSOULA HAS ISSUED A FLOOD WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF EXTREME WESTERN MONTANA AND NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO THROUGH 6 PM MDT / 5 PM PDT/ THIS AFTERNOON.

A VIGOROUS UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM...WITH AN ABUNDANT SOURCE OF TROPICAL MOISTURE...WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE OVER THE WATCH AREA THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON. ADDITIONAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF UP TO 2 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THE AFFECTED AREAS. THE OCCASIONALLY HEAVY RAINFALL IS EXPECTED TO CREATE CONDITIONS THAT ARE FAVORABLE FOR THE FLOODING OF SMALL STREAMS AND DEBRIS FLOWS.

THOSE LIVING IN AREAS PRONE TO FLOODING SHOULD BE PREPARED TO TAKE ACTION SHOULD FLOODING DEVELOP.

If I didn't participate in any event or join any group unless they did things just like me, I wouldn't be able to do anything with anyone else.

If you want to be a good shooter, shoot. Shoot all you can, under all circumstances. Shoot every kind of gun in every kind of competition.

Greg Hamilton
11/11/2001
Insights Training Email List

He must have known I was an hour's drive away.  He showed up at the house yesterday when I wasn't here.  He knew that for every tear he causes my daughter I cause a drop of his blood to be spilled.  I've been watching very closely and haven't seen any tears yet.  She's sad, but not crying (at least when I have seen it).  She's an extremely stoic person.  I should have told him a drop of blood for every frown...

Ry saw it prerelease and so did Kevin.  James and I went to the first showing in the area and got back about an hour ago.  It was very good.  James had a few nits to pick but I shot down most of those.  I had one nit to pick and James shot it down.  As expected with anything that Joss Whedon helps write is going to have some great dialog.  This was no exception.  Jayne, as usual, is so incredibly self centered and delivers his lines with such timing and such a straight face that the audience bursts into laughter.  I think my favorite was when someone (trying to avoid spoiling it for someone) says:

Someone: "Do you really think any of us are going to get out of this alive?"
Jayne (looks around, pauses): "I might."

My favorite lines of the movie were the following (as best I can remember):

Someone 1: "If I had known this was going to happen I would have done things differently.  Back on the ship I would have been with you."
Someone 2: "Are you saying... sex?"
Someone 1: "That's what I'm saying."
Someone 2: "To hell with dying.  I'm going to live."

In another sequence:

Someone 1: "Landing could be interesting."
Someone 2: "Define interesting."
Someone 1: "Oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die?"

This is a "Space Western".  It's a good one.  Lots of guns and blades and a good message.  And as Kevin said in his review:

Go see Serenity. You won't be disappointed if you like this blog.

Ry posted a link to a picture with three deer in it.  I could only find one.  Here is a picture Barb and I took last month while in Montana.  There are two deer in this picture.  One is obvious the other not so obvious.  We only saw it because it moved.

Click on the picture for a high resolution version.  Hint on the second deer: It's a buck and it's laying down.

Yesterday I stumbled across a well worn path where no humans would have a reason to be frequently walking.  It must be a game trail I thought.  Without expecting to find any animals there during the middle of the day I walked along the path for probably only 50 feet before two white-tailed deer burst out from under a tree 30 or 40 feet away, ran down the hill, across the draw, and out of sight over the next hill.  The trail had led me directly to where they were bedded down.  It was right next to a wheat field.  They probably were grain fed, foliage or actually grain, all summer.

On the way home, about five miles from that same location, I saw two more deer.  I suspect I could have harvested one of them with my van had I been willing to trade the van for a few dozen pounds of meat (not a good trade).

Hunting season opens in 10 days.  Prospects look good at this point.

I went to the Boomershoot site yesterday.  I spent the morning rearranging the Taj Mahal and managed to get all but about 100 pounds of the ammonium nitrate inside.  On the drive home I realized I could get the remaining AN inside as well.  I'll do that the next time I go back.  I also cleaned up some spots that had rusted due to chemical spills and made changes such that spills will be much less likely to get on the metal in the future.

In the afternoon I started doing my experiments with reactive targets.  I did six different experiments.  I was able to determine a 1 3/8" thick target is no less sensitive than a 3" thick target.  In each and every test the 1 3/8" thick target detonated with the same cartridge and at the same range (and in one case at a more distance range) than the 3" thick target.  That is great news.  This allows me to use larger shooting area targets without exceeding the neighbors tolerance for the house walls being shaken. 

In experiments one and two I couldn't reliably detonate the targets even at 10 yards distant with .22LR Stinger ammo.  With over ten hits at 10 yards I only got one detonation.  Examination revealed burn without the boom.  Black soot was around the entrance and sometimes the exit hole in the target.  The .223 detonated the targets on the first shot.  In experiment one I used the same chemical ratios as used for Boomershoot 2005 where we could usually detonate the targets with the same .22 rifle and ammo at 20 yards.  At 20 yards the bullet velocity is about 1500 fps and at 10 yards it is about 1550.  Something was different--I had introduced another variable and I knew what it was.  It was how I mixed the chemicals.  I made a change and in experiment three was able to detonate the targets on the first shot from 25 yards.  At 25 yards the velocity is about 1475 fps.

If a little of that is good, then how about a lot of that?  Experiment four--I moved the variable to it's limit.  At 25 yards the targets detonated on the first shot.  Experiment five used the same mixing proceedure but I shot from 40 yards away with an estimated bullet velocity of 1400 fps.  One shot one boom.  Experiment six, same mixing proceedure and I switched to a different ammo.  American Eagle with a muzzle velocity of about 1200 fps.  Four hits at 20 yards with an estimated velocity at the target of 1150 resulted in burn but no boom.  At 12 yards I got one shot one boom and my thin plastic apron was perforated by small particles. I heard and felt particles bounce off my safety glasses.  My legs, being without the body armor, stung from multiple hits and still have red marks 12 hours later.  The pain didn't matter.  The targets reliable detonated with an estimated target velocity of 1170 fps.

I made up another five targets and put them in storage for long range testing with the .223.  If .223 bullets will detonate the targets at the same velocity as the .22LR bullets and storing the targets for a few days doesn't adversely affect the sensitivity then we may be able to detonate targets with a .223 at 700 yards.

Americans may like guns because they were reminiscent of the smell of outdoors, military heroism, the intensity of the hunt or merely because they are fascinated by the finely machined metal parts. Maybe the origin of a gun speaks of history; maybe the gun makes a man's home seem to him less vulnerable; maybe these feelings are more justified in the country than in the city; but, above all, many of us believe that these feelings are a man's own business and need not be judged by the Department of the Treasury or the Department of Justice.

Samuel Cummings

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human.  At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.

Lazarus Long
A character in "Time Enough for Love" by Robert Heinlein
[Applicable to those anti-freedom, gun hating people that say "I don't believe numbers" or "I never trust statistics".  -- Joe]

According to the UK Times Online:

Iraqis have reacted furiously to the three-year jail sentence imposed on Lynndie England, the US soldier pictured holding a naked Iraqi inmate on a leash at Abu Ghraib prison, provoking outrage across the world.

England, 22, was convicted on six counts of abuse while working as a prison guard, but was acquitted of a charge of conspiracy.

Last night she was jailed and dishonourably discharged from the US Army, but ordinary Iraqis said that it was not enough. They said the sentence exposed American hypocrisy, as it would have been more harsh had she been convicted of abusing Americans.

...

Iraqis were particularly incensed by the picture of England holding an inmate on a leash like a dog, a degrading act because Muslims regard dogs as unclean. In Iraq's male-dominated society the idea of men being abused by a woman was said to be particularly humiliating.

 

Where are all the "furious" Iraqis over all the beheadings, bombings, and the executions of politicians and teachers in Iraq?  Do they not exist?  Or do they just not exist in the reality of the UK Times?

England stepped over the line in terms of handling of prisoners and is going to jail.  But as crimes go there one has to keep in mind there are a lot of people that will pay to be treated like that.  Not so with the treatment our enemies are dishing out to innocent people all over the world.  I don't approve of what England did but once she has paid her debt to society (three years seems more than adequate to me) I'm hoping she can become a productive member of society.  Perhaps she can utilize her fame and experience in the alternate entertainment industry.

On Monday I bought my hunting license and a tag for a white-tailed deer.  This will be the first time I go hunting.  I never really had an interest and in some ways I still don't.  I harvested a deer a couple years ago--while driving Barb's Jeep.  The meat was very lean and quite good.  There was no gamy taste as the deer was grain feed off of the local crops.  But Barb, for some reason, can't stand the smell of even the meat cooking in the house when she is there.  Kim and James (my two oldest kids) liked it though.  Xenia, being a vegetarian, has no interest.

A good part of the reason I got the license and tag is because they are so plentiful on the farm they are pests.  They destroy the crops.  Helping my brother to thin the herd a little bit will help him out.  It looks like I will have more time this year so I can hunt during week days and not just weekends.  If I get something I'll be giving a good portion of the meat to my two oldest kids.  Hunting season opens October 10th.

I heard it on the radio yesterday while reloading ammo.  It's on the web now:

Idaho 55 at the Rainbow Bridge was closed for about six hours Tuesday after a suspicious object was found underneath the bridge.

An ITD spokesman said investigators were conducting a routine bridge safety inspection around 9:30 a.m. today when they saw an object they could not identify. It was a green bucket with wires poking out.

Idaho State Police and the Boise Bomb Squad were called in to investigate and 17 miles of highway was closed. Investigators determined the bucket was filled with trinkets, photos and toys placed there as part of an online scavenger hunt called geocache. Players use a global positioning system to find the treasure.

Police say the man who stashed the object under the bridge has come forward and charges might be filed against him.

As it was said in a geocaching forum:

Consider. If all it takes to shut down the country is to toss ducted tape tupperware full of rocks with an old radio in it out the side of your window while you are driving down the interstate, then it won't be long before terrorists start causing disruption in a mass scale by doing exactly that. 

There are an almost infinite number of things we can't and shouldn't defend against.  Money is better spend attacking the root of the problem--extremist Muslims.  We must destroy their culture.

Occasionally I'm surprised at how far the anti-freedom people will take things.  The banning of certain types of clothes took me by surprise.  That Gun Guys (anti-gun website) would suggest there is no such thing as justifiable homicide almost surprises me, but not quite.  In order maintain internal consistency they have to conclude that one life is just as valuable as any other life.  And so we end up with drivel like this:

What exactly is a “justifiable” homicide? Is it OK to kill people sometimes and not others.

And from their newsletter which doesn't appear to be their website there is this:

For whatever reason, killing another human being, an act made simple and easy by firearms, is an act not lightly taken, and not without consequences.  Though a killing may be considered "legal" by any number of laws, that doesn't necessarily make it right, and doesn't mean that we should broaden laws without regard for those consequences.

Anyone that has taken any firearms self-defense class will have been exposed to the downside of using deadly force to defend innocent life.  The taking of a life is serious stuff.  But sometimes it's the best of the available options.  And when the legal use of deadly force is employed the person on the receiving end of that deadly force made the choices that triggered the use of the deadly force.  It is they that bear the ultimate responsibility for their own injury or death.  For the "Gun Guys" to even hint that there is not a time and a place for the use of deadly force in the defense of innocent life shows how completely disconnected from reality they really are.  The last sentence of their email only seals that forgone conclusion.  I'm not surprised:

Legal or not, like anything else involved with firearms, "justifiable homicides" lead to more violence and pain.

If I were mad enough at someone to kill them I wouldn't use a gun.  They might wink out on me before I wanted them to.  I would want them to know who it was and I would want them to feel the pain.

Eric Engstrom
[Probably said sometime in '96 or '97.  I responded by saying "I wouldn't use a gun either.  I'd use a propane torch and a wire brush." -- Joe]

Last week I ordered some new boxes for possible use as reactive target containers for Boomershoot 2006.  They arrived today.  This year there were some indications the targets were failing to detonate because of they were very thin (some of them were only one inch thick).  The new ones have inside dimensions of 6" x 6" x 3".  I'll be doing some tests soon.  Perhaps this week sometime.  Or if I get an email from someone that wants to help out I might do the tests on an upcoming weekend if that would work out better for someone.

I spent part of the weekend cleaning out enough of the garage to make a path to my reloading bench and finding enough of my stuff to reload some 40 S&W ammo.  I reloaded about 50 rounds yesterday and 400 today.  There is an IPSC match next Sunday and I needed some ammo.

I'm expecting I will have some bad news to report soon.  I can't really talk about it until it shows up in the papers.  I've been depressed enough lately and this only makes things worse.  I really should go make some explosives and detonate it at both "entertainingly close" and long range just to get me out of my depression.

Those who have command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people.

Aristotle
Quoted by John Trenchard and Walter Moyle
"An Argument showing That a Standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy."