The View From North Central Idaho

Ry created a Wikipedia entry for Boomershoot and I touched it up a bit.  If have additional information you think should be included or have corrections go ahead and add it or send it to me.  If you do change it please send me an email so I can check it out.

I added the Lewiston Morning Tribune article on the 2005 precision rifle clinic and the KING 5 Evening Magazine video to the News Coverage page on Boomershoot.org.

Test results from yesterday will be posted soon.

We need to reduce government to just the functions authorized in the Constitution. Then, if you believe that makes the federal government too big or too little, you can work to amend the Constitution to make it more to your liking. But the first step is to establish limits, so that we no longer have unlimited government that the politicians can use for anything they want.

Harry Browne
March 1998
Libertarian Candidate for President in 1996

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]