I never used my anemometer more than that day — mostly out of curiosity. We got a real bad ice pellet storm at about 1300 with full value winds from 15 – 35 mph but mostly hovering around 25. Almost a white out. The ice pellet storms let off by 1500 but we were still using four to six minutes right wind for hits at 380.
Eugene Econ
April 29, 2008
Boomershoot, or how I began to learn to REALLY shoot!
[Friday was probably the worst shooting conditions we have ever had for Boomershoot. The wind and rain at Boomershoot 2001 was bad too but not as cold as it was this year. Sunday was some of the best conditions.–Joe]
Wow, Joe, you do get around!
Never figured my little review would spark a quote for the Blog!
Great job on the Shoot. We couldn’t stay for Sunday, but I was impressed with the targets and the consistency of detonation, even in cold conditions!!
Thanks for everything!!!
Bill
Yes. I “get around”. You might be even be surprised at how much I get around. đŸ™‚
Thanks.
I think we have a Boomerite recipe that works well now. Something I will report on later when I get caught up on my sleep enough is the failures to detonate I saw out at 650 yards and beyond. It’s all good news actually. I’ll explain later.
When shooting my Kel-Tec SU-16CA at Boomer Cleanup, I was using 50-grain frangible surplus .223 ammunition. I wasn’t sure it would work but wanted to try it out. It seemed to blow things up quite nicely most of the time, but occasionally I would see it flip a boomer up in the air, spraying powdered explosive. A second or third follow-up shot on the crippled boomer would usually explode it.
David, It’s impossible to know for certain in your case but in the past when we have examined those sort of events where people made the boxes jump around and spilled powder out it was a case of hitting just under or just in front of the box. The fragments can tear the box open without detonating it. The boxes don’t “jump” unless you hit underneath it.
This is part of the reason we put the boxes on stakes for the main event. It reduces the chance bullet fragments will destroy the target without getting a solid hit. During cleanup we just don’t have the time to put up more stakes and attach the targets as well as having concerns about stake fragments making a high velocity visit to the shooters.
Those winds were something else. I had mainly shot in calm conditions, and that I consider a baptism by fire. I have absolutely no problem going out and shooting in adverse weather.
As for clean up, I was shooting 55 grain soft points out of my 223s. I can only speak for me, by my rifle got a detonation very consistently. There was only one box that really bucked around and I think the powder had been dumped prior to me finding it.
Thanks for the shoot Joe, and I’ll be seeing everyone again next year.