Your pants were dirtier than any of my kids clothes ever were.

Barb L.
May 4, 2015
[Boomershoot is dirty. If it rains then it is muddy. If it is dry then it is dusty. This year it was dusty.

She put my jeans through the washer twice.

She described her shower Saturday evening as “epic” with a river of muddy water flowing down the drain.

Here is her rental car the morning after Boomershoot:

But some people think the joy things like this brings makes it all worthwhile:

Barron (standing in the crater from the fireball crater he created) seemed to think so:

But that is just part of the reason of Why Boomershoot.—Joe]

The first day of Boomershoot 2015 is over.

From the participants viewpoint things are going quite well. The weather is good with moderately warm temperatures, no precipitation, and no to light winds. The Boomers seem to be detonating well if there are solid hits.

From the staff viewpoint things things are pretty good. The biggest hiccup was when the first thing this morning Barb’s rented car locked the doors automatically with the keys inside along with the cash box, wristbands, and the check-in list for the Precision Rifle clinic. This was 15 minutes before people were scheduled to check in. Barb was quite upset and I was almost unable to convince her it was going to be okay. She called the rental agency who had roadside assistance out in a little over an hour and unlocked her car. I set her up with my laptop and the electronic version of the check-in list. No wrist bands and the laptop was a little more awkward than crossing people off the list with a pen, but she got through it just fine.

Another minor issue was the private fireball didn’t work the first or second time. There was a combination of problems. Some of it was improper construction and some shooter problems as well. The third attempt at a fireball was acceptable:

There were some injuries. I twisted my ankle, Barb scraped her back a little bit, and we saw some moderately bad sunburns.

For me it is difficult to see anything but the flaws but I had several people tell me how much fun they were having and how great an event it is, and what I overhear and see on their faces confirm this. This is what makes Boomershoot worthwhile to me.

I arrived on site about 2130 on Sunday night. I unloaded the stuff out of my vehicle into Boomershoot Mecca and reloaded it with my tent, sleeping bags, blankets, pads, pillows, and other stuff. I set up the tent using the headlights to see and I was finally in bed by 2340. The next morning I assembled some shelves and tidied up a bit until it was time to start work. I considered working from “home” at Mecca but reconsidered when my fingers went numb. It was 34F in there so I went to brother Doug’s house and spent the morning working from there.

The afternoon and evening at Mecca was nice. I rearranged a few things for a better work flow (the computers are for work and personal use):

I then made the test targets for the experiment I completed last night.

Yesterday morning while it was still to cold to work I went for a walk and take rubber bands and empty milk jugs to the Taj. I discovered a squatter in the explosives magazine:

It was ejected from the premises and the carpet cleaned up as best I could with a hand broom:

I left some treats in case they or some relatives decided to visit again:

I then proceeded on to the tree line where most of the Boomershoot targets are placed and put up some steel targets:

We will paint them before the event.

Today I discovered one of the scales we use for measuring the chemicals for Boomerite was having problems. Putting in new batteries and banging it around didn’t help any. I probably paid $20 for it something like five years ago and it has had problems before. I set it aside and ordered a $300 scale just like the other scale I have from Amazon for next day delivery.

Today I’ll tidy up the work benches in Mecca more and move the ATV and trailer here. I might also turn some of the clumpy (basically fist sized rocks) Potassium Chlorate into powder too. I have a new shipment coming in on Friday but if I can use the old stuff that would be better. The stuff I used for my experiment this week was made from the old stuff so I know it is chemically active if I just reduce it in size appropriately.

Boomershoot is looking good for this year. Even the weather is looking great. No chance of rain and highs in the upper 60s. There will be some winds to make things a little bit challenging but probably nothing that will be insurmountable. The winds start out low and build to a peak about 4:00 PM every day. Plan accordingly.

Last night I mixed up some Boomerite for more tests. I wanted to answer the question as to why it goes dead after some time has passed. I did some tests in January without getting a conclusive clue. Tonight I performed the experiment I suggested in the previous post. I put some of the targets in a cooler and kept them at ice temperature and I kept other targets warm. The targets in January were kept at about 70F for 26 hours. This time the hot targets spent the night wrapped up in two coats on top of a hot water bottle then put out in the sun for the day. I didn’t measure the actual temperature because I just wanted to see if the temperature made a difference.

Another thing I did was that for some of the targets I used plastic baggies for the Boomerite of instead of the shrink wrap on the outside of the boxes. Unfortunately the targets in cold storage got completely soaked when the ice bag leaked. Only the cold stored targets that used zip lock baggies could be tested.

The total storage time from mixing until testing was about 23 hours.

In the results below the number represent the range in yards using my .22 with Stinger ammo that the given result occurred. The estimated velocities for the various ranges at the altitude and temperature I was experiencing are

• 11 yards => 1455 fps
• 15 yards => 1429 fps
• 20 yards => 1397 fps
• 23 yards => 1378 fps
• 25 yards => 1366 fps
• 30 yards => 1335 fps

It is very clear the cold storage preserves the Boom. There are also some strong hints the baggie storage may preserve the Boom better than the shrink wrap storage.

One conclusion that could be reached is that I need to make the Taj Mahal into a walk-in refrigerator. As brother Doug said, “That’s inconvenient.” Another is that there is a chemical reaction going on that is accelerated by temperature and that perhaps I should change the recipe such that no such reaction takes place.

As always, more tests are needed.