Category Archives: Boomershoot

Boomershoot is a long range precision rifle event with high explosives as the targets. This is about Boomershoot in general and sometimes just explosives.

Tab clearing

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I have a bunch of open tabs in my browser and I only have a few minutes before I’m leaving for 10 days to put on Boomershoot. I’ll have some time to make a few blog posts but I want to clear these up before I go.

It’s rare but sometimes they really do say the incredibly stupid things that we accuse them of:

Rep. Jackson Lee: ‘Don’t Condemn the Gangbangers’ – We Need Gun Legislation

Jackson Lee took the House floor on April 9 to argue in favor of increased gun control legislation, “Don’t condemn the gangbangers, they’ve got guns that are trafficked — that are not enforced, that are straw purchased and they come into places even that have strong gun laws.”

“Why? Because we don’t have sensible gun legislation.”

Jackson Lee continued by saying that current gun laws need to be enforced,  “I’m going to agree with my friends on the other side of the isle. Our Republican friends, let’s enforce the gun laws that we have – – who would run away from that. That’s a sensible proposition. Put a resolution on the floor of the House – – let’s enforce gun laws that we have.”

Yes. She said that. Blame the gun not the criminals.

Yes. She said that. Put a resolution on the floor to enforce existing laws.

Her babblings should qualify her for dementia medicine trials.

I could only see four out of the ten weapons being in the category “you won’t believe are legal”. And then only if you don’t understand the 2nd Amendment. They had to be desperate for content:

10 Weapons You Won’t Believe Are Legal

  1. Flame Thrower
  2. Miniguns
  3. Katana
  4. Cannon
  5. Crossbow
  6. Grenade Launchers
  7. Nunchucks
  8. Umbrella Sword
  9. Speargun
  10. Chain Whip

There has to be more to this than what I have had time to dig into.

Judge: lawsuits can proceed against theater owner in Colorado massacre

A federal judge refused on Wednesday to dismiss wrongful death and personal injury claims brought against a movie theater chain on behalf of victims of last summer’s mass shooting at a suburban Denver screening of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises.”

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson ruled that Cinemark
USA, owner of the theater where 12 people were shot
dead, could potentially be found liable for damages under a
Colorado law that holds landowners responsible for activities on their property.

What? The best I could come up with for a plausible grounds for claiming the theater was responsible was if the plaintiffs believed they were disarmed and unable to protect themselves. And I think that is only about 10% chance of being the case.

Yes. Some people blamed the 2nd Amendment for the Boston bombing:

I once had a boss suggest that I was making so much money at time and a half on weekends that I shouldn’t fly back to Idaho to visit my family. I should just hire a hooker to give me blow jobs under the desk while I continued to write code. I laughed and went home for the weekend.

It turns out there might actually be a market for that sort of service:

Silicon Valley’s other entrepreneurs: Sex workers

In a quiet cafe outside San Francisco, “Josephine” — a local prostitute — arranges a collection of t-shirts across the table. They’re emblazoned with phrases like “Winter is Coming” and “Geeks Make Better Lovers.” She wears them in her online ads to catch the eye of the area’s well-off engineers and programmers.

“I’m trying to communicate to them that I understand a little bit what it’s like to be techy, nerdy, geeky,” she says. There’s another thing Josephine and her clients have in common: Like many of the techies she caters to, Josephine views herself as an entrepreneur.

Boomershoot Patch Update

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Got the patches delivered today. I’ll have a box-full at Boomershoot for purchase, pre-orders get priority. All the variations are here.

Prices are:
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Boston explosives

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I’m setting aside the tears that come from looking at the pictures and reading the articles and just channeling “Spock” as best I can on something I know a little bit about.

The first thing I noticed from watching the video and then from the still photo I found at the Los Angles Times is that this looks like a crude homemade bomb.

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Here is a cropped version from the Boston Globe YouTube video:

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This is a full two seconds later from that same video:

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See all that flame? And it looks as if there is still fuel burning in the cloud two seconds after the explosion.

I’m almost certain that no commercial or military explosive produces that much flame. Something like that would be totally banned in the mining industry.

That may mean there was a great excess of fuel in the explosive composition. Boomerite has an excess of oxygen which makes for easier detonation. Maximum power comes from a balance of oxygen and fuel. Some explosives are naturally oxygen or fuel rich. For example TNT is fuel rich. During WW II they would add ammonium nitrate which is (under the proper conditions) an explosive that is oxygen rich. The excess oxygen in the AN increased the power of the detonation by consuming the excess fuel of the TNT.

With that much flame persisting that long after the explosion occurred means huge amounts of power was wasted in light and relatively slowly expanding gases. This was not a military grade explosive. Getting the most bang for the least weight is worth the cost of getting the oxygen balance right.

This means it’s a homemade explosive.

Another possibility is that it wasn’t really a detonation at all but rather a deflagration. For example gun powders typically do not detonate. They “just” burn very rapidly. The flash you see at the muzzle of your gun at night (and sometimes even in bright sunlight) is composed mostly of burning particles of gunpowder. Confine the powder in a strong closed container, such as a pipe, and you get an explosion when the container bursts.

From the sound of the explosion and the speed of the blast product development I’m leaning toward a deflagration.

Mr. Completely sent me an email asking if I could “rule either in or out that readily available reloading powder could have been used”. My answer to that question is that I think it is definitely possible.

Update April 16, 6:20 AM: At least one source says:

…the devices used gunpowder as the explosive and were packed with ball bearings and other shrapnel to maximise injuries.

Update April 16, 1:25 PM: Rick Boatwright has an excellent analysis which points to black powder being the explosive.

Boomershoot 2013 shirts

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I’ve created the Boomershoot 2013 Cafepress store.

The image (via Barron Barnett, see also his post) on the products is:

Cafepress

You don’t have to be a participant to buy from the store. And there is still time to enter the event if you do want to participate.

We used 14 pounds of explosives and 13 gallons of gasoline for the fireball in the image above.

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I got a really good deal on 150 gallons of fuel this year. Ry was a little evasive in his answers but I’m pretty sure he promised not to use it all up this year. You should attend to find out what he has planned. Nomex clothing is optional.

Quote of the day—Mine Safety and Health Administration

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Explosives; magazines.

[Shall be] …

(4) Reasonably bullet resistant.

…

(9) Posted with suitable danger signs so located that a bullet passing through the face of a sign will not strike the magazine.

Mine Safety and Health Administration
Title 30 CFR § 77.1301
[Why do people shoot at signs? I just don’t get it. I know that they do because I have seen a lot of shot-up road signs.

And shooting at an explosives magazine is well beyond shooting at the yellow 35 MPH caution sign for going around the curve ahead. It’s nominating yourself for a Darwin award. You would think that seeing a sign that that even hints at “EXTREME DANGER! EXPLOSIVES!” would be enough to give Cletus a clue to keep the muzzle pointed in some other direction. But no. We have to have a government regulation to put the sign in a location such that it has a proper backstop between it and the nearby magazine.

At times one has to wonder about the viability of the human race or speculate that perhaps we discovered fire 100,000 years too soon.—Joe]

The rest of the story

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Remember last January when I helped out a new author with some gun and explosives stuff for her story?

Here is the rest of the story.

I haven’t had time to read it all but I’m hooked and making good progress.

Boomershoot 2013 conditions

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Things are looking good for Boomershoot 2013. Some years 16 inches of snow on the shooting line two weeks before the event. And we have even had snow on the hillside where the targets are for the actual event.

This year the local farmers were actually in the field for a few days last week before it started raining. Assuming it doesn’t continue like it was this weekend when Barb L. and I did some work at Boomershoot Mecca there should be good ground conditions and lots of green scenery.

Here is what it looked like today:

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The target area is still wet but it will dry out quickly with warm weather.

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The field around Boomershoot Mecca is green and in a few weeks will be very pretty.
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The fog lifting up out of Clearwater Valley looked really neat. The power lines are from Dworshak dam.

Boomershoot daffodils

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Most people attend Boomershoot for the chance to shoot at explosives. Some come for the daffodils.

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These daffodils were planted by my grandmother and her sisters when they lived on the property where the shooting line is. The daffodils survived even though the land was farmed and they have to compete with the grass for moisture and nutrients.

Each year I think, “This year I’ll move them out of the field and onto the front edge of the shooting berm where they will be out of the field. They will do better without fireballs wilting them.” I think this year will be the year it actually happens. Barb L. saw them for the first time yesterday and she instantly agreed it was a great idea and she has experience with flower bulbs. She plans to help me with the project.

I think that within a year or two we can completely cover the front edge of the berm. I think it will be awesome.

Quote of the day–Barb L.

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I think I’m getting repetitive wrist syndrome.

Barb L.
April 6, 2013
After folding hundreds of boxes for Boomershoot 2013
[I had to insist she sit down and watch me putter around arranging things and cleaning up.

We also put up another shelf and tested a new type of target.–Joe]

Boomershoot history article

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The editor at Western Shooting Journal gave me permission to publish the article I wrote for them the history of Boomershoot here are my blog. The .pdf files for the various pages in the March 2013 issue are:

Vampire season

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Barb L. and I just got back from the lumber store after purchasing 1000 stakes:

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I really wanted someone to ask why we were buying so many stakes. The checkout clerk “had that look”. You just knew he was wondering but he didn’t ask.

Barb and I were ready with answers. Her answer was, “We run a tourist business of vampire hunts.”

I planned to make him work a little more and get his brain engaged before delivering the punch line. I envisioned it would go something like this:

Clerk: What are you going to do with all those stakes?

Joe: Hunting season opens next weekend in Idaho and we are going to be there for opening day.

Clerk: Okay. <pause> Uh… what are you hunting?

Joe: Vampires.

More blog posts about stake purchases and vampires are here (2006), here (2007), and here (2008). All are about this time of year and all are related to Boomershoot.

Boomershoot Patch Update

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OK, here are the updated patches. Two versions, and various rockers that you could put above and /or below. I would REALLY like feedback from people what you are interested in, as I’m ordering them on my own dime on spec, and there are significant price breaks at various production numbers. I’d like to not order a metric boat-load, and only have three buyers of two each (being currently unemployed that would REALLY suck), but I ALSO don’t want to send people away empty handed. I don’t need money up front – I’ll have them at Boomershoot, and anyone who can’t make it or send someone to get them there I’ll make arrangements with after I see what’s left over. They will be 100% stitched, and iron-on backing for those that are sewing-impaired. 4″ circle, matching rockers. If I can buy in reasonable quantity, they will likely be $3 a patch or two for $5, and $1.50 a rocker, perhaps even less. Let me know ASAP. Order is going in next week.

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Date for Boomershoot 2014

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I have the dates for Boomershoot 2014 now. I’m pretty sure I told some people that the date was at the end of April and I had the Best Western Conference room reserved for then. But yesterday I discovered it was the same weekend as the NRA convention so I changed it to be May 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

Boomershoot article update

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There is a post up on the Western Shooting Journal blog promoting the Boomershoot article appearing in the March issue. You get to see a couple of the pictures that will be in the article and some reworded portions of the text.

Night walk in the snow

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This past weekend Barb L. and I attended a community dinner for the area where I grew up. It has been over 35 years since I lived there so I didn’t know a lot of the people. But it was nice to see the ones I did know and catch up a little with them.

After leaving we stopped by the Boomershoot site to shoot a few tracers. It was way past dark but with a nearly full moon and the ground was covered with snow. Both the scenery and the tracers were really pretty.

After shooting the tracers we went for a walk on top of the hill where the 700 yard targets are placed. There is a great view from there. I took a bunch of pictures but they just didn’t capture what we experienced. “It’s magical!”, is how Barb described it. I’m not sure magical is quite right. Perhaps surreal.

Here are a few of the better, but still poor, pictures.

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Boomershoot 2013 prep

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Barb L. and I spent most of the day working at Boomershoot Mecca. We (mostly she) folded hundreds of the boxes we use for targets and stacked them on the new shelves:

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We also put in more of the supporting brackets for some of the shelves where they were a little weak. They are awesome now!

While Barb was folding boxes I finished grinding (Kitchen Aid blenders rock!) the last of the Potassium Chlorate that was of the wrong particle size. It isn’t as good as it comes from the factory but it is good enough that we can used it for the high intensity event where the bullet velocities are so much higher.

We tested the targets I made the last time I was on site and were stored for several days with the new packaging method of putting the Boomerite directly in the cardboard boxes then sealing the boxes with heat shrunk plastic on the outside of the box. Six out of seven targets detonated exactly as expected. The seventh made a half-hearted pop that spread the contents all over the snow. That sometimes happens anyway so I don’t think the one sort of dud can be attributed to the packaging technique.

All systems are go for the new packaging method.

Boomershoot history article

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As I mentioned a few days ago I wrote a article for a magazine about the history of Boomershoot.

The editor sent me the final layout of the pages of the article in the magazine (well, at least the first few, some were missing) and it looks nice. There are few typo/grammar errors that both the editor and I missed but it’s good enough.

It will appear in the March issue of Western Shooting Journal starting on page 78.

Exploding targets in the news

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Likely not good news

Claims that Tannerite starts fires. Worth keeping an eye on.

 

Boomershoot Patches

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I’m looking at ordering a bunch of patches for Boomershoot. They will be 4 inches across. I’ve not finalized the order in terms of numbers and text. Here are the current working ideas, and I’m certainly open to suggestion on preferred mods. Let me know how many you might be interested in buying, so that I can get a specific price – the more people want, the less they will be per item. I am not certain the surrounding text is exactly what I want, though I like the bottom text on all of them (with the possible exception of “medieval,” but I couldn’t think of anything better that sounds good with “minion,” which I really like.) If I make the top more generic, they anyone can get any of them; if I make the top text more “rank” oriented (explosive handlers “henchmen”, helpers “crony”, shooters “minion”, supporters “unindicted”) then there are fewer people might want to buy, but it might encourage “working up through the ranks” to earn them.

By the way, they make great presents and commemoratives, and you can buy more than one, even if it’s not a “rank” you have earned yet

Crony

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Boomershoot history

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I just completed writing, by request, an overview of the history of Boomershoot. It probably will appear in a magazine next month. If it is accepted I’ll let you know which magazine.

In the process of doing that I reviewed a lot of pictures and watched the Boomershoot history video I made in early 2005. It’s about 30 minutes long but it brought back a lot of memories and I’m pretty pleased with it.

The magazine article could not include all the pictures, video, and nearly as much detail. So if you are really interested in the history of Boomershoot watch the video as well as read the article when it comes out next month.