Peter Biddle (Twitter feed is here) shares another video of Boomershoot 2011. This one is of the opening fireball.

I think it is Barron whom you hear say, “Ry, you are a magnificent god!”

I suppose there is a first time for everything. I hope this is the last time this happens. I took no pleasure in doing this. But after hearing the reports and then getting the emails it was very clear what had to be done. The situation was very bad. Every year I think I will do some training with my range officers and make sure they know they have the authority to kick someone out on the spot and I will back them up. Had they been kicked out on the second offense I might not have had to permanently ban them. As it is I didn’t see that I had a choice. I had numerous people report the same incidents and all strongly recommend the ban.

I sent the following email today and will be making modifications to the online entry software to help enforce this:

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Subject: We have a problem.

After Boomershoot this year I had two of my range officers tell me of some persistent and severe rule violations by one of our participants. I then received email from several participants describing the events reported by my range officers and naming you as the offender.

I cannot in good conscious allow you to participate at Boomershoot again. If an injury were to occur as a result of your actions I would be bear some of the responsibility since it was known to me that you repeatedly violated the safety rules even after being told many times.

I am sorry to do this but while you are welcome as a spectator you are permanently banned from participating in Boomershoot.

There is no appeal.

Joe Huffman
Boomershoot Event Director

In addition to the boomers people shoot we do a few special things as well. The opening fireball (when it worked) and anvil launch have been regular features for years. For a couple of years we had a bowling ball mortar. This year we had three bowling ball mortars.

Here is a video of the special features:

I didn’t realize the fireball set off a car alarm until I viewed this video.

Every year we have a raffle at the Boomershoot dinner. The raffle items are donated by various companies and individuals. This year NightForce donated a rifle scope which was the highlight of the raffle. There were also items such as a shooting bench, AR-15 magazines, shooting glasses, and many, many other items.

The proceeds of the raffle went to Soldier’s Angels. Here is the report from my bank on the donation:

For those of you who listened closely at the dinner this is more than the amount actually raised and given to me. A Boomershooter quietly slipped me another $230 to give to Soldier’s Angels and Gene Econ added another $100.

I haven’t posted much recently. Boomershoot is pretty much all consuming for me. Last night was the first opportunity to get a full nights sleep since last Wednesday. I slept almost 12 hours. I feel much better now.

There will be more regular blog posts in the near future.

Ry topped his last whooper of a fireball which was in 2007. This was the most awesome one yet. There was 7.5 gallons of gasoline, 12 pounds of Boomerite, 16 road flares, many feet of PVC pipe and one bullet involved. Click on the pictures below to get higher resolution versions.

Lyle@UltiMak and Ry ignited the flares. Then Lyle shot the explosives.

Ry speculated the PVC pipe would survive to be used again next year.

 
 
 
 

Ry took a bow to all the cheers and applause.

Ry was wrong about the PVC pipe.

Update: Ry has comments and this video:

Update2: Nice picture and automated .GIF here (along with a general Boomershoot 2011 report from some of my staff that put in the most hours). And more video:

After going to sleep about 11:30 last night I woke up about 4:00 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. Last night I told son-in-law Caleb that we should leave by 7:00 AM so I have a little time to blog before loading the last of my stuff in my 4×4 and heading out to the Boomershoot site. I will probably continue to lack sleep until Sunday night when I will also have very sore muscles and have lost eight to ten pounds (I checked in a 202.8 pounds last night before going to bed). And friends and co-workers keep telling me, “Have fun at Boomershoot!” It’s not “fun” for me. “Rewarding” is a better word.

Four of my staff from out of state have checked in and will be ready to start preparing the site for the shooters shortly after I arrive. Others will arrive at various times throughout the day. My biggest task is delegating and communicating what I want done. It helps that I have staff that have done this for several years and don’t need much direction. But still, just keeping the tasks queued up is sometimes challenging because I want to do something just a little bit different than previously and I need to explain it or they need materials I haven’t got delivered to the proper location yet.

The site got more rain last night than I expected but the forecast is looking pretty good. It will be wet and messy out there for a few hours and perhaps all day today. The winds will be up to 15 MPH today too. That will help dry out the ground but it will be cold with the temperature never getting about 43F.

Joe (calling the local auto repair shop): Hello, my name is Joe Huffman, I have a 2004 Chevy Aveo that…
Repair guy interrupts: Hi Joe! How was Boomershoot this year?
[discussion of Boomershoot]
Repair guy: Someone was pushing Boomershoot at the last Tea Party meeting we had in town.

I think I might have met him four or five years ago. Daughter Kim takes the car in more frequently than I do and gets similar questions about Boomershoot.

It’s a small town.

I’ve decided rubber bands are the magic ingredient that made it possible for successful Boomershoot events. Each year we use many hundreds of them. This year I thought our usage would decrease and perhaps nearly disappear by 2012. But this morning I realized they might come to the rescue yet again in the way we attach targets to the “clothes lines” (“Boomer Line”?).

Here is a “clothes line” (from Saturday):

And here is close up of a target:

We are attaching the target with a plastic bag tied around the parachute cord which is suspended between steel fence posts. This knot is hard to tie quickly and puts the target closer to the paracord than I’m comfortable with. It worked last year but it still worries me that a shooter will clip the line or the explosion will damage the line.

I think we can use rubber bands to fasten the plastic bag to the line. The key is finding the correct knot and implementing it correctly such that the target maintains it’s orientation correctly. I think I have figured out the knot. I’ll test my hypothesis with the knots on Thursday.

This means I have to buy more rubber bands now. [shrug] Rubber bands are cheap.

I just wish they sold rubber bands by quantity rather than by the pound. It makes purchasing the correct number more difficult.

When it is dry enough to farm Boomershoot is dry enough to be pleasant. This year things are still wet.

My brother sent me an email late last week. He hasn’t started farming yet this spring because it has been too cold and wet. He came back to the farm 25 years ago and kept records of various dates such as when he planted, fertilized, and harvested various crops. In those 25 years the latest he has ever started the spring work was April 21^st. Hence every day he can’t get into the field it is setting a new record for him.

I was on site last weekend on both Saturday and Sunday. It was dry enough to get around okay in my 4×4 but the ground was very soft in places and I cut into the mud when driving to/from the Taj. There is also a small draw between the “Main” and “Lowlands” shooting positions. The range officers (and others) cross this area many, many times during the event. It had standing water in it and was very soft. If it is still wet on Sunday I will bring some concrete “stepping stones” to help keep people’s feet dry.

Both Saturday and Sunday it was warm and sunny and I’m sure it dried up a lot of the water but even at the end of the day on Sunday it was still wet enough that driving across the field multiple times to do build and place targets will create deep ruts. Yesterday was cloudy and it rained some in Moscow (my home) but the weather radar indicated the Boomershoot site missed most of the rain. The forecast for today is still on the cool side with a high of 47F but the sun is shining bright and the wind is blowing. That will help some.

The forecasts for the rest of the week indicate very little precipitation except for early Thursday morning (2:00 –> 5:00 AM). And possibly on Friday (with a chance of snow as well). Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be partly sunny and partly cloudy with highs of 53F and 59F. I expect this will result in a minor but net move toward dryness from what I saw last weekend.

I predict Boomershoot 2011 will be mostly comfortable but people are going get mud on their shoes and I wouldn’t be too surprised to see some vehicles get stuck in the mud.

These two guys in black coats walked into Bartell’s Drug store tonight. They went to the aisle with the hair straightener equipment and carefully studied all the options. Finally the bald guy went to checkout with one that had a temperature setting that went all the way to 25 (presumably because 11 wasn’t enough). He just knew the clerk was going to ask what he was going to do with a flat iron.

“Pubic hair” was going to be answer because sealing plastic boxes filled with explosives just wouldn’t have worked out very well.

But no one asked.

Ry hints at what happened in the next hour or so.

Update: I have been informed that “hair straightener” is the term used for the chemicals that straighten hair and the heating tool is called a “flat iron”. It’s fixed now. Sorry, but what do you expect from a guy that almost doesn’t have any hair on his head?

Barron has pictures of what “entertainingly close” really means. Near the end of the video here is what I think is the same explosion.

Don’t do this at home kids. I don’t even do this.

I just finished up the target distribution plan for Boomershoot 2011. I didn’t get to it this weekend and it is after 4:00 AM as I finish this up.

Tree line (375 yards):

Hillside (550 to 700 yards):

This is more at the tree line than last year (~550) and fewer on the hillside (~500 last year) with the total number being greater this year.

The High Intensity Events on Friday and Saturday will both have 210 targets (for 27 and 26 people) with 105 pounds of explosives.

I’m reserving 210 targets (about 125 pounds) for the Precision Rifle Clinic.

Time for some sleep.

The nightmares about Boomershoot are much rarer than they used to be but I had one this morning.

It was raining hard. Really hard. The visibility was only a couple hundred yards and the wind was strong and cold. But the worst was the sticky mud. My size 14 shoes must have had 20 pounds stuck to each of them. Vehicles couldn’t get out to the Taj Mahal and I was the only one to walk in to make the ton of explosives and many hundreds of targets.

Recently I’ve been very busy with work and Boomershoot 2011 prep. Here is a partial list of the Boomershoot stuff I have done in the last week:

• Updated the number of guests and paid the deposit for the Boomershoot dinner on Saturday night (sign up here if you wish to attend)
• Confirmed we will have food available for the Sunday lunch from CD’s Smoke Pit and emailed the menu to Boomershoot participants
• Asked for confirmation of bloggers planning to attend “Media Day” (essentially zero this year so I’m going to cancel it)
• Handled several cancelations and sent out one refund (the others wanted to be automatically signed up for next year). There are five positions available now.
• Paid for 2011 Internet access at the Boomershoot site
• Configured the new Wi-Fi access point for the shooting line. Previous coverage was acceptable for laptops but many cell phones couldn’t get a connection so I’m adding another access point.
• Requested the sizes for Boomershoot staff t-shirts
• Purchased Yellow “Caution” Barricade Tape, 1000-Feet by 3-Inch
• Ordered Red “Danger” Barricade Tape, 1000-Feet by 3-Inch
• Ordered 1000 9” x 14” 1.5 mil Clear LDPE bags
• Ordered 1000 13” x 16” 1.5 mil Clear LDPE bags
• Ordered 1000 Fluorescent Green Circle Labels 3″ Diameter
• Ordered 1000 Fluorescent Red Circle Labels 3″ Diameter
• Ordered 1000 Fluorescent Pink Circle Labels 3″ Diameter
• Ordered 1000 Blue Circle Labels 3″ Diameter
• Ordered 100 48 oz. Rectangle Containers- Corn Compostable
• Ordered 600 32 oz. Rectangle Containers- Corn Compostable
• Ordered 900 8 oz. Rectangle Containers- Corn Compostable
• Ordered 1000′ Foot Black Parachute Cord Paracord Type III Military Specification 550
• Ordered 100 Dynarex Black Nitrile Exam Gloves, Heavy-Duty, Powder Free, (in sizes Small, Medium and Large)

This weekend I’m going to add some code to my Boomershoot management software to send email to people that have signed up for spectator announcements, order more staff t-shirts, compute the number of targets to be made, allocate targets to various target areas, and print the badges.

It seems like there was some other stuff too, but that is most of it. Ten days from now it gets really busy as many of those items and others are prepared for being reduced to their molecular components in rapidly expanding clouds of water vapor and CO2 amid yells of joy.

If you made it through all that boring stuff above here is a reward; Barron has been posting Boomershoot pictures every day on his blog:

• 21 Days of Boomershoot–Day 1 (2011)
• 21 Days of Boomershoot–Day 2 (2011)
• 21 Days of Boomershoot–Day 3 (2011)
• 21 Days of Boomershoot–Day 4 (2011)
• 21 Days of Boomershoot–Day 5 (2011)
• 21 Days of Boomershoot–Day 6 (2011)
• 21 Days of Boomershoot–Day 7 (2011)
• 21 Days of Boomershoot–Day 8 (2011)

Yeah. I meant to do that.

Not!