The culvert I put in a few years ago needed some fill on both sides to make it more level rather than just a mound over the culvert with increasingly deep holes on either side.

But if we finish the new production facility this culvert won’t get nearly as much use as it has in the past so it might not really matter.

A couple weeks ago Barron and Janelle got their pickup stuck when they showed up to help at a private party:

All the traffic during Boomershoot left some big ruts but the stuck pickup made them even worse:

So I smoothed those out a little bit:

The first Boomershoot explosives storage magazine hasn’t been used in many years and even though I should have taken it out a long time ago I had some sort of attachment to it. When the ATF visited last month the inspector seemed to be taking more interest in it that I was really comfortable with. It hadn’t been “up to snuff” for quite some time but I didn’t think it mattered since I wasn’t using it anyway. But she was making notes even though I told her I would take it out this summer sometime. Rather than risk some sort of requirement that I repair it I decided to take it out today while I had the cat there to break up the concrete blocks.

Before:

After:

Later this summer after the hay has been taken off the field I’ll salvage what I can from the remnants and haul off the rest of the pieces.

As I mentioned yesterday I did some work on a site for a new reactive target production facility for Boomershoot.

Progress continues and I declared it “good enough for now” this afternoon:

This looking to the north and a little bit east at about 5^o.

This is looking to the northwest at about 315^o.

This is looking a little more to the west at about 290^o.

This is from the opposite end of the location looking back at the position the picture above was taken from.

You might notice in the first and last picture that there is section of disturbed earth that extends into the field in the southeast. This is where (I hope) the truck and trailer can enter the site with the shipping container. I expect we will have the dozer there when the shipping container is brought in so that changes can be made in the landscape should they be necessary so the trailer doesn’t get high centered or something. And if nothing else the can get it fairly close and then I can push or drag it into the final position with the cat.

Final leveling will probably be done with a hydraulic jack, gravel, railroad ties, and boards.

I started work on a new Boomershoot building site today:

This will be for manufacturing of the targets. In years past we have built the targets on the tailgate of my pickup, folding tables in the middle of an open field, and under a folding canopy.

We have sometimes made a few targets in the Taj Mahal but it just isn’t big enough for large scale production. This year we made a firm decision to move the manufacturing location to a location further from the storage location and improve the working conditions. We plan to put in a shipping container with lights, tables, and ventilation.

Daughter Kim “had” to be back in Moscow by 2:00 PM for the Zombie Carnival (I was sort of interested in going until Kim said head shots from 300 yards away would be frowned upon) so I didn’t get the dozer work completed. We will go back out tomorrow to finish up.

I’m doing some maintenance at the Boomershoot site. Lots of little things:

• The oil in the generator needs to be changed (it’s warming up and charging the battery right now all charged!)
• The O/S in my Wi-Fi access points needs to be updated (one done the other in progress)
• The yellow jacket trap needed the bait replaced (done)
• There is still garbage which needs to be hauled away
• The bowling pin rack was hauled back to the shed (cousin Alan brought it down off of his hill—whoops! I was going to do that two weeks ago and didn’t make it out here)

Need to do some chronograph work and practice for the steel challenge match tomorrow while I’m out here too. And that reminds me that I need to pay a special someone for all the steel targets they brought to me at Boomershoot.

Notice the clouds of water vapor from the explosions in this time lapse video of Boomershoot 2011. The winds–they are a changing.

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.