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.

Lying to win

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Deception and twisting the facts are all they have left so they continue to use what they have:

The legal argument being used to try to force EPA to ban lead ammunition and fishing tackle is based on a nonsensical interpretation of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which includes a specific exclusion for ammunition.  TSCA, section 3(2)(B)(v)) precludes the EPA from regulating ammunition.  But, CBD wants a court to hold that the TSCA ammunition exclusion does not apply to bullets and shot, because neither bullets nor shot are actually “ammunition” (i.e., a shell, primer, and projectile, etc., in one cartridge or unit). CBD’s argument is founded on an inapplicable interpretation of a tax ruling issued by the IRS in 1954 that distinguished the sale of “separate parts of ammunition” and complete ammunition for taxation purposes only.

It was this sort of behavior from Handgun Control, now the Brady Campaign, that first convinced me the gun grabbers needed to be opposed and I started down the path to being a gun owner rights activist. Ruby Ridge, Waco, and, as I have explained before, Diane Feinstein helped bring the world Boomershoot.

It odd how the unintended consequences of a few relatively small lies can change the world isn’t it? Some people become activists because of a malicious act by someone with mental problems (the Brady’s for example) and others become activists against them because they lied. Others report similar stories.

I’ve heard people say, “Karma is a bitch” and this could be an example of that. Each year about 125 people acquire equipment and skills then attend Boomershoot to exercise those skills to hit pie-plate sized targets at 700 yards. This is more people than the Brady Campaign can get to attend their annual meeting.

Sebastian also has thoughts on what activates activists.

Boomershoot 2011 is (almost) full

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This morning the last “normal” shooting position for Boomershoot 2011 filled up. There is still one position available in the .50 Caliber Ghetto. People can and do shoot smaller caliber guns from this position it’s just that they don’t have access to the closer targets.

The .50 caliber positions are always the last to fill and frequently there will be one or more of these still available on Boomershoot day.

If you are interested in participating in Boomershoot 2011 but want some other position you should seriously taking a .50 caliber slot and let me know you really want a different position. I expect there will be more cancelations in the next month or so and people already signed up get first chance to take the open slot. If you don’t get the position you want you can still cancel and get a refund if you request it before April 1.

I’m the special

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According to B B & Guns I’m the special (guest) tomorrow night.

The topics are security theater and “things that go boom”.

8:00 PM Eastern 5:00 PM Pacific.

Update: Breda has more to say about it. She has a nice way of saying I’m a little bit strange. Jay has thoughts on it as well.

Update2: Alan says I’m subversive and you should listen to me.

Update3: I had a great time. I was a little animated some of the time but that was probably a good thing.

I corrected the claim that I invented the term “Security Theater” in the chat window and intended to do so “on the air” but forgot to. To the best of my knowledge that honor belongs to Bruce Schneier.

There were some links I shared in chat window that probably add a little something if you listen to it as a podcast rather than live. Those were:

A simple physics problem

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Given: Ry uses his AR-15 to shoot 1200 grams of Boomerite contained in a coffee creamer container. On top of the coffee creamer container is a 60 pound steel contraption for crushing charcoal briquettes and launching the dust into the air. Joe takes a video using his Windows Phone 7 phone and puts it up on YouTube*. In the video you can see the explosion occurred at 11.18 seconds into the video. The charcoal dispenser hits the ground at 14.48 seconds into the video. Afterward Ry measures the horizontal distance the charcoal dispenser traveled. It is 13 yards. Assume the acceleration of gravity on this planet at this location is 32.174 ft/sec2.


Problem: Ignoring air resistance and assuming the initial acceleration was for all practical purposes instantaneous answer the following questions:



  1. How high into the air did the charcoal dispenser go?
  2. At the instant after the detonation what were the horizontal and vertical velocity vectors of the charcoal dispenser?
  3. At the instant after the detonation what was the total velocity vector of the charcoal dispenser?
  4. What was the USPSA power factor of the charcoal dispenser at launch?
  5. If used at an USPSA match does the charcoal dispenser “make Major” for both pistol and rifle competition?

Be sure to use consistent units during the calculations and give the results in English units.


Solution:



  1. The total time in the air is 3.3 seconds. One half of the time is spent going up and the other half is spent going down. The equation of motion for an object dropped in a gravitational field is:

    d = 1/2 a t2

    Where d is the distance traveled in feet, a is the acceleration of the gravitational field, and t is the time in seconds.

    The maximum height can be expressed as:

    d = (32.174/2 ft/sec2) (3.3 sec/2)2
    d = (16.087 ft/sec2)(1.65 sec)2
    d = (16.087 ft/sec2)(2.7225 sec2)
    d = 43.8 ft
  2. The equation of motion for an object traveling at a constant speed is:

    d = v t

    Where d is the distance traveled, v is the velocity, and t is the time.

    This can be used to give us the initial horizontal velocity component.

    Since the total time in the air was 3.3 seconds and the horizontal distance traveled was 13 yards the velocity can be solved for in the following equation:

    13 yards = (v)(3.3 sec)
    v = (13 yards)/(3.3 sec)
    v = 3.94 yards/sec

    or expressed in the more common feet per second:

    v = (3 ft/yard)(3.94 yards/sec)
    v = 11.8 ft/sec

    The vertical component at launch is the same as the final vertical velocity at the moment of impact. The equation of velocity with respect to time is:

    v = a t

    Where v is the final velocity, a is acceleration, and t is the time.

    Hence the initial vertical velocity is:

    v = (32.174 ft/sec2)(3.3/2 sec)
    v = (32.174 ft/sec2)(1.65 sec)
    v = 53.1 ft/sec
  3. The total velocity is the square root of the sum of the squares of the horizontal and vertical velocities. Hence the total velocity at the instant after detonation was:

    v = SQRT((11.8 ft/sec)2 + (53.1 ft/sec)2)
    v = 54.4 ft/sec
  4. IPSC Power Factor is expressed by the following equations

    PF = (m v)/1000

    Where m is the mass of the bullet in grains and v is the velocity of the bullet in ft/sec.

    There are 7000 grains in one pound. Hence the mass of the “bullet” is (7000)(60) or 420,000 grains.

    Hence the IPSC Power Factor is:

    PF = (420,000)(54.4)/1000
    PF = 22,848
  5. The minimum USPSA power factor required to make major with a pistol is 165. For rifle it is 320. Since 22,848 is greater than both 165 and 320 the answer is “Yes”.


* The YouTube video:



Confetti and charcoal dispensing with Boomerite

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Ry, Barron, and I went to the Boomershoot site today to do some more tests.

Apparently I left the glitter at my bunker in the Seattle area but we had the confetti and as we passed through Kendrick we picked up some charcoal briquettes on a whim.

The confetti was totally uninteresting:

Dispensing charcoal briquettes was more interesting:

The briquettes are far cheaper than chalk and no special packaging is required. The use of charcoal briquettes for Boomershoot 2011 is now the official plan of record.

We did manage to destroy the dispenser. In hindsight it was a stupid thing we did. There is a construction flaw in the current dispensers. The hole in the center should have the armor plate welded to the one inch plate all around the hole as instead of simply at the edges. We managed to get enough pressure build up between the two plates that we broke some of the welds. It can be repaired and I will do so the next time I go back to the farm.

Boomershoot family photos

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I finally got access to the pictures Oleg took at Boomershoot 2010 (thanks Barron). Here are some of my family (minus son James who was in the Seattle area that weekend) that I was most interested in getting.

Keep in mind these are just the raw images without any special post processing that brings them up to the quality product standards you normally would expect from Oleg. The tweaks were by me, a non professional, which consisted only of resizing and in the case of the first picture some slight cropping.

As is usual, click on the picture for a higher resolution version.

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This was me just prior to the shooters meeting and fireball demo on Sunday.

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This is wife Barbara and I about halfway through the main event on Sunday.
Notice how tolerant she is of me even though I have been grouchy for days? That is simply amazing someone would put up with that.
It probably helped that she received the special edition Boomershoot jacket she is wearing from Boomershooters Fred and Bruce the night before.

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Daughters Kim and Xenia.

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Daughter Kim, wife Barbara, me, and daughter Xenia.

Quote of the day—smoakingun

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Hundreds of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove… But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.

smoakingun
From his signature line on the Fire Line Forum starting on April 25, 2009.
See also http://www.despair.com/lithographs.html.
[Of course this is a distortion of Forest E. Witcraft’s version.

Sometimes I wonder about the changes I make in the world and the potential with Boomershoot.—Joe]

Photographic proof

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I received a Tweet from thumper242 requesting:

Can we get photographic proof of how ridiculous the temperature is in the Republic of Northern Idaho?

Here are some samples from the Boomershoot site last weekend. Click on them to see a higher resolution version:

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The bush nearest the road at the tree line.

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Looking north from just south of the creek.

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The hillside we shoot into.

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The Taj Mahal.

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The top of the Wi-Fi antenna from a different angle.

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The concrete blocks we use to put the tables on when manufacturing targets.

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The snow in front of the Taj. Somehow my pictures just don’t capture how sharp, sparkly, and beautiful it was.

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I dropped the plastic pitcher we use for scooping the ammonium nitrate onto the concrete floor. It fractured.

Boomershoot confetti

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On Saturday I purchased a half pound each of three different colors of glitter. Then at the suggestion of Breda I ordered a pound of “Metallic Multi Color Mylar Confetti” this morning. The plan is to use the “Chalk Dispensers” as “Glitter/Confetti Dispensers” and see if that overcomes the problem with the powdered chalk turning into lumps.

The cost is $10/pound for the glitter and, after shipping, $15/pound for the confetti compared to about $1/pound for chalk. But a pound of confetti is going to have a much greater volume than either the glitter or the powdered chalk. The cost difference really doesn’t matter to me if we get the desired display instead of a few lumps of chalk falling, essentially unnoticed, from the sky.

Test results to follow within a month or so…

You’re the Boomershoot guy

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[The following story is true. The names and many of the details have been obscured to protect the guilty. The dialog has been altered to make it more readable, concise, and enhance dramatic effect.]

A few months ago I was at a social gathering and a certain couple asked me about Barb who was not in attendance. They had met her before and said they would like to see her again. I told them it was her week to work in Idaho. They expressed interest in seeing her the next time she came over to the Seattle area and I told them I would tell her. Over the following months similar encounters occurred.

When I informed Barb she said, “They aren’t interested in me. It just that you are the Boomershoot guy.” I expressed my skepticism but allowed that hypothesis contained a grain of truth. The husband of the couple had previously attended Boomershoot and expressed his enthusiasm for the event. But I couldn’t really see how that would extend to Barb and me in the manner indicated. But you don’t stay married as long as I have by arguing with your wife over issues that just don’t matter.

As the months went on the husband attended the social events less frequently and the wife continued to attend. She and I sort of hung out together some and it was pretty obvious she was expressing more “interest” in me than others at the events. Not that I minded. I enjoyed her company too. She is smart, funny, about my age, and a pleasure to be around. But I eventually asked, “Why are you so interested in me?” Her answer, “Because you are the Boomershoot guy!”

Oh!

Barbara was right. I sometimes don’t like to admit that and this was one of those times. Oh well. It doesn’t matter. Or does it?

It wasn’t too much later that I was attempting to get registration opened up for Boomershoot 2011 and I attended another social event at which the wife was there. The conversation went something like this:

Wife [in a low voice as she is stroking my shoulder]: My husband thinks I should be able to get one of those Boomershoot positions from you.

Joe: Where is your husband?

Wife [moving very close and looking me square in the eyes]: He’s at home tonight. But he helped me shave for you. Won’t that help get one of those positions?

Joe: You’ll be among the first to know when registration is opened up.

I did let them know all the details as to when registration opened up for Boomershoot and the husband got his position. For the payment I was offered “Cash, on your dresser.” I took payment online via a credit card.

The next time I attended Barbara went with me. The wife was there but didn’t hang around with Barb and I. I wonder why?

Then after the post I made mentioning the above events I received an email from the wife:

You should have told everyone sex did get my husband the position he wanted. Think of all of the propositions you would get from women and men too. Your evenings and weekends would be one, hot, lusty encounter after the other. You’d be so busy you couldn’t get ready for Boomershoot.

A groupie

She has a point. I’ll have to consider that for some other time when I no longer have an interest in being married.

I think there are some lessons to be learned here.

  1. Despite what the anti-gun people would like to think, and make you think, men with access to guns and explosives attract women. I have another post I have been meaning to do for quite some time that will confirm it–nearly beyond all doubt.
  2. If men are offering their wives as payment for Boomershoot then it either must be overpriced or I need to expand the number of (shooting) positions.
  3. I will not have a problem getting Barb to attend each and every Boomershoot.

Quote of the day—Barbara Scott

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Is he gay?

Barbara Scott
December 4, 2010
In response to Robert Fargo saying I was “devilishly handsome”.
[I think the answer is probably no. But there are some guys out there that publically say the have “a man crush” on me. And Barb claims I have groupies of both genders.

Somewhat related is the story of the woman that offered me sex for a position at Boomershoot for her husband. What is interesting is that Barb sort of predicted it before it happened. Spoiler alert,, in part because I haven’t told Barb the story yet—she ended up acquiring the position just like everyone else and paying for the position with a credit card.—Joe]

Boomershoot 2011 status and stats

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As I posted before registration for Boomershoot 2011 was opened up for staff and 2010 participants earlier this week. Just before it was opened up for everyone at 6:00 PM Pacific time the event was 75% full.

Three fourths of 2010 participants plan to come back for the 2011 event. Wow!

At 6:00 PM registration opened to everyone and I expected it would be full within a few minutes. I was wrong. As of 9:45 PM there are still 11 positions available. So if you thought had no chance you were wrong. Please go ahead and sign up.

Here are the current registration stats (they are available, live, here):

  Total Average per position taken Average per total positions
Positions Taken 65 – 0.86
Participants 106 1.63 1.39
Shooters 100 1.54 1.32
Spotters 6 0.09 0.08
Friday High Intensity participants 24 0.37 0.32
Saturday High Intensity participants 26 0.40 0.34
Dinner participants 53 0.82 0.70
Media/Bloggers 12 0.18 0.16
ATF Approved 13 0.20 0.17

There are a total of 76 positions available and 50 positions for each of the high intensity events. So, as you can see, there is still room for more people. There is also the Precision Rifle Clinic which probably still has openings.

One of the things I noticed in previous events was that in the early days there were an average of nearly two people per available position (three is the max allowed). In the last few years it dropped to about 1.5. This year I decided to raise the price for a single person entry. There were two reasons for this. One, I wanted more people to be able to attend. I’m pushing against some hard limits on the number of shooting positions and the only way to get more people in is to pack them tighter. And two, my gross sales dropped with the expenses remaining essentially constant. I felt guilty about raising the price so I dropped the price for the second and third shooters such that if there were two or more shooters the total price would be the same as before. But, so far, it doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference. 1.5 increased to 1.63 is probably just barely significant. Oh, well. It’s not that important.

I also find it interesting how many bloggers are attending. And the number above doesn’t include daughter Xenia and I.

But what really makes me smile is it is hundreds of miles from the nearest major airport with the nearest stop light nearly 40 miles away. Yet, almost for certain, Boomershoot has a bigger turn out that any Brady Campaign event.

What they said

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I’ve been as busy as a cat on a hot tin roof yesterday and today.


Yesterday Ry, Barron, and I went out to the Boomershoot site to do some tests. We got back into town and had lunch about 2:30. Barron came back to my place to wait for his wife, Janelle, to pick him up. They stayed until almost 11:30 as we discussed Boomershoot, all the worlds problems and how to solved them (the answers are “glitter”, “guns”, and “explosives”).


Today I went to an USPSA match and then scrambled with the Boomershoot 2010 participants having minor problems signing up for Boomershoot 2011. Some people take sign up very seriously.


Anyway, I have not had time to report on the test results from yesterday beyond a short Tweet.


Barron did a great job reporting with pictures and video.


Ry also has pictures.


Tomorrow is also very, very busy for me. So rather than report on things I’ll just say, “What they said.”

Shooting Gallery with Boomershoot

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(Outdoor Channel) with Michael Bane will have their Boomershoot show January 4th and 6th at 3:00 AM ET and January 5th, 3:30 PM, 7:00 PM, and 9:00 PM ET. This was with the video they took last April at Boomershoot 2010.

I don’t have cable and if someone would be able to record that and get it to me I would very much appreciate it.

I’ve asked about 100 people to do this already so before you send me a 1 GByte email or put the effort into burning a DVD check with me to make sure it’s not already taken care of.

Last night I told daughter Kim, “You are going to be on national television this week.”

She glared at me.

I continued, “He spend a lot of time talking to you.”

“Did we get a copy to review first?”

“Nope.”

The glare hardened.

I think it will turn out okay. But I’m glad I’m going to be 300 miles away when it shows.

Update: Trailer for the show is here. Or below:

Quote of the day—Albert Einstein

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The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift towards unparalled catastrophe.

Albert Einstein
[I sometimes give a little more than a passing thought to Boomershoot with nukes. But then I think of this quote.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ry Jones

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What’s the BC for a snowflake?

Ry Jones
January 1, 2011
[“BC” stands for Ballistic Coefficient. This is a measure of how much air resistance the a bullet has when it travels through the air.

We were on our way to the Boomershoot site and discussing the various tests we wanted to do. I said that someday I wanted to test explosives as a snow drift removal tool. Ry didn’t think it would work very well because the snow wouldn’t go very far. I wasn’t convinced. Above was his response.

Below was my response:

IMG_5074Web2011

–Joe]

Boomershoot 2011 registration schedule

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Assuming no more flaws appear in the registration software the schedule for registration is as follows:

Registration opens for staff 12/31/2010 7:00:00 AM Pacific Time.
Registration opens for previous year participants 1/2/2011 6:00:00 PM Pacific Time.
Registration opens for everyone 1/4/2011 6:00:00 PM Pacific Time.

Go to http://entry.boomershoot.org/ to sign up.

Update: Boomershoot weekend is April 29th through May 1st. This is a known conflict with the NRA convention. Sorry about that. I had conflicts on my end for other dates.

Quote of the day—Tamara K

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Massive amounts of high explosives, like little girls and butterflies, need no excuse.

Tamara K
June 11, 2010
Mother of all leaks…
[The registration schedule for Boomershoot 2011 will be announced shortly.—Joe]

Chalk Dispenser V3.0 has arrived

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I have version 3.0 of the chalk dispenser system sitting in my living room now.

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The small boxes marked “RED CHALK” conveniently fit into the 3” opening on the top. They sent us some empty boxes to put the Boomerite in. The Boomerite will go in first and be exposed to gun fire through the 1.5” hole in the front.

This version also has 1/4” armor plate on the face. This should withstand the bullet impacts much better.

Ry plans to be back in Idaho on Saturday and we will visit the Boomershoot site to do our tests. The weather forecast on Saturday is for a low of -1 F and a high of 15 F. We had a blizzard last night and today and it put down several inches of snow. This may complicate things some. I’m not sure we will be able to drive all the way out to the Taj Mahal to mix the Boomerite. I may have to walk or snowshoe in, mix it up, and carry it back while Ry preps the target at the shooting berm.

The making of Chalk Dispenser V 3.0

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Our favorite chalk dispenser designers and builders have shipped version 3.0 to our bunker in North Central Idaho. It hasn’t arrived yet but they created a video of its construction:

Assuming the weather cooperates I should be able to test it sometime late this week.