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.

I should do something like that

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Via David I found there is a blog with nothing but videos of explosions.

I go out to the Boomershoot site every few weeks and have the opportunity to do something with some explosives. I rarely do. Mostly it is maintenance and improving the infrastructure. But if I spent 30 minutes or so setting off some explosives doing some sort of experiment (I’ve always wanted to know what two pounds of Boomerite does to a small body of water) and videoing it for posting on this blog it probably would be worthwhile.

I was on site Saturday but just did clean up and inventory. I took my rifle and planned to do some explosives testing but I didn’t have time for it. I didn’t even get all the clean up done.

Live blogging from the Boomershoot site

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The nearest houses are at least 500 yards away and I hear just the crackle of the high voltage power line, some birds and a distant combine. I have WiFi and my Windows Phone 7 to blog with. I like it here.


I dropped some stuff off and am straightening some things up. Then I have to drive back to my underground bunker near Seattle. I wish I could stay longer.

Video from the private party

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Barron gives us video and some nice stills from the private Boomershoot party.

Boomershoot private party

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Some people from work followed me back to Idaho on Friday night.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the Breakfast Club in Moscow with Tim, Barron, and Janelle.


Hiep and Priyanka walking into the restaurant. Photo by Sharath.

We drove to the Boomershoot site and I told them the history, told lots of stories and gave them a tour. They found some .50 BMG bullets and seemed quite thrilled. The picture below is from on top of the berm where the 700 yard targets are placed looking back at the hay field to the shooting line.


Janelle, Barron, Tim (just barely visible behind the grass), Hiep, Sharath, and Priyanka.

I gave them a safety briefing on the chemicals (which consists mostly of telling them not to eat, drink, or snort anything) I had the people from Microsoft weigh the chemicals and my staff mix the explosives and package it into targets:


Sharath, Priyanka, Hiep.


Janelle, Tim (barely visible–he doesn’t want his picture taken because cameras will steal your soul), and Barron.

We ate lunch then placed the targets in front of the large berm at the tree line.


Sharath, Priyanka, and Hiep putting stakes in the ground for the targets.

One of the targets had something special on it (see also here).

I gave safety and basic firearm instructions while Tim, Barron, and Janelle placed the targets on the stakes. Sharath had never shot a gun before. Hiep had only shot one once and that was after he had three years of military instruction in Vietnam. Priyanka shot a gun for the first time last September and then in March took her parents (visiting from India) to the range on her own and taught them to shoot.


Targets ready for engagement. Photo by Sharath.

We then got back a few feet and let the visitors shoot the targets. There were many smiles and much exaltation.


Joe and Hiep. Photo by Sharath.

Hiep once told me he didn’t think private citizens should possess firearms. Only the police and the military should have access. I should ask if he still thinks that.

Boomershoot is a tool for teaching people from all over the world the joys of guns and explosives–the joy of freedom.

Quote of the day–Priyanka

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I can eat cake any day. This is the only time I can blow one up.

Priyanka
July 17, 2010
She said this a few minutes before blowing up, instead of blowing out, her birthday cake.
[The white cardboard box contains two pounds of Boomerite.

In the original of second picture (taken by Sharath) you can see bits of the cake high in the air. We were unable to find any of it later.

I expect Barron and Janelle will have video before long. I was playing range safety officer and didn’t take any pictures while the rifles were out of their cases.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Janelle Barnett

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I once received an award for best tonal quality in a belching contest.


Janelle Barnett
July 17, 2010
[Even though this was at the Boomershoot site we weren’t wearing any hearing protection at the time.


I don’t think there is anything more I should say about incident or the conversation.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Priyanka

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Boom!

I think I got it now.

Boom!

Yeah. I got it.

Priyanka
Shooting boomers at a private Boomershoot party.
July 17, 2010
[She was having trouble at first. Lots of misses and almost no booms. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. She did fine with dry fire. The gun stayed steady enough for the range we were at (almost entertainingly close). I think there was a problem with her sight picture even though I went over it several times with her. And it wasn’t like was the first time she had shot a gun either. She did pretty well the first time so I was perplexed why she was having trouble this time. She is a smart woman and she eventually figured it out on her own.

I’ll ask her more about it when I see her at the office on Monday.

Update: Priyanka reports she was concentrating on properly placing the post (front sight) of the AR-15 on the target and was neglecting to center the post in the rear peep sight. I’ll have another QOTD from Priyanka and pictures from the event on Monday.–Joe]

Suicide watch

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This is a little different than most suicide watches. In this one they are in the process and we are just watching it happen.


After it completes we should all go to the wake. I’ll sign up to bring my famous cookies and maybe my chemistry set.

Bomb squad involved in a crapshoot

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Via Ry.


Crapshoot results in stinky day for bomb squad:



A call about a bomb turned into a crapshoot for the Lorain County Bomb Squad.


Officers found a fizzing homemade bomb planted in a portable toilet near a construction site at Turtle Bay and decided the safest way to detonate it was to shoot at it.


After five shots with a .22 caliber rifle, the bomb exploded, spraying the contents of the toilet everywhere. One of the bomb squad members was covered in feces, according to the police report.


As further evidence that laws regulating explosives are marginally effect at best is the type of explosives used:



Officers confiscated a roll of aluminum foil and a stack of 14 military-style meal heaters used to create similar bombs.

Censorship

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While at the NRA Annual Meeting on Saturday I wore this shirt:



It got a lot of compliments while on the exhibit floor but something happened that night while at the blogger dinner. I’ve been told that I might have to burn that shirt. I would have never worn that shirt to work and figured as long as I stayed away for places like that I would be okay. But censors are sometimes where you least expect them. Yes, the heavy hand of censorship is threatening me because of that shirt.


On the night in question there were about 20 or 30 bloggers at this bar having dinner, drinking a few, and trying to talk to each other (it was very loud). Alan Gura had expressed, rather forcefully, that it was too loud and wanted to go someplace else so we could talk easier. I was up moving around and trying to shepherd people in the general direction of the door and to a nearby outdoor plaza with a quiet fountain and seating. From a nearby table filled with college students two young women approached me and said they really liked my shirt and they wanted a picture of one of them with me and the shirt. I obliged them.


I later told Say Uncle about it and he quipped, “I’ll bet you never thought you could use that shirt to pick up chicks, did you?” I laughed and said, “No.” That would have been the end of it had I not opened my big mouth later. Later that evening as I was talking to wife Barbara and she asked how my day had gone I told her of the event and Say Uncle’s joke. In the silence that followed I blissfully babbled on and told her of another funny thing that happened. This probably sealed the fate of that shirt.


As everyone was saying goodnight someone said how wonderful it was to meet and hang out with the celebrities like Michael Bane, Alan Gottlieb, and god of gods Alan Gura. I agreed and added something like, and pointing at Mike W, “But you said I was a celebrity.” Mike protested, “But you are a celebrity. You are the Boomershoot guy!” Dixie was standing just to the right of me and said, “You are the Boomershoot guy?” and stretched her arms out with fingers straight, palms flat, and bowed to me.


Barb hasn’t actually said it in words but I’m pretty good at reading the silence.


I think I’m going to have to burn the shirt.

Boomershoot staff hard at work

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In my post last night I outlined some of the work the staff does for Boomershoot after the main event is over. I said the sound in the video doesn’t do it justice.

In Jason’s video the sound is a much better but it still doesn’t capture the THUMP that you feel throughout your body but it does hint a little better at it and give you some more clues as to what it means for Rolf to be Entertainingly Close:

After hours with the Boomershoot staff

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After the main event is over and most of the participants have left there is still work to be done. There is trash to be picked up, trash cans to be emptied, caution tape and signs to be taken down, stakes to be pulled and put away, and the left over targets have to be burned or detonated. I drive the ATV back and forth from the field to the Taj carrying trailer loads of stuff to be put away. The staff with ATF approval to handle explosives take care of the left over and damaged targets. The ones damaged too much to be moved are detonated in place.

No sound system we have tried can really capture the experience but Barron has the rest of the story and the video from this year. At about 3:00 minutes in Rolf demonstrates his .357 and Entertainingly Close.

That was close

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I went out to the Boomershoot site today. There was some trash on the hillside that needed to be collected. Several of the signs at the nearby intersections needed to be picked up and some tools and other stuff were in our garage in Moscow which I needed to take back to the site.


It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was 69 F:



I picked up the trash and got back in the car to drive to the Taj Mahal. I had walked the entire length of the hillside and the ground was dry and I didn’t expect any trouble driving across the field. I didn’t even bother to walk part way out to check it out. I slowly drove across the field enjoying the fresh air and sunshine with my window down and barely paying attention to where I was going.


I felt the car sink, slow down and heard the engine slow as the front wheels cut deep into soft ground and water barely hidden by the grass splashed. I gave it as much gas as I could without spinning the wheels out of sight in the mud as I desperately tried to pick up some speed to get through the even softer ground directly ahead that I knew I could not avoid. To stop would have been the end of it. I had to get through it to the other side and maybe turn around on the other side. I kept the wheels spinning at about 125% of my actual ground speed and the car slowed and slowed. I rolled up the window to avoid getting mud inside the car as the front wheel drive threw mud and grass into the air.


I thought I was lost as the car slowed and slowed until it was barely moving but it kept moving and it slowly crawled through and out the other side of the soft spot and onto firmer ground on the other side with another soft spot directly ahead. I was afraid to stop even where I was and turned down the hill and tried to turn completely around and hit another soft spot. I threw more mud and grass in the air and got it turned around and hit the first soft spot a littler faster and in a different place than before. The second time through was better than the first because of the additional speed and I made it through without quite the scare of the first time.


I made it back to the parking area by the road and decided I could walk and carry all the stuff to the Taj. It would take longer but not as long as it would if I got stuck and had to get help from someone.


Instead of walking to work tomorrow I’m tempted to drive and park my beat up and muddied Chevy Aveo, grass still clinging to the side mirrors, next to one of the Lamborghini’s or Ferrari’s in the parking garage. For some reason the thought of that amuses me greatly.


Quote of the day–Steven F. Hayward

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According to the annual Freedom House survey of democracy and liberty around the globe, there was almost no increase in freedom during Carter’s presidency. Instead, both Iran and Nicaragua, principal targets of Carter’s human rights policy, became human rights disasters; the Soviets cracked down on human rights activists Anatoly Scharansky and Aleksandr Ginzburg; and Carter’s foreign policy weakness encouraged the Soviets to invade Afghanistan. The aftershocks of Carter’s foreign policy failures reverberated most powerfully in the Islamic fundamentalist terrorism we have today. It was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that created the mujahadeen, who revived the idea of jihad. More important, the fall of the shah in Iran gave Islamic fundamentalist radicalism an enormous state sponsor and inspiration and made being an American ally in the Middle East seem more dangerous than being an American foe. Carter’s idealism failed in confronting communism during his presidency and later in confronting communist North Korea. Carter idealism–if it can be called that–in the Middle East would have us side with the terrorist PLO rather than the democratic Israel, and would have us on a perpetual merry-go-round of talks aimed at appeasing Arab dictators rather than toppling them or challenging them to reform and cease sponsoring terrorism.


Steven F. Hayward
The Real Jimmy Carter, page 230.
[One can claim, with reasonable ability to defend the thesis, that Carter was a “nice guy” and had “good intentions”. But the results of his policy are just like the “nice guys” who have “good intentions” and want infringe our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. They fail. They fail because they are naive. “Bad guys” exist. Bad guys take advantage of the weak. It is, as George Orwell said, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”


Guns in the hands of the common person allow them to sleep peaceably in your bed at night because they can do their own violence when it becomes necessary to defend themselves and other innocent life. It is hopelessly naive to believe removing the power to do violence from the innocent will ever make the world a better place. At every level from the individual through city, state, and national level the means and the will to defend the innocent will always be a requirement for a safe and just society.


H/T to Davidwhitewolf who donated the author signed copy of The Real Jimmy Carter to the Boomershoot raffle. The inscription reads “Dear Boomershooter, Thanks for supporting the 2nd Amendment, Boomershoot 2010, and Project Valor-IT, [signed] Steven F. Hayward. I put many raffle tickets in the bucker for this book but someone else got it. They brought it to me afterward and asked me to blow it up for them. “Huh? Didn’t you read the find print on the jacket cover? It says, ‘How our worst ex-president undermines American foreign policy, coddles dictators, and created the party of Clinton and Kerry’?” Nope. They hadn’t read the fine print. I said that I would be glad to take the book and even blow it up for them if they really wanted that. But I would rather read it and use it as a source of quotes. They agreed and gave it to me.–Joe]

Boomershoot private party

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Last weekend I took a bunch of people from work out to the Boomershoot site for a private party.


I still haven’t gotten the pictures off of my camera. Barron has been much better on reporting the latest Boomershoot news than I have. Here is his report on the private party with lots of pictures.


I really need to finish my “chicks and guns” blog post that I have been thinking about for months…

Soliders’ Angels donation

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Patti from Solider’s Angels left a comment on one of my blog posts:



Thank you very much from my heart.
It is things like this, people like you that make me want to be a better person.
Please if you have a chance email me the addresses of everyone involved, I would love to send a thank you.
Love
patti


I just got around to responding via private email:



I can’t give you the email addresses of everyone but I can forward your email to all the people who participated in Boomershoot 2010.


I have just sent the money raised by the raffle. Here are the details:


Payee                Send On       Expected Delivery    Amount
Soliders’ Angels 05/03/2010   05/10/2010             $1,300.00

Quote of the day–Laurel

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Just got back into town from Boomershoot.

OH GOD SO FUN.

I have a feeling this next year is going to be a spendy one for us. Yeeeeah.

Laurel
Aprile 25, 2010
*dies of awesome*
[My evil plan is working.–Joe]

Recovery is nearly complete

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Boomershoot is very stressful for me. I usually only sleep four or five hours a night and loose about 10 pounds in the week around Boomershoot. This year’s event was the least stressful of any. I had several people comment on how low key I was compared to usual. I actually enjoyed strolling up and down the line watching for safety violations holding hands with Barb. Usually I’m too keyed up for either of us to enjoy holding hands much.

I think sleeping on-site helped lower the stress. I could work late and get up early to prepare for the arrival of the rest of the crew. Even though I slept in a tent next to the Taj Mahal that got down to 29 F just before dawn one morning I got more sleep than usual. It was interesting to me that I put a small jug of milk on some ice in a small cooler Wednesday noon and the ice still hadn’t all melted as of Saturday noon.

Barb seemed pleased that my appetite returned on Tuesday and I started eating normally on Monday.

I also have to give a lot of credit for the (relatively) low stress Boomershoot to our staff:

  • Scott K. makes an amazing contributions by showing up early Thursday morning each year and leaving long after nearly everyone else is gone on Sunday evening. This year he drove all the way from Virginia.
  • Brian and Cody worked until very late on Sunday as well. This is when I most appreciate the help. The anticipation and fun is over. It’s cleaning up after the party when you are dead tired. Thanks guys.
  • Mark Y. showed up Thursday morning as well and worked four solid days. He “only” had to drive an hour each way from Moscow.
  • Barron and Janelle B. drove about 1:15 each way from Uniontown and were there all four days.
  • Ry drove 340 miles from Seattle and was there all four days.
  • Ry’s daughters Anna and Arden folded boxes, stamped the ATF required markings on empty boxes, and did numerous other grunt work.
  • David S. came from Seattle and worked all day Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday.
  • Rolf N. came from Seattle and helped make explosives and entertained us all with his puns.
  • Phil put in some time at the Taj doing some grunt work too.
  • Tim S. helped not only on the day of Boomershoot but with experiments last fall.
  • Daughter Kim worked long days Saturday and Sunday. She left the range at 19:22 on Sunday and looked like death warmed over. She had put away nearly everything at the Taj Mahal and even took down my tent, rolled up my sleeping bags, and stuffed them in my car. She had been up since at least 6:45 that morning. She usually makes nearly all of the Boomerite but this year Scott K. made the explosives on Friday while Kim was attending classes. Saturday she made all of it and cleaned up the production area while I and most of the others ran the High Intensity event.
  • Peter V. and John S. are nurses. They bring their medical kits and shoot in the Sunday event. They seem a bit disappointed they don’t get to treat and gunshot wounds or explosives injuries but they say they have a good time each year. This year John helped measure chemicals and fold target boxes on Saturday.
  • Boomershoot photographer (and daughter) Xenia Joy was there on Sunday and I’ll eventually go through her pictures and post some of them.
  • Bruce (Squirrel Hunter), Fred, and their crew did the raffle which netted $1300 for Soldiers’ Angels and distributed badges Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday morning.
  • Chris T. watched the road Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and radioed back to the shooting line about approaching cars.
  • Eugene Econ, Shawn W., Bill and Rob W., and Monte M. put on the Precision Rifle Clinic. In addition to all the expert shooting ability and coaching skills prep for this starts Thursday afternoon and involves moving large quantities of steel up a steep hill.
  • Wife Barbara Scott put up with me being gone (physically for three nights and mentally for at least a week) and then helped so much with numerous errands, providing transportation for the cameraman, and taking care of my mom while Dad came over to do an interview with Michael Bane. And most of all she hasn’t yet hit me for telling her over the megaphone that there were 150 people waiting on her to arrive so we could do the fireball. That doesn’t count all the tolerance she shows all year long as I prepare for the next Boomershoot. Some of her coworkers tell her she is a celebrity because of the attention Boomershoot sometimes gets. But, as she tells them, she isn’t a celebrity, she just sleeps with one. I think she means me.

Also, I would like to again thank Bruce for the matching Boomershoot jackets that he gave to Barbara and me at the Saturday night dinner. Those were awesome.

Quote of the day–Oleg Volk

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These rolling hills are Irish-Green
But those who herein dwell
Have rifles that reach a mile
To send Cromwell’s hosts to hell


To them Ruby Ridge was a warning
An alert to the fair and free
Like other, more recent incursions
Against them and you and me


Enjoy rolling hills of Idaho
They look Irish but hold more lead
In case someday reason fails
And the living might envy the dead


The Federal hydra seldom
Comes into these rolling hills
To it the climate is noisome
Though the locals are dressed to kill


Plain are natives of green and beauty
Simple and rough their talk
But they have enough math to know
How far long-range bullets drop


These rolling hills are Irish-Green
But those who herein dwell
Though wishing for peace and quiet
In war would do rather well


To them you are valued visitor
By whom they strive to do right
Those who come in friendship
Need not fear the rifles’ might


These rolling hills aren’t Ireland
But a more formidable land
And despite all the Pharaoh’s armies
These people will win in the end


Oleg Volk
April 29, 2009
Of Idaho
[Yup. There is lead in the hills and I’m not the only one in Idaho to invest in copper coated lead.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Michael Bane

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Boomershoot is the most interesting precision rifle event in the entire world.


Michael Bane
Down Range Radio #158
April 27, 2010
[My ego is probably blocking thoughts of something far more interesting but at the moment I am inclined to agree with him.–Joe]