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.

Light posting

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This will be the fewest posts I have made in a single month since March of 2006.


Things are very very busy at work. I can’t tell you how many nights I have stayed at the office until nearly midnight or worked from home until 02:00 or 03:00, or worked all weekend. I’m watching a build run out of the corner of my eye as I type this.


Next month isn’t looking good either. The pressure will remain high for most of the month and then I will need to do a lot of stuff for Boomershoot. Please believe me that I intend to post more and will do so again. It just might not be until sometime in May.

Private party for Ian

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As I have previously reported Ian is an intern at Microsoft from Canada. I took him shooting once and he enjoyed it a great deal.

 

Last Friday after work he and I left Redmond and headed east to Idaho where we could have some real fun. Idaho is less repressive in a number of ways than Washington. In particular the explosives law are a pain in Washington.

 

Saturday morning daughter Kim, Ian and I loaded up the van and went to the Boomershoot site. Barron, Janelle, and Ryan were already there when we arrived. We were going to put on a private party for Ian and do a few experiments to test out some ideas for a new target deployment method.

 

Some of the pictures are below see also the fireball demo pictures here.

 


Ian about to shoot his first boomer.

 


This was just after detonation. Notice the streak of something headed to the left in the tree.

 


Ian preparing for the blast of debris.

 


Ian realizing he is going to live.

 


Ian realizing that was fun (debris still falling).

 


Ian realizing that was really fun (debris still falling).

 


Ian, Ryan, and Janelle (only her shadow is visible on the far right) do a miniature High Intensity Event.

 


Ian shooting still more boomers.

 


Ian seems to like this too.

 


Ryan brought an old laptop in need of an Idaho Stress Test.

 


Ryan preparing to initiate the stress test.

 


The test is complete in a few microseconds.

 


Ryan was very happy with the test results even if he did have to pick up all the pieces.

 

Ian, Kim, and I took the scenic route back to Moscow, picked up Barb just as she got off from work and went to VJs BBQ (there was a reason for chosing this particular place) for dinner. They have a Gadsden flag and the Declaration of Independence on the wall if that gives you a hint.

 

What I wonder is what the anti-freedom people in this country have to offer interns who visit. It’s not like they have anti-gun ranges to go have fun at.

 

Update: Linoge linked to this post and claimed one of the pictures of Ian above is “Photo of the year“. In the interests of completeness I have uploaded the original, untouched, photo here.

Quote of the day–Joe Huffman

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Some forms of therapy are not covered under Obamacare.


Joe Huffman
March 27, 2010
[This is going to be the slogan on the Boomershoot 2010 t-shirts.


Photos by daughter Kim yesterday.


In the last picture, yes, it was raining debris from the explosion.–Joe]

Top twenty

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Tamara points out you may have heard of a few of gun bloggers in the list here.


I have met or talked on the phone to most of them.


Some of them will be attending Boomershoot 2010. Boomershoot Media Day is April 22nd this year in case any more bloggers would like to attend. There are currently two open positions and I expect a third will open up soon.

Quote of the day–Davidwhitewolf

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For me, Boomershoot’s a bit like sex. You never forget your first sexual experience, and if it was good, you keep trying to approach or exceed that rush every time. Similarly, every shot at a Boomer has the potential to be just as exciting as your first one.


Davidwhitewolf
March 22, 2010
2010 Will Be The Best Boomershoot Yet
[I agree there are some similarities. If you have ever heard my little lecture on the definition of fun you will understand. I (and many other people, but especially Ry) put a lot of thought into making Boomershoot fun.


This weekend we will be doing some alpha testing of a new target deployment system. If it goes well there will be a beta test at Boomershoot 2010 and then perhaps a full roll out for Boomershoot 2011. If you listened to Vicious Circle 42 you’ll have a hint of just how “evil” Ry is.


If things go as planned at the end of April Boomershooters will get to experience the Evil of Ry for themselves.


I just wonder if Davidwhitewolf will think the new Boomers are a big tease or do they actually “put out”.–Joe]

More Boomershoot 2010 positions available.

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We have had several positions open up. I will formally make the positions available at 18:00 on Wednesday March 24th. Until then existing participants will be able to trade their current positions for one of the open ones. So the currently open positions may not be available on Wednesday.


You will be able to sign up at http://entry.boomershoot.org/


The positions becoming available are:



In case you have forgotten or didn’t hear, Michael Bane will be attending and filming for his T.V. show on the Outdoor Channel. He will also be the speaker at the dinner on Saturday night.


Update: The positions available now are:


Vicious Circle on Boomershoot

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I just finished up participating in a Vicious Circle episode. The supposed topic was Boomershoot. In fact we basically started on Boomershoot and mostly ended up talking about Boomershoot but as it the case with all Vicious Circle podcasts there was a lot of topic drift. Also discussed were:



  • The Jews In The Attic Test
  • Nationalized health care
  • The perfection of Lucy Lawless’s nipples and how to view them
  • Yet another way to blow up a plane that the TSA cannot stop
  • Total world-wide economic collapse
  • The Texas Navy
  • Screwdrivers
  • Windows Phone 7 Series
  • Narcissistic personalties
  • Caleb
  • How many boxes of .22 ammo it will cost for a virgin after the total world-wide economic collapse

There was also a lot of giggling–particular when I told them that Barb asked me if Alan edited out the naughty words.


And that is just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head.


Update: It is available now.

Motorcyclist Boomershoot article is online

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If you didn’t get a chance or weren’t interested enough to go buy a hardcopy version the online version of Boomershoot! – Fun with Two Forms of Internal Combustion is now available.

Oleg Volk to be at Boomershoot 2010

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I got a call from Oleg yesterday. He plans to attend Boomershoot this year.

Of course he wants some pretty girls to take pictures of. It just so happens I know of two who will be there. So we talked about daughters Kim and Xenia.

He will be shooting with Lyle @ UltiMAK in position #74.

Boomershoot Wi-Fi update

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Even though I’m not using the external antenna on the Taj Mahal Wi-Fi access point I still have good service at the far west end of the shooting line. I’m currently showing four out of five bars on my laptop.

As BillH posted a few days ago the Boomershoot site has zero snow. I drove all the way out to the Taj in my car without problems. Last year at this time it was snowshow conditions.

Boomershoot 2010 dinner speaker

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I just received an email from Michael Bane saying he will be the dinner speaker at Boomershoot this year.

Just an FYI, you don’t have to participate in Boomershoot to attend the dinner. Boomershoot spectators, gun enthusiasts, and even Brady Campaign Staff (we don’t discriminate) are welcome too. Both concealed and open carry are acceptable (which means we probably won’t have Dennis Henigan or Paul Helmke visiting us).

Dinner details are here and if you want to sign up for dinner follow this link.

Update: The Brady Campaign (aka Handgun Control Inc.) received their invitation a few minutes ago:

Domain Name   sct.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address   65.242.56.# (HANDGUN CONTROL)
ISP   Verizon Business
Location  
Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  District of Columbia
City  :  Washington
Lat/Long  :  38.9042, -77.032 (Map)
Distance  :  2,071 miles
Language   English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System   Microsoft WinXP
Browser   Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1024 x 768
Color Depth  :  32 bits

Time of Visit   Feb 12 2010 12:44:16 pm
Last Page View   Feb 12 2010 12:46:20 pm
Visit Length   2 minutes 4 seconds
Page Views   4
Referring URL http://blogsearch.go…Henigan%22&scoring=d
Search Engine blogsearch.google.com
Search Words “dennis henigan”
Visit Entry Page   http://blog.joehuffm…10DinnerSpeaker.aspx
Visit Exit Page   http://blog.joehuffm…elBaneOnBigotry.aspx
Out Click    
Time Zone   UTC-5:00
Visitor’s Time   Feb 12 2010 3:44:16 pm
Visit Number   708,302
 

I’ll let you know if they make a reservation. Don’t hold your breath on that one.

Boomershoot 2010 to be on T.V.

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As others have noted Michael Bane has announced he and his film crew will be attending Boomershoot 2010. I’ve known about it since mid-October when he sent me an email that said, in part:

I want to give you a heads up…I would like to film Boomershoot 2010, if it works for you. It would either be for my flagship, SHOOTING GALLERY, or for a new show I have in the works under the working title of AMERICA SHOOTS! You’d rather have it be AMERICA SHOOTS! because it will be hosted by the hysterically funny an spectacularly beautiful Katie Rowe, a professional stuntwoman and obsessive shooter.

Again, if it works for you, I’d like to put together some live coverage on DOWN RANGE (www.downrange.tv).

I held back on announcing it because I wanted to the plans to be a little more firm.

I don’t know his exact schedule yet but I’m hoping he will cover the target making on Saturday too.

Another Boomershoot slot opens up

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We had another cancellation for Boomershoot 2010 yesterday.

I sent email to all the existing entries informing them they could swap their current position for the one opening up.

On Tuesday at 6:00 PM PST I will make the empty position available for the first person to sign up at http://entry.boomershoot.org/.

I don’t know for certain which position will be open. The canceled position was #32 but if someone wants to swap that could change.

Some hints on signing up:

  • Sometime several minutes before 6:00 PM on Tuesday go to the web page and put in your name, phone number and other entry details.
  • Click on the button labeled “Update Price”-this sets the cookies in your browser so you don’t have to reenter that information when you come back to the page or refresh it.
  • A 6:00 PM go to the page and find the available position (I’ll send out another email when I know for certain).
  • Refresh the page repeatedly until the position button labeled “Position 32” or some such thing is not grayed out.
  • Hit that button as soon as you can.

Last time I did this the first position to open up was snatched in 32 seconds. I don’t expect it will take much, if any, longer this time.

I hope it doesn’t reduce the attraction of Boomershoot but it was the lesbian couple that canceled due to one of them starting a new job and being unable to take time off so soon.

Update: Yes, I was trying to make a joke about the lesiban couple.

Also, position 32 has been take but position 74 is now available for swap.

Boomershoot article in Motorcyclist magazine

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Via email from veteran Boomershooter (he was at the FIRST Boomershoot in 1998) Steve M. and the author of the article, Jack Lewis, I found out the March 2010 issue of Motorcyclist magazine has an article about a trip to Boomershoot 2009 from the Seattle area on a motorcycle with a sidecar–a 2WD Ural Safari.

It includes a lot of photos (by Shasta Wilson) and is a great story. It includes typical Boomershoot experiences like:

Bundling Pretty Wife into fuzzy blankets, I tossed two cased rifles across her chest and we were off.

“Don’t worry, ” I bellowed, “It won’t rain in the mountains!”

It didn’t rain. It snowed.

I bought out the entire supply of the issue at the newsstand in the lobby of the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue, WA and they said they are unlikely to get any more in. The Barnes and Noble next door only had a couple of February issues when I checked on Sunday evening but if you check there now they might have one.

The article starts on page 70.

I love engineering

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Kevin has the story.

I just want to add that my degrees are in Electrical Engineering but when I worked for the Aerospace Division at Boeing a lot of my time there was in the “Terminal Guidance Lab”. Now at Microsoft I work on “location for cell phones”. In my spare time I play with my chemistry set and make targets.

It’s almost as if Kevin was talking about my career.

Gone in 32 seconds

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There were three positions that opened up for Boomershoot 2010 in the last couple weeks. I made them all available at precisely 6:00 PM PST.

That didn’t last long.

Position 18 was gone in 32 seconds.

Position 47 was gone in 5:47.

Position 50 was gone in 8:45.

It didn’t hurt that the KING 5 Evening Magazine video ran again in the last day or two. I got a calls and email about it.

Two Boomershoot 2010 positions to open up

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I have cancellations for two positions at Boomershoot 2010. Both positions are on the Berm and will open tomorrow evening, January 26, at 6:00 PM PST (the same time as Gun Nuts Radio comes on).

The pictures for these positions may exaggerate the view of part of the tree-line (375 yards away). I extended the berm further to the left to make each position a little wider. I didn’t notice it at that time but the view of the targets on the right is obstructed. I should have made the extension a little higher. You will be able to see about 1/3 of the tree-line targets and all of the hillside.

To sign up for a position visit http://entry.boomershoot.org/ tomorrow evening.

Update: Lots of changes are happening. Existing entrants have requesting positions swaps. I had another cancellation. A .50 caliber position is going to be dedicated to hourly use. Position #31 may be available as well as one Berm position.

Proposed mini-match at Boomershoot 2010

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A recent email from RivrDog contained the following:

The Rivrdog/Rockett Boomershoot camp (camped at #75/76) issues the following Challenge to those coming to this year’s Boomershoot, INSTRUCTORS INCLUDED!

  1. Pick any off-the-shelf HUNTING rifle out of your safe (or buy one, except no Fifties at this end of the range). Custom rifles OK, if they are custom HUNTING rifles. I’ll have a scale, your rifle needs to weigh less than 10# to qualify, or you need to prove you actually tote that 17# monstrosity in the field and not just shoot it off a bench (photo of you with the elk and heavy rifle will do). I’ll be firing a WIN70, myself.
  2. Put any glass on it you desire.
  3. Load/buy any ammo for it you desire (that doesn’t conflict with Joe’s rulz).
  4. On Field Fire days/hours (Friday and Saturday), come on down to the Rivrdog/Rockett camp and use MY shooting table & rifle rests. The rests are elevation adjustable front and sandbag rear. Coordinate your rifle -moving to be legal during cease-fires.
  5. Bring your spotter or go solo.
  6. Fire 10 rounds, slow fire, at the right-end steel ON THE 380-YARD BERM. Number of hits on it is your score.

Winner receives a (new, sealed!) bottle of 12-year old Scotch, my choice (which guarantees it’s quality!). As in war, no second place prizes. My guess is that it will take no less than a 9 to win, so put in some practice time. You likely will be shooting against some professionals. The steel will be about 2 MOA, if it’s like last year. I may bring a 1 MOA steel for tiebreakers. Award ceremony after Field Fire/Cleanup on Saturday. I will take photos during the contest.

If I had the time that day I would show up with my 17.5 pound Spud Gun that I used the one and only season I went hunting (and got a deer). It can do this at 200 yards and hitting 2 MOA (about 8″) at 375 yards is pretty easy if the wind isn’t bad. I’d do it just to be pushing the envelope on the rules and winning, not because I’m interested in a bottle of Scotch. I’ve never tasted the stuff and am not particularly interested in trying. Besides I have two bottles of the stuff on the shelves (Xenia, you still have that one bottle, right?) given to me by friends that I haven’t touched.

If you happen to think of some nifty addition to the proposal suggest it to RivrDog. This is his baby.

I’ll probably get around to emailing this to all the participants sometime this weekend.

Survival list

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Via email from MD Creekmore I received a link to this list of survival related materials. It all seems to be pretty straight forward and obvious stuff. I found the headings on the “Survival Guns” list somewhat amusing:

I work at Wal-Mart Arsenal
  1. Mosin Nagant 91 rifle
  2. Single Shot .12 gauge
  3. Smith&Wesson model 10
The Government Welfare Arsenal
  1. Short Magazine Lee-Enfield
  2. Mossberg Maverick 88 12 gauge pump
  3. Smith&Wesson model 10
  4. Ruger 10/22
I have a full time Job Arsenal
  1. Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle or AR-15
  2. Mossberg 500 12 Gauge
  3. Glock Model 19
  4. Ruger 10/22
Two Jobs and Maxed Credit Card Arsenal
  1. Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle or AR-15
  2. Remington 870 express with spare riot barrel
  3. Glock 19
  4. Ruger 10/22
  5. Winchester Model 70 in .308 Win.
  6. Taurus CIA Model 850 .38 SPL. Revolver
And Finally the Yuppie Survival Arsenal
  1. L1A1 Rifle chambered in .308 Winchester
  2. Remington Model 7 bolt action chambered in .223
  3. Winchester Model 70 in 308 Win.
  4. Remington 870 express with spare riot gun barrel
  5. Colt 1911 A1 .45 ACP
  6. Taurus CIA Model 850 .38 SPL. Revolver
  7. Savage Model 24F .223 Remington over 12 gauge (if you can find one used)
  8. Ruger 10/22

I do question the need for both a revolver and a semi-auto pistol when both perform essentially the same in terminal ballistics, range, concealability, portability, and availability of ammo.

Also of possible interest is that if you are in the Seattle or Moscow Idaho area I can get you wheat, lentils, and split peas in large quantities cheaper than you can find it almost anywhere else. People attending Boomershoot can arrange for pick up at that time as well. Send me an email with the commodities and quantities you are interested in. The smallest unit I’m interested dealing in would be 50 pounds of any one item.

Boomershoot 2010 Precision Rifle Clinic

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Details on the Boomershoot 2010 Precision Rifle Clinic are now available. You don’t have to participate in the main event to get coaching and shoot in the clinic.

The clinic fills up every year and Gene has lots of repeat attendees so you know people are getting their money’s worth.

Sign up and learn how to turn money and time into earth shaking noise and smoke.

As a side note, Boomershoot statistics are here. Probably most interesting is that there are 110 participants and we have 11 bloggers-exactly 10%.

We will be having a blogger/media day again on Thursday April 22nd.