Mike Brown is the Idaho Sport Shooting Alliance lobbyist in Boise and he announced, as did the Apex of The Triangle of Death (info on the Triangle of Death), the good guys advanced another few yards in the battle for gun owner rights.
If that passes and is signed by the Governor it will ease some of my Boomershoot worries.
Kris tells me he is going to attend Boomershoot as a spectator and wondered if this would be an appropriate lead pusher for the event:
The original design intent is described as:
Designed as an equalizer for inconceivable and unpredictable lane changes, and other traffic related anomalies perpetrated by the cell phone using, motor home/SUV driving morons in Florida imposed on the rest of us. The below pictured machine was designed for that purpose.
Each mini gun fires at a rate of 3000 rounds per minute (6000 total). During initial test and evaluation it was demonstrated that a single 2 second burst would, and did blow a 40 foot RV with tow car clean off the road, leaving an open and unobstructed route ahead. It will vaporize an SUV in seconds! Tests further indicated that after two or three RV’s/SUV’s in a row were eliminated, or “friggin smoked”, others voluntarily pulled off the road and thus became a “non threat.”
I told him it would be welcome but the accuracy of the lead on target was far more important than the quantity.
But perhaps we can create a special Boomershoot event for this class of toy if there is enough interest out there. See also these variants.
A couple weeks ago I confirmed the reservation for the Saturday dinner location and the caterer. It is NOT at the usual place. It is a block or so down the street at 330 Michigan Avenue (VFW Building).
Earlier this week I confirmed the dates for caterer for the on-site food. Breakfast and lunch will be available Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Yesterday I put in a request for quote on delivery of 275 pounds of potassium chlorate. One of the three main ingredients in Boomerite.
A few minutes ago I ordered $500 worth of cardboard boxes, labels, and zip-lock bags.
I should have picked up some small plastic gloves (some of the women making explosives have small hands) when I was out shopping with Xenia for her wedding supplies earlier today. I’ll get those another time.
I still need some more ethylene glycol (again for Boomerite).
Son-in-law Caleb says he is going to make the stakes used for holding the targets from some old pallets he got for free.
I really should start printing out badges since the event is full and I have all the names. The few new people from the probable cancellations can be put on one page of badges a few days before the event.
I think everything is under control for another great event.
This time of year (66 days until Boomershoot) not just me but participants start putting the finishing touches on their plans for the big event. Here we see the results of Bruce Da Squirrel Hunter Boomershoot project:
Here is part of the story from Bruce himself:
Well I finally finished my year long project of building a completely new Polished Stainless Steel Tripod. This couldn’t have happened without the wonderful help of .223 Bill Lester and Fred Forgone working with me hand and foot to get this project completed on time for April 30th and Boomershoot once again this year. I think Fred has more gray hairs this year with me bugging him non-stop for his assistance with so many miscellaneous parts and devices even on his days off.
My hat is off to .223 Bill and Fred for sticking with me and letting me drive both of them nuts for a year while we invented and built what I believe is the best shooting platform ever invented. This Stainless Tripod was .223 Bill’s first production unit since his personal prototype which was made from mild steel. A true craftsman and dedicated friend.
This years project was invented after last years highly modified hunting tripod which had a 55 pound railroad track hanging from the center of the pod which made the total tripod with rifle weigh in at approx. 130 pounds.
After great success with that unit, I was still unhappy about having to hold and adjust the rear of the rifle for every shot. My heartbeat was moving the crosshairs too much in the excitement of Boomershoot.
So back to the drawing board and the current project for this past year has been: “How do we build a better mouse trap”?
Well, you start with the best pair of talented craftsmen who can invent right along with you and build dream toys with a common goal of hitting 7 inch targets all the way out to 650 yards and 700 yards.
The attached photos show my first dress rehearsal of the unit in my living room as my garage isn’t big enough with two cars in it to allow me to set this monster up in. The rifle is a Remington 700 Long Action and a Hart Custom .25-06 fluted barrel. The rifle is the only item carried over from last year.
The new tripod has an aluminum front Anti-Cant device and the rear has a polished mild steel Micro Elevation / Traversing Device. Along with these two items is a Mono-rail Anti-lift device up front that I also invented, a modified design instead of the two rail system I employed last year.
Hopefully the recoil will be less then last year with the overall increased weight (150lbs) and the much larger footprint of this unit. I had the .25-06 recoil down to that of a .22 long rifle last year. If this unit does what I think it will, there won’t be any recoil this year.
This new tripod still needs to be field tested, but I have a feeling that this will be one sweet tripod to shoot from.
I can’t wait for Boomershoot and the chance to really put all this work to the test.
Thank you once again Fred and Bill for all you did and sacrificed for me.
We might just once again hear the call of the wild “ReAdjust”
Does anyone have a house or three they don’t need? Ry and I want to try something.
Someone had 150 pounds of explosives stolen. The cops put on a demo for the media to show how dangerous just a small amount of explosivs are. They detonated one third of a pound for the cameras. Here is a still shot (more where I found the one below).
Okay, whatever. For the last several years the smallest targets we have used (the three inch square ones) at Boomershoot have been one half pounders. The four inch square targets we use the most of are approximately one pound. The largest (the seven inch square) ones are two pounders. They lost 150 pounds? We went through over 10 times that much last year.
As planned Caleb and I did some more tests with Ry’s test target. Video and commentary by Caleb.
We went to the Boomershoot site expecting to find little or no snow. We should have called ahead. There was about two feet of snow and we were unable to make it to the Taj Mahal with all our gear. We made do at the first berm. We used a paper target to zero the gun for this range (25 yards) then took a single shot with each caliber at the stack of steel plates at the base of the stump. The bullets at the steel plate went over the chronograph.
This was our setup.
In the following video you see the result of SS-109 and 30.06 blacktip ammo shot at the stack of steel plates each 0.25 inches thick. There is a gap of about 0.75 inches between each plate. Estimated velocity of the .223 bullet at the target is 2600 fps. Estimated velocity of the 30.06 bullet at the target is 2360 fps.
The .223 went through one and almost penetrated the second plate. The 30.06 went through three plates and partially into the fourth.
The .300 Win Mag pushing hand-loaded 162 grain military surplus black tip bullets was able to hit the target with a velocity of about 3315 fps. It went through all six plates:
Update: See also this paper on AP ammo. It’s just the first page (you have to pay for the rest of it) but it’s interesting reading.
At 8:00 AM PST tomorrow, February 8, two more positions will become available. These positions are both in the .50 Caliber Ghetto, positions 3 and 4.
You can sign up for the position by going to the following web page and signing up when they became available tomorrow morning.
There is a restrictions on these positions. You can only shoot at targets on the hillside. The range of these targets is from about 550 yards to 700 yards.
Last week I got a call from Nathan at Media Jungle. They make shows such as Adventures Abroad, Western Extreme, and Wild Encounters for Outdoor Channel.
Nathan wanted to confirm they will be welcome (well, DUH!) at Boomershoot 2009. I was rather distracted by some other stuff going on at my office at the moment and didn’t catch the name of the show or the talking head. But they will be doing some autograph signing as well as filming and shooting.
The availability of position 43 will be enabled at 12:00 Noon Pacific time today. Sign up here if you think you are fast enough to grab it before someone else does.
Update: Gone in two minutes.
I just had a cancellation for Position 43Â for Boomershoot 2009.
Due to a minor bug in my software for on-line entries after moving to a new hosting provider I won’t be making the position available for at least a day or so. I’ll post something here when the site is ready for accepting new entries.
Yes, my blog was down from about noon on Thursday until early this morning. My hosting provider had (and still has some) problems with a couple of their DNS servers. I really need to move to another provider.
It also affected boomershoot.org, joehuffman.org, lewistonpistol.org, lcwildlife.org, scottfamilyplace.org, jameshs.org, kimhs.org, xeniajoy.com, and email to recipients at those domains. If you didn’t get a response from email to people at those domains you might want to try sending the email again. The sites in italics above are still experiencing problems so you might wait another few hours before retrying on them.
Sorry about that.
In the future people are welcome to use one of my alternate email addresses such as JoeH AT[please no spam]Â modernballistics.com which is through another provider.
Update: The domains are coming are slowing coming back online. I’m removing the italics as I verify they are working again.
Update2: I’ve moved xeniajoy.com to the new provider and boomershoot.org and boomershoot.com are in the process. Please don’t send email to the boomershoot address for about 24 hours (8:00 AM January 26 PST) as I work out any bugs that might show up and the new IP addresses filter through the Internet.
Update3: Grrr… the new provider had been working fine for months with ModernBallistics.com and WhenProphecyFails.info. Now it is down after I moved XeniaJoy.com and all the Boomershoot sites over.
I plan to have a Boomershoot Picture of the Day every day in 2009, so check back for more!
Here are his first submissions:
If you can’t figure out a way to attend you can at least drive yourself mad with desire.
I’m spending New Years Eve reading Gun Control On Trial by Brian Doherty. I previously mentioned a direct reference to me in the book from a quick scan I made. A few minutes ago I found another reference on page 53 which almost for certain is about me (and others) and Boomershoot:
I talked to lots of people in the “pro-gun” community, from those who enjoy detonating explosives with semiautomatic rife fire to dealers in highly regulated states like California.
I find it interesting that I am placed on the extreme end of the spectrum. I suppose it is fitting. And it reminds me of two quotes:
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Thomas Paine
And:
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Barry Goldwater
Update (23:15): I finished the book a few minutes ago. I found my name in the index too.
Also of possible interest to some is that my friend and Boomershoot promoter Stephanie Sailor was mentioned in the acknowledgments. It was via her encouragement that Doherty contacted me.
I’ll have more on the book tomorrow. And I have a great quote for the first day of the new year from the book.
Position 64 will become available today, Saturday December 20, at about 12:00 noon Pacific Standard Time.
Sign up here.
It is on the Berm which means shooting benches are discouraged.
I’ll be on the road traveling from the Seattle area to Moscow at the time so it will depend on cell phone coverage the exact moment I open up the position. Just keep refreshing the web page to get the first available opportunity for the spot.
Update: Due to an error in my blogging software this post did not appear at 9:35 AM like I thought it did. The position was made available at 12:00 noon as planned and it was filled 21 minutes later.
I’ll be making another Boomershoot 2009 position available sometime this weekend. Probably about noon on Saturday. I’ll post the details when it’s actually available.
In closely related news I got an email from someone today who, in part, said:
i have my countdown clock on my desk and it is 124 days and 13 hours till i leave for the boomershoot…
I probably should feel the weight on my shoulders with so many people making this a big event. But except for a few days of the year I have fun doing this.
Position 65 for Boomershoot 2009 just opened up. It’s on the shooting berm near the west end. On the berm means shooting benches are discouraged.
Do it fast. I expect it will be gone within a few minutes.
Update: Gone in four minutes, 45 seconds.
I also talked to a man named Joe Huffman about his use of guns. Huffman is more unusual in his dedication to the shooting arts. He runs a yearly event called Boomershoot in Idaho, at which people shoot hundreds of yards at four-inch square targets to set off high explosives.
It’s wild fun, of course–an intense experience most shooters don’t get to have. It attracts a lot of media attention for that reason. Like Hughes, when I pressed Huffman on the subject, he explained that more than just pleasure and amusement lies at the heart of his gun ownership. He thinks it’s important to cultivate arcane, high-skilled shooting arts in people he knows because a time may come, as the Founding Fathers knew, when such skills might be useful for more than just outré amusement.
Brian Doherty
Gun Control on Trial–Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment
Copyright 2008
ISBN 978-1-933995-25-0
[I admire myself for my modesty.
See also Interview about the gun culture.
Numerous other gun bloggers should also be receiving a free copy of this book soon. You’re welcome.–Joe]
Saturday I mentioned some sniper detection devices designed by the Brits. It turns out the U.S. Army ordered $10 million dollars worth of them:
QinetiQ North America’s Technology Solutions Group, a global developer of innovative technology solutions for national defense, today announced a $9.95 million order from the U. S. Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (REF) for SWATS(R) Soldier-Wearable Acoustic Targeting Systems. Part of the Ears(R) Gunshot Localization System product family, SWATS(R) soldier-worn units will be deployed to U.S. Army troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan this year. The deployment is expected to be completed by early next year.
A brochure and other info are here.
I wonder if it would crash if it were placed down range at Boomershoot when the opening horn was sounded.
The handgun ban is a reasonable restriction, because handguns constitute a unique class of firearm that have an unmatched ability to cause violence and kill human beings.
Daniel G. Jarcho
Brief of Violence Policy Center and the police chiefs for the cities of Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Seattle as amici curiae in support of petitioners in D.C. v. Heller.
[Handguns cause violence? Unmatched in their ability to kill human beings?
And all this time I would have thought it was atomic bombs (super novas probably outperform A-Bombs but they haven’t actually been demonstrated on human inhabited planets that I know of) that were unmatched in their ability to implement violence and kill human beings. And that is why I was accepting of “reasonable restrictions” on atomic weapons. But now that the Supreme Court says handguns are protected by the Second Amendment and, according to Mr. Jarcho, atomic bombs are less dangerous than handguns I guess that means atomic bombs should be protected as well.
I’m glad Mr. Jarcho was able to clear that little misunderstanding up for me. I’ll be consulting his work more frequently from now on to make sure I don’t make some future similar mistake in my classification of weapon systems. Now, where is a nearby public range where I can rent an atomic capability artillery piece and buy some ammo for it? I want to evaluate some possibilities for the next Boomershoot.–Joe]