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.

Blog troubles again

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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] 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.

Boomershoot photo of the day, everyday

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David has announced:



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.

Another book reference

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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.

Boomershoot 2009 position 64 available soon

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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.

Another Boomershoot position available soon

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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.

Merry Christmas to someone

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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.


Sign up here.


Do it fast. I expect it will be gone within a few minutes.


Update: Gone in four minutes, 45 seconds.

Quote of the day–Brian Doherty

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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]

More on wearable sniper detectors

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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.

Quote of the day–Daniel G. Jarcho

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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]

How cool is that?

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Ry reports the KING 5 Evening Magazine video on Boomershoot 2005 was nominated for an Emmy in 2006.

Boomershoot Halloween

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We blew up a bunch of pumpkins today. No time for the whole story or any pictures. Just a link to Barrons post (which has pictures and video) and the best of the video (from Kris who made it as a day trip from Seattle):

 

Update: Kris has a post about his little “day trip”.

I’m envious

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It’s been a long time since I got hate mail like this. And for me it was just the one person.

Some people have all the fun.

I need to go blow up some pumpkins tomorrow to make myself feel better.

It’s that time of year

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I’ve had two requests from people for help celebrating Halloween this year. Son-in-law Caleb and a friend from my work both want to blow up some pumpkins. That is planned for this Saturday.


This morning I got a report from someone else on the same topic:



As the crowd thinned, we started the good stuff. Saturday I had placed a baggie of amn mix in the seed cavity and shot it with the 300 weatherby loaded with 125 grain ballistic tips. I wanted to tell folks that I had acquired some new bullets and demo their performance. The pumpkin absolutely vaporized.


Yeah. That’s what happens alright. I’ll try to have pictures and video next week sometime.


Update: Video from November 2000 is here.

Boomershoot rifle

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Chris says it’s for Boomershoot. But the maximum range of targets at Boomershoot is only 700 yards. Therefore I think it might be for more than just Boomershoot. I’m thinking my evil plan might be working. Hmmm… so that would mean it is about Boomershoot, even if it isn’t for Boomershoot.

Boomershoot 2009 position 62 is open

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I just had a cancelation of one of the positions for Boomershoot 2009.


Position 62, on the berm, is now open.


Sign up here soon if you want it.


Update: The position has been filled. It was open for two hours and 18 minutes.

Quote of the day–Pat Kelley

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You put on the most politically incorrect event on the planet.


Pat Kelley
October 5, 2008
Referring to Boomershoot.
[Pat was at the USPSA match I went to today. I think it has been 10 years since I have seen Pat. He remembered me and said a lot of flattering things. I was a little embarrassed because he is such a great shooter he is totally out of my league. But he wasn’t talking about my shooting ability. See also these quotes from him in other posts:



He also tried shooting my Saiga 12 gauge. He had never shot one before. He was not able to out-shoot it even though he believes it probably is possible. I wish I had thought to put a timer on him and see what sort of splits he got. I just saw a blur of fire expel from the ejection port and the 10 round magazines were empty.–Joe]

It was Ry’s fault

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He says he is sorry about bringing down Microsoft.com today. He didn’t even have to use any Boomershoot technology.


As people say, his brain is a very powerful CPU but it’s running a buggy operating system.

Boomershoot maintenance

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As I reported a few weeks ago I did a bunch of earth moving at the Boomershoot range. Last Sunday Kim, Xenia, and I went back to plant grass on the fresh dirt, winterize the Taj Mahal and deliver 800 pounds of decorative concrete blocks to the Taj. Barb’s Jeep was sort of dragging it’s tail as we drove out to the range. We will use the concrete blocks as stepping stones around the Taj to keep the explosive workers out of the mud when it is wet. As a side note on Thursday Barb took her Jeep to be “detailed” which consisted mostly of removing mud and small pieces of concrete from the interior.


I didn’t take my camera but Xenia brought hers and I planned to post some of the pictures she (and I) took of the work we did. Unfortunately the mechanism involved in transferring the pictures from her camera to me failed with the crash of Barb’s desktop computer (it’s complicated, don’t ask because it’s not worth it). I could have worked around it in any number of ways but I had, and have, more important things to do.


I did want to get a post up about the grass planting just so people would know the chances of the area being nothing but mud next spring are less than 100%. Also this gives me an excuse to post a link to Xenia (our artist) pictures from the day. As you can see from the sample below it’s an artist taking the pictures and not her engineer father.



Xenia reflected in the solar panels on the Taj Mahal.

Easy fireballs

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Inspired by Roberta’s post I looked up something I had seen a while back–How To Make a Cremora Fireball. Here are some pictures of the results:



40-50 Foot Tall Cremora Fireball
(Photo and fireball by Noel Emge)



70 Foot Mushroom Cloud by Bluegrass Pyrotechnic Guild


And in case you hadn’t connected all the dots the TSA does not (and cannot) sniff your luggage for coffee creamer or powered milk. Hence a component of my contempt for the entire concept of TSA.

Range report

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This isn’t the usual range report on people going to the range to shoot. This is a report on improving a range.


Yesterday, after getting a late start due to an eye infection I went to the Boomershoot site and made some improvements. The primary goal was to expand the target capacity at the tree line. This is also known as the 375 yard line. I more than doubled the length of this berm. I had originally planned to extend it to the east but due to my limited time (the dirt would have to been moved much further) and concerns shooters in the .50 Caliber Ghetto and most of the Lowlands wouldn’t be able to see those targets anyway I extended the berm to the west.


The ground was dry and hard. The dozer I use is on the small side and 65 years old. Frequently I would put the maximum weight I could on the blade in an effort to get it to cut into the ground. This would lift the front end of the cat up and put all the weight on the bit of the blade and the rear sprocket of the cat. Still the blade would barely cut into the ground. It was only after making another pass on the same piece of earth after the spinning tracks had tore up the ground previously that I would get a significant amount of dirt in front of the blade:



Weight on the rear sprocket and blade in an effort to cut into the hard earth.


Below is the result of several hours of dirt moving. The previous target area was from the tree about 50 feet behind the car extending left (east) to the end of the grass covered berm. As you can see from the fresh dirt the target area is over double the previous length. This will allow us to put out a lot more targets in this very popular area.



Taken from shooting bench height, just off of the west end of the shooters berm, at position 69. Click on the picture to see more detail.


I also extended and tweaked the berm for the shooters. The extension was not to increase the capacity but to get each of the shooters a little more room. In previous years shooters were allocated six feet per shooting position while on the berm compared to eight feet on the ground. This should allow berm shooters eight feet as well.  I also tried to make it a little more level. Certain areas on the berm weren’t really usable and I think I have fixed that.



Extended portion of the shooters berm looking uprange (mostly north and a bit west).



Shooters berm looking to the west from the east end.


Boomershoot 2009 will have more targets and berm shooters will have a little more elbow room.


I also checked on the status of things at the Taj Mahal. Previously the batteries were not fully charged and the water supply was having issues as well. The batteries weren’t fully charged but a couple hours of running the generator and I finally got them topped off. The water still seemed to be working fine.


I still need to go back in a couple weeks and plant grass in the freshly disturbed dirt and prepare the Taj for winter.