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.

Joe’s bus service for girls

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Just outside of Seattle last night I picked up Robin (age 12), the daughter of a friend of ours (Karen pictured below), and gave her a ride to Moscow so she could visit a friend of hers for a couple weeks. She wasn’t very talkative but she was bright and friendly. It was a five hour trip and except for the first 90 minutes we each listened to our own iPods.


Daughter Kim, friend Karen, and Ry’s daughter Arden at Boomershoot 2008.
Photo from David who has proclaimed June to be Boomershoot 2008 Photo Month.

Tomorrow morning I have to get up much, much too early, take daughter Kim to work by 6:30, go back to the house to pick up daughter Xenia, then pick up both Ry’s daughters Arden (above) and Anna at 7:15, then pick up Kim at 7:30. The four girls and I then attempt to drive back to Seattle in time for Kim and Xenia to attend a play that starts at 1:00 PM that is a gift from their brother James. The other girls then go back to the east side of the lake to Ry’s fortified compound. Protected with, among other things, a .50 BMG, and I don’t know how many AR-15s, some of which are supressed.

I realize four beautiful girls protected only by one middle-aged, slightly overweight guy with a bum leg is a tempting target but these girls aren’t the helpless types. Ry and I reared these children in Idaho, not one of those sissy places where other people rear their children.

Kim has applied for her concealed carry permit but hasn’t received it yet. That doesn’t mean she won’t have access to or be able to use a firearm should she need one on the trip. The others aren’t quite old enough to get their concealed pistol permits but that doesn’t mean they don’t know what to do with a gun.

The following pictures illustrate my point.


Kim preparing for a steel match.


Xenia celebrates diversity.


Arden practicing with an AR-15.
Photo from Ry.


Ry helps stabilize the rifle while Anna fires off the shot that detonates the explosive target.
Photo from Ry.

It’s snowing

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Snoqualmie Pass is getting snow today. Probably not so much that I can’t make it home on Friday but of interest because its so unusual for this time of year. It is snowing in Moscow Idaho (my home) and the Boomershoot site too. Maybe I should schedule Boomershoot 2009 for July 4th so the snow will be light enough the roads will be plowed and people can make it without snowmobiles.

Crank up those coal fired power plants and rev the engines in your trucks while waiting at traffic lights–we need to head off the next ice age.

Either Al Gore has crap for brains and/or his motivation is solely for political gain.

Update: Daughter Kim says not to blame Al Gore:

From: Kimberly
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:10 AM
To: Barbara Scott; James Huffman-Scott; Joe Huffman; Xenia Joy

I apologize for the snow it was my fault I cut the dogs hair yesterday

Update2: From my weather advisory email alert:

OROFINO/GRANGEVILLE REGION-
135 PM PDT TUE JUN 10 2008

…SNOW ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 8 AM PDT WEDNESDAY ABOVE 3500 FEET…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MISSOULA HAS ISSUED A SNOW ADVISORY ABOVE 3500 FEET…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 8 AM PDT WEDNESDAY.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT THROUGH EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING ABOVE 4000 FEET AND OVER THE WHITE BIRD GRADE ON HIGHWAY 95. ELEVATIONS DOWN TO 3500 FEET…INCLUDING THE CITY OF GRANGEVILLE…CAN EXPECT TO SEE ACCUMULATIONS UP TO AN INCH.

A SNOW ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CAUSE PRIMARILY TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW COVERED ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

This could mean certain types of crops in the area will be killed by the cold.

Something the global warming doomsday people ignore is that, typically, farm yields are better with abnormally warm weather than abnormally cold weather. Hence to be on the safe side of things we should try to push things in the direction of excess heating rather than risk excess cooling.

Vote for ME!!!

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Via the Para website:

You can help send your favorite gun blogger to summer camp at Blackwater USA with world class shooter and instructor Todd Jarrett… and have a chance to win a invitation for yourself as well. Para USA, along with Blackwater, USA is sponsoring a weekend of first class instruction at the most exclusive training facility in the United States.

The top ten gun bloggers in our contest will get an invitation to shoot a special Para pistol and learn the secrets of a World Champion from Todd Jarrett. Blackwater USA is hosting the event at their facility in North Carolina. Gun Blogger Michael Bane and a video crew will record the event for Down Range TV.

Best of all, by voting for your favorite gun blogger, your name will be put into a drawing for an invitation to this exclusive event. That’s right 10 gun bloggers, and maybe you could spend a weekend learning the shooting secrets of the best shooter in the world.

The Para-Blackwater Gun Bloggers weekend will be August 22-24, 2008. Invitees must provide their own transportation to Norfolk, Virginia. Firearms, ammunition, accessories, room and board during the event will be provided by the sponsors. Participants must be 21 years or older and legally able to own and shoot a handgun.

Act now, voting ends July 1st! Winners will be annouced in early July. You may only vote once in this contest.

You want to see Todd Jarrett blow up a car by shooting at it, don’t you?

And I’m sure I can find excuses why you shouldn’t vote for anyone else, for example, that last time I talked to Kevin he had has a project he has to finish up in late August anyway so he won’t be able to make it.

Barb has to work that weekend so we will be celebrating our anniversary another weekend anyway.

Pretend you are a democrat and vote early, vote often, and vote for ME!!! I’m listed as “The View From North Central Idaho” near the bottom of the list.

More stuff in the mail

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In addition to the postcard from Dave Barry I also received some other stuff today that thrilled me almost as much.

I received a couple of patches from Thirdpower. I’m going to put one on my Boomershoot coat and the other one on my cork board at work.

I received the explosives handler form Squeaky filled out a few days ago. It sure looks like we are going to have another gun nut playing with explosives next April. Cool!

Dave Barry thanks me

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Background material is here.

I returned to the Seattle area tonight and found the following postcard in my mail:

Dear Joe —

Many thanks for the toilet pieces. (I never thought I would write those words.)

Best,
Dave Barry

I wonder if I could auction off the remaining pieces on eBay…

I would have given a piece or two to Sue today if I had thought about. We were right there…

The ATF visit went fine

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Sue showed up at my house right on time and we drove to Kendrick and had an early lunch. I think we spent more time in the restaurant that we did actually on site. But we did do some work at the restaurant where we had a nice table to look at paperwork.

We parked at the road and walked in rather than drive the government car across the hay field. I opened the place up, showed her around. She took some pictures, I explained some nuances in my record keeping to her. She said it all looked fine and we drove back to Moscow. She said she was happy to finally be able to visit the Taj Mahal it was nice to see how much I had improved things since the last time she visited (about six years ago I think).

We spent more time talking about kids, spouses, grade school teachers, people at work, her ex-husband, my old job at PNNL, and books than we did about ATF and Boomershoot stuff. She said she wants to attend Boomershoot sometime. She asked if we blew up anything interesting recently, like pumpkins maybe? She already knew about the pumpkins. It’s actually in my file. They think it’s fine and kind of a fun thing to talk about. I told her about blowing up the toilet this year and we did a laptop computer once. She asked how far the pieces of the toilet went. I told her we found pieces a 100 yards away but that we were a minimum of 375 yards away.

She told me that my file had a few notes in it about “concerned calls” from the ATF in the Seattle office. Apparently someone will hear about Boomershoot and the Seattle people will contact the Spokane ATF office to “check up on things”. The Spokane people will have to tell them that I’m one of the good guys with a license and everything is in order and they aren’t worried about me. That hasn’t happened for a while and she thinks maybe they have the Seattle people educated now.

She told stories of explosive magazines built high into the side of mountains where when the snow melts in the spring things get very wet (not acceptable as per ATF regulations). And having to open up box after box of blasting caps to verify the contents because they had so many partial boxes. Another story that was interesting was about confiscating cigarettes that had not had the tax paid on them–a barn stacked FULL of them. It took two semi-trucks to haul them all away and the ATF people had to inventory and put evidence tags on everything. A real pain. My take on that is that someone was being so stupid they deserved to get caught. If you are going to get involved in the black market for a product you want to keep the minimum quantity of product on hand at any one time. There were all kinds of clues in the story that made it clear these people were just stupid. They made a LOT of money but were too stupid to hold on to it.

The only thing that was a downer was that she confirmed what I already suspected about the renewal. They don’t have a special form for renewal like the Orange Book section 555.46 says. I have to fill out the original application complete with fingerprints and picture just like an original application. The only thing that is different is that I pay the $100 renewal fee instead of the $200 original application fee. She started to sort of apologize for it saying she it didn’t make a lot of sense but I cut her off and said something like, “It doesn’t have to make sense. It just the way it is and I have to do it. I understand and I’ll comply. I’m just a little annoyed because I’m pretty sure my fingerprints haven’t changed recently.”

All in all it was a very pleasant drive and an enjoyable time talking. Assuming I don’t goof off too long and get the renewal form back in time there will be Boomershoot 2009.

Decisions, decisions

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Tomorrow ATF inspector Sue will show up at my house and we will go for a little ride into the country. My ATF type 20 license to manufacture high explosives is up for renewal and they need to inspect my storage facility before they renew it.

As I was going through my closet this morning I wondered what I should wear tomorrow. I considered my Boomershoot t-shirt with this image:

But that’s a little tame. I wanted something a little more edgy for the occasion.

For about a half second I considered this one from JPFO (they no longer sell it so I’m saving mine for special occasions):

Elian’s story can be found here and occurred during those dark days while Janet Reno (The Butcher of Waco) was still in power.

I decided that shirt was a little too over the top even for me when meeting with someone from the ATF–in particular a meeting with Sue. Sue is very nice, I had lunch with her a few years ago and then we had a nice talk as we drove out to the Boomershoot site. She was helpful with getting my explosives storage facility into compliance with the government regulations. A couple years later I saw something posted on a website that could have been a threat toward her. I sent an email to her with the link and although Sue never responded alternate sources indicated I was the first one to tell her about it and everyone took it serious enough to put extra effort into her safety.

I decided it would be very rude and completely uncalled for me to wear the above shirt.

So… what shirt to wear tomorrow. I finally decided on Celebrate Diversity:

I’ll let you know how it goes after I drive back to my bunker in the Seattle area tomorrow night.

Busybody Bachman bops by

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I’d like to think Mr. Bachman made a visit:

Domain Name   (Unknown) 
IP Address   66.6.145.# (COX ENTERPRISES)
ISP   COX ENTERPRISES
Location  
Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  Georgia
City  :  Atlanta
Lat/Long  :  33.9335, -84.3972 (Map)
Distance  :  1,911 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; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1280 x 1024
Color Depth  :  32 bits

Time of Visit   May 24 2008 2:19:15 pm
Last Page View   May 24 2008 2:19:15 pm
Visit Length   0 seconds
Page Views   1
Referring URL http://www.google.co…VISION&start=10&sa=N
Search Engine google.com
Search Words john bachman atlanta television
Visit Entry Page   https://blog.joehuffman.org/
Visit Exit Page   https://blog.joehuffman.org/
Out Click    
Time Zone   UTC-5:00
Visitor’s Time   May 24 2008 5:19:15 pm
Visit Number   311,279

Random Nuclear Strikes Boomershoot pictures

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David has posted a bunch of pictures of and relating to Boomershoot:

Boomershoot Gun Blogger Day

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At the NRA convention last week I told several bloggers I was contemplating having a special Boomershoot for gun bloggers*. I have had time to think about this quite a bit more.

The following is tentative so if you have suggestions let me know before I finalize it in the next week or so.

Boomershoot 2009 is currently scheduled for Sunday April 26th with Friday and Saturday the 24th and 25th being the Precision Rifle Clinic. Nearly all of the gun bloggers who have never attended Boomershoot I have talked to expressed concern their long range rifle skills were deficient so I think participating in at least one day of the clinic is a good idea for them. Partially for this reason I have decided combining the gun blogger event with Boomershoot 2009 is a good idea.

What I think is one of the more interesting part of the event is the making of the targets prior to the event. We have repeatedly invited the mainstream media to observe and/or participate and only once had them accept. I’m guessing gun bloggers will be more inclined to take me up on this invitation. Hence I have decided to make Thursday April 23rd 2009 Boomershoot Gun Blogger Day. On this day gun bloggers will be given media credentials and a special behind the scenes tour of and participation in Boomershoot 2009. If the individuals involved want to actually mix explosives and package the targets they will need to fill out some paperwork at least a couple months in advance. This paperwork will be submitted to the ATF and if the ATF approves it these individuals will be allowed to actually make explosives and reactive targets. If individuals do not wish to submit the paperwork then they will still be allowed to observe target manufacturing and participate in all the other activities.

Other activities planned for Gun Blogger Day will include discussions of explosive chemistry, alternate materials for explosives, target detonation theory, fireball target construction, the history and future of Boomershoot, Boomershoot safety, Why Boomershoot, “entertainingly close” detonation of targets by the participants and almost any other safe and legal activity related to guns and explosives the participants can think of.

Do you want to blow something up? Toilets, laptop computers, and hard disk drives are just some of the things we have subjected to “Idaho Hardware Testing” (also sometimes called an Idaho Stress Test). If you have something you want subjected to Boomerite let me know and we’ll figure out how to make it happen safely. The only catch is that you need to clean up (or pay for) the mess afterward.

Gun bloggers who are attending Boomershoot for the first time will also get free admission to the main event on Sunday April 26th.

* For the purposes of this special offer a gun blogger is defined as someone who has an active blog with frequent posts about gun use or politics. “Active blog” means someone who has made 100 or more posts in the previous year as of April 1, 2009. This definition potentially and intentionally includes the anti gun blogs such as the Gun Guys and the Brady Blog. “Frequent posts about gun use or politics” will be defined at my whim on a case by case basis. Submit your blog to me for inclusion prior to April 1 and I’ll get back to you with my decision within a day or so.

To; John Bachman of WSBTV #2

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In response to Joe’s earlier post (a very good one, Joe, by the way) I piled on a bit more:

Mr. Bachman,

Your stance, tone and alarmist tactics remind me somewhat of the Temperance Movement of the early 20th century.  Invariably, the results of such crusades are in the long run vastly more destructive than the perceived “problems” they attempt to solve.

If you truly want to help improve general safety and quality of life, might I suggest you look into the principles of liberty upon which this country was built, and begin championing them?  You may find it a much more enjoyable (and profitable) pursuit.

Sincerely,

Lyle…

Update 05/23/08:  WSB-TV has pulled the offending video for now.  Maybe they’ll post an edited version at some point.

 

To: John Bachman of WSBTV

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I just sent the following email to the guy on the video about online explosives. 

 

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 9:47 PM
To: John Bachman (john.bachman@wsbtv.com); ‘talk2us@wsbtv.com’
Subject: Please discontinue using my video.

 

Today I was informed of your video about the availability of online explosives (http://www.wsbtv.com/video/16266872/index.html). The last video clip you used from web sources was taken by me of my daughter Kim. You did not obtain permission to use that and I am requesting that you immediately stop using it.

 

In addition to the unauthorized use of my material you strongly imply we are using Tannerite or some other explosive available via online sources. This is false. The material used is of my own manufacture. I have a license issued by the ATF to manufacture high explosives and my daughter Kim is authorized by the ATF to handle explosives. To use her likeness and my product in your biased and even bigoted attack on a legal product used in a legal manner is exceedingly offensive to me and thousands of other people.

 

I can’t imagine what you were thinking. Would you show video of people using guns to legally hunt, shoot tin cans, or put holes in paper targets and then contact your congress because you were worried someone might use their guns to commit a terrorist act? Or how about showing someone having a glass of wine with dinner or drinking a beer in their backyard? Would you demand the government do something about this because of your concerns about drunk driving?

 

When I was growing up my family was able to, and did, buy dynamite, blasting caps, at the local hardware store with no special license or transportation requirements. We paid for it, picked it up out back, put in it in the trunk of the car and drove home with it.  That the average person can still acquire explosives easily, legally, and safely is a testament to what a great country we have. It shows that not only the government is subservient to its citizens but that its citizens are responsible and can be trusted.

 

If you had demonstrated these explosives were used in thousands of crimes each year I might think you had reason to be concerned. But you did not do this. You could have used that same product and those same video to show what a great country we have. You could have shown what unique freedoms we have and how those freedoms are not being abused and I would have gladly given you permission to use my video. Seattle King 5 Evening Magazine did that with this video: http://www.boomershoot.org/2005/KING5.wmv. But you didn’t do that. You merely demonstrated you are a Puritan–afraid that someone, someplace, is having fun.

 

 

Joe Huffman
Boomershoot Event Director

Quote of the day–Ry Jones

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Some anti-fun maroon stuck together a video to demonize recreational explosives. Joe’s daughter, Kim, appears in the last quarter of the segment. Too bad the anti-fun maroon is a TV station in Atlanta.

Ry Jones
May 22, 2008
Kim is Famous
[It looks like I have some work to do after I get off work tonight.–Joe]

Todd Jarrett, guns and explosives

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Last Friday night Michael Baine hosted a social event for us bloggers. Todd Jarrett reported that 10 bloggers would get training from him at Blackwater and then take home a Paraordinance gun at the end of the training. Bitter has some details.

I spent probably 15 minutes talking with Jarrett and he got really interested in Boomershoot and told me he wanted to blow up a car. He wants to be able to shoot bullets into it and have it lift about four feet off the ground. I gave him my card and told him I thought I could do that. He seemed interested in exploring that further. Cool!

Letter to Dave Barry

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With these links the following should be self-explanatory:

May 12, 2008

Dave Barry
1 Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132

Dear Mr. Barry,

Please find enclosed some of the pieces from the toilet we blew up April 27th at Boomershoot 2008. We used four pounds of high explosives, five gallons of gasoline and six road flares in the process. As you can see the disassembly and disinfecting process was quite effective. Pieces were found over 100 yards away and most were seared with high temperature flames.

The next Boomershoot will be April 26th, 2009. We would be honored if you were to attend and were to fire the first shot at a low-flow toilet suitably equipped with appropriate aggressive chemical “cleaners”.

Regards,

Joe Huffman
Boomershoot Event Director
joeh@boomershoot.org
208-301-4254
http://www.boomershoot.org/

Boomershoot 2008 blog coverage

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There were several bloggers not present that made mention of Boomershoot 2008 but here is a list of blog posts and pictures from people who were there:

Boomershoot 2008 raffle proceeds

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The following should be self-explanatory.

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 8:55 AM
To: ‘soldiersangels@gmail.com’
Cc: ‘Chuck Ziegenfuss‘; ‘Barb Scott’; ‘Jason Scott’
Subject: Boomershoot 2008 Raffle proceeds.

 

Boomershoot (http://www.boomershoot.org) is an annual long range precision rifle event held in North Central Idaho. Each year soldiers from Fort Lewis attend and for two days prior to the main event help teach Boomershoot participants the science and art of accurate long range shooting. Some of those soldiers later went on to Iraq and Afghanistan and were injured and some were killed.

 

Last October my wife and I met Chuck Ziengenfuss at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno. He told us of his injuries and how Soldiers’ Angels helped him. It turns out that it was the second time my wife had met Chuck. She had also met at Walter Reed when she was visiting our nephew Jason Scott who was wounded in Iraq and benefited from your help.

 

At Boomershoot this year we held a raffle with the intent that half of the proceeds would go to raffle participants and the other half going to Project Valour-IT. All winners of the raffle proceeds gave the money to me to forward on to you. Two other people quietly came up to me and each gave me three $100 bills to give to you.

 

Below is the reference number and other information from my bank who is mailing you a check of the entire proceeds. If it does not arrive as expected please let me know.

 

 

PENDING PAYMENTS

Payee

Reference #

Send On

Expected Delivery

Amount

Soliders’ Angels

EBUBC5PX 

05/06/2008

05/13/2008

$1,860.00

 

 

Regards and thank you,

 

Joe Huffman
Boomershoot Event Director

Book meme

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I was tagged by The Unforgiving Minute a week ago which was right in the middle of Boomershoot. I’m still recovering and trying to catch up on things so this is a bit late.

The rules:

  1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
  2. Find page 123.
  3. Find the first five sentences.
  4. Post the next three sentences.
  5. Tag five people.

When I read that I was tagged “the nearest book” was over a 1/4 mile away in someone else’s house so I decided to use the nearest book to my bed where I do nearly all my book reading these days.

From Explosives Engineering by Paul W. Cooper.

Page 123 is page 5 of “Table 9.1 Heats of Formation of Inorganic Compounds” and is not broken down into sentences. I’m going to page 124 which has some actual sentences on it.

Hydrochloric acid, HCl, will react with sodium hydroxide, NaOH, to form sodium chloride, NaCl, and water, H2O.

HCl + NaOH –> NaCl + H2O

Calculating the standard heat of reaction from the standard heats of formation, we have:

ΔHr0 = [ΔHf0(NaCl) + ΔHf0(H2O)]products – [ΔHf0(HCl) + ΔHf0(NaOH)]reactants

I would tag my daughter Xenia Joy and a few other friends but they always ignore me on the meme thing anyway. So if you sort of think you know me and want to participate go right ahead.

Quote of the day–Eugene Econ

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I never used my anemometer more than that day — mostly out of curiosity. We got a real bad ice pellet storm at about 1300 with full value winds from 15 – 35 mph but mostly hovering around 25. Almost a white out. The ice pellet storms let off by 1500 but we were still using four to six minutes right wind for hits at 380.

Eugene Econ
April 29, 2008
Boomershoot, or how I began to learn to REALLY shoot!
[Friday was probably the worst shooting conditions we have ever had for Boomershoot. The wind and rain at Boomershoot 2001 was bad too but not as cold as it was this year. Sunday was some of the best conditions.–Joe]

More posts from Dave Barry

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APRIL 27 IS COMING

LOW-FLOW-TOILET DETONATION UPDATE

You might want to leave some comments–especially if you were there and did that.