Blogging will be light for a few days while I work on Boomershoot 2008 tasks. I give you Xenia as a substitute…
It’s becoming a tradition. During Xenia’s spring break we go to Portland, visit Powell’s, I buy books on explosives, and we get Voodoo Donuts.
And, again, Xenia captures it in pictures.
Last week I ordered some supplies. I picked up the cardboard boxes for the targets last Thursday and the Potassium Chlorate was just delivered (as in Barb is on the phone this very second asking where to put it). Everything is on schedule.
Ry was on site this weekend, took some pictures, and reported “The Boomershoot site was a snowy marsh”.
Yup. It sure is. And with Boomershoot only six weeks away one might be quite reasonably be concerned about the conditions we will have for the event. Will it be nothing but mud or even still have some snow?
Anything is possible but here are some pictures from 1999 to give us some hints about how things dried up back then:
Boomershoot target area March 7th 1999.
Target area April 25th 1999
Shooting area April 25 1999.
In 1999, seven weeks prior to the event, the ground was covered with snow and even more “in the deep freeze” than this year. Yet by the day of the event the ground was ground was damp (I remember the picture above being taken*) but clearly it wasn’t so muddy that people couldn’t shoot directly from the ground. Hence there is nothing to be particularly worried about at this time.
I probably will take some more pictures this coming weekend and examine the site two weeks and probably one week before the event. I’ll keep you posted.
* I was trying to connect with a half-pint milk carton at 600 yards away with my AR-15 to see if the .223 could detonate the targets at that range. It was particularly challenging because of the wind (see the streamer flying essentially horizontal?). I fired about 60 rounds without getting a detonation. Later examination of the target showed that I had gotten one solid hit and a couple of nicks. It did not detonate. The target recipe has been modified extensively since then although at 600 yards the .223 is still marginal for both wind and ability to detonation the targets.
Sean said he has a dream. Now he just has to get a really big bonus this fall so he can bring it to Boomershoot 2009.
Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (6 MB WMV).
Boomershoot enthusiast, Bruce, sent this to me. He wants one for the flat trajectory when shooting squirrels.
DOJ and now DHS.
This time they are interested in the 5000 pounds of ammonium nitrate I bought and had my daughter pose for a picture with it.
I really need to do a Privacy Act request and get a copy of the file they have on me.
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Just a couple of minutes ago I ordered the last of the critical items for Boomershoot 2008. I now have another 275 pounds of potassium chlorate scheduled to arrive within a week or 10 days. Over the weekend I ordered 1100 cardboard boxes.
The only remaining items are small things like air horn cartridges, wooden stakes, and garbage sacks.
Combined with the existing materials we have stored in the Taj Mahal we plan to build over 1600 reactive targets for Boomershoot 2008. This will require over 1700 pounds of high explosives which we will be manufacturing on-site in the two days prior to the event.
It’s going to be a real blast.
Another person canceled and position 41 will become available at 8:00 AM Tuesday March 11th. See details of the position here. Refresh the page at 8:00 AM tomorrow to sign up. Remember, once you press the button for that position you have taken the position.
Stephanie, of Boomershoot fame, has been trying to get Dave Barry (yes, the Dave Barry) to attend Boomershoot 2008. To further entice him she offered to blow up a low-flow (or whatever they are called) toilet for him. She received a call from an assistant who told her that Mr. Barry was already committed for the weekend. Then we received a postcard from Mr. Barry a few days ago:
It turns out there is more than one Dave Barry in the world and we will have a Dave Barry attending Boomershoot 2008. But not nearly as many people know of him as the one from Miami.
Sunday morning, February 24th, position 49 will become available at 8:00 AM.
Sign up here: http://entry.boomershoot.org/. Only online entries will be accepted. Call if you have questions, but you must sign up via that web page.
At 5:59:55 I received a phone call. As I said, “Hello” I pushed the “Delete” button to make position 31 available. The man on the phone wanted to sign up for Boomershoot. I told him he had to do it on-line. He thanked me and I wished him good luck.
At 6:02 Carl pushed the button that claimed the position.
Carl was the instructor for the first firearms class I ever took. Taking that class enabled me to obtain my Idaho concealed carry license.
I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy right now. It’s time to go back to bed with Barb.
How are they going to defend against this new binary explosive?
[Thanks to JoeyD Sr.]
Position 31 for Boomershoot 2008 will become available tomorrow morning, Tuesday February 19th, at 6:00 AM PST (I think I have my alarm set correctly this time).
Shooting benches are recommended for this position. See http://entry.boomershoot.org/#Main for pictures of the location. Assuming your fingers are fast enough you can sign up for this postion via the online entry webpage of the previous link.
I don’t have the final information available yet but this is the premliminary report from the auction last night:
I’m not sure of the actual selling price, I thought it was $450 each but someone I spoke with said they went for $500 each.
Wow! $450 or $500 for participating in Boomershoot (and donating money to FONRA).
I gave them two positions but was asked to only mention there was one available. The plan was to auction off the one then offer the other position to the second place bidder for the same price.
Boomershoot Precision Rifle Instructor Gene Econ reports:
I can take four more guys for coaching on each day and a good twenty more for field fire.
Sign up here.
This clinic is such a great value that people have come in from out of state just to attend the clinic and don’t bother to stay for Boomershoot the next day.
If you do sign up for the clinic and don’t have a position in Boomershoot but would like to participate let me know and I’ll try to find a place for you. Depending on the weather some of the places that can be a swamp are dry and usable. It all depends on the ratio of rain to sun in the previous week or so.
I’ve long ranted about the futility of restricting explosive materials. Most of the time I’m a little circumspect on the details but after this massive explosion some news sources aren’t so circumspect:
Sugar dust is just one of a variety of forms of dust that can, under the right circumstances, combust and cause an explosion.
Explosions are not uncommon in places like grain silos, but have been known to happen in sugar factories in the U.S. and abroad, much like the one in Georgia Thursday.
The dust itself can be created in a variety of ways during the refining process.
Anything from sparks from machinery to a lit cigarette could have ignited the blaze.
The dust also has to have a certain concentration to support combustion fast enough to maintain the explosion.
Those are 100 foot high silos in the picture below.
Lets see them restrict access to sugar! It’s for the children…
I just created a new Boomershoot email list.
People planning to be spectators sign up for emails about the event by sending an email to spectators-subscribe@boomershoot.org. There is no requirement to sign up in order to be a spectator but it will get them information about the Saturday night dinner and weather forecasts when the information becomes available.
The pass was still closed (they are saying maybe by midnight one of them will be open) when I woke up this morning. I chatted with Barb for a few minutes and was reading a few blogs and posting my QOTD when I got a text message from Ry:
We went to Beth’s and I finally got on the outside of one of their six egg omelets (they have two sizes, six and 12 egg, both come with all the hash browns you can eat).
I took a couple pictures of drawings on the wall:
From there we went to Kerry Park and took some pictures:
We left the park to visit Glazer’s.
At Glazer’s I bought a new camera bag and some minor camera accessories.
We then continued south to Cabela’s in Lacy. I have never been in a Cabela’s before and Ry had only been to the original store in the Midwest. The store was pretty amazing.
The most amazing thing happened there. Someone recognized our Boomershoot coats and my hat and said hi. He said he reads my blog!
I bought a bunch of strange flavored licorice (Piña Colada and blue raspberry among others) some bullets (not loaded ammo, just the Berger, .30 caliber, 210 grain VLD bullets). Wow! Those have gone up by a factor of two since I last bought some. But I figured they weren’t going to get any cheaper.
From way down south in Lacy we went way north to Monroe for the “Fun Show” as Ry likes to call them. Actually it was one of the WAC events. I walked by all the tables and didn’t really see anything of much interest.
We then headed out of town a little way to visit a friend of Ry’s that has a rifle range Ry has permission to use. “A couple hundred yards”, Ry said. Things were in the process of changing. Soon it will be over 850 yards! We stood around and talked with the owner and a friend of his for probably an hour. Maybe next spring when there is more daylight in a day and the longer range is available I might visit again with a long range rifle.
Next we ate dinner at the Old Country Buffet and I dropped him off back at his place and came back to my bunker.
That was a nice day. It was much better than moping around writing buggy code for The Borg like I had planned. Thanks Ry.
But the bummer part of it was Barb had an extremely light day at work and would have been able to spend a lot of time with me at lunch and then gotten off work early to spend more time with me had I been able to make it over the pass and back to Moscow last night.
Lots of people are suggesting you buy a firearm if you get a rebate. There are numerous suggestions (partial listing):
I have another suggestion and I’ll even make the deal sweeter for you. Buy a rifle and ammo for Boomershoot and I’ll give you a free entry into Boomershoot 2009. Limit of one entry per rifle and no more than five free positions will be given away. You must purchase the rifle between now and June 1, 2008. The rifle and ammo must be capable of at least regularly connecting with the boomers at the 375 yard line. This means your ordinary hunting rifle, carbines, and pistol caliber rifles won’t qualify. Heavy barrel AR-15’s will. It should have at least a 4X (10X or greater is recommended) scope on it but I won’t be holding that against you because people have connected with red-dots and iron sights, it’s just not easy. Ammo is going to have to be match grade.
If you decide you want to participate in Joe’s evil plan then scan a copy of your receipts, send the scanned image and one or more pictures of you new rifle to me. First come, first serve, limit five prizes total.
Update: At the suggestion of Mopar in comments I’ve created a Boomershoot web page on rifle selection and threw in a little about ammo too. See also Choosing Optics (from 2001).
I am going to make Position 3 (in the .50 Caliber Ghetto) available at 6:00 PM Pacific time tonight.
It is not required that you shoot a .50 caliber from this position but you will be somewhat limited on the available targets. And any targets at the 375 yard line are off limits to .50 caliber guns.
Because of the extreme angle for some of the 375 yard targets you will be limited to only about half of them. Only the targets on the berm to the left of the three trees in the picture below are available:
For more details about the position see the description here:
If you have any questions send an email or give me a call at 208-301-4254.
At 6:00 PM refresh the page in your browser to see the button for position #3 become available.
Joe Huffman
Boomershoot Event Director
A couple of people sent me an email yesterday asking about the caliber of rifle required for Boomershoot, other general questions, and said they planned to be spectators this year and participate next year. I gave them the best advice I could and encouraged them to attend, ask questions, etc.
What was interesting to me was the domain for email address QueerArms.com. They have a website and it appears they don’t get a lot of traffic but it’s a decent site.
They even have a link to Boomershoot under “Games”. Cool! I’ve only received one referral from them but, hey, it’s the thought that counts. I don’t know if it was Tammy that put the link there, but whoever it was, thanks!
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