I got lots of praise for Boomershoot 2007. The emails are still coming in. I also received lots of compliments received during the event. Even daughter Xenia had people come up to her and thank her for putting on the event.
It went really well. I had some great help. Scott arrived on Thursday before I did and stayed almost as long as I did on Sunday night. Tim, Ben, Sean, Rolf, Jason, Ry, Xenia, Kim, Caleb, and John also put in lots of hours to make the event great. My brothers and my parents both contributed to making the event a success too. Then there were the groupies that helped–Barb and Jennifer. They want jackets with the dates of all the events they attended.
Kim and Caleb made nearly all of the 1300 to 1400 pounds of Boomerite we used. And it was done in record time. This was in part because of what great workers they are but also because Kim came up with a great innovation in the manufacturing process. I thought I had it all optimized and was feeling pretty clever when I showed Kim how to prepare the Potassium Chlorate. About 15 minutes later she said, “Hey Dad! Watch this.” Wow! I’m sure she doubled production with that little twist on things.
The fireball target that Ry built was wonderful. I just love the way that ball of fire rises up into the sky with clear air underneath it.
Gene and his crew put on the Precision Rifle Clinic and several people came up to me and told me how much they learned from taking the class and what a great value it was. One guy drove up from Arizona–mostly for the class which would have cost more to take closer to home. Which is kind of ironic because one of the instructors also drove from Arizona.
We did have a fire get a little out of control at the end of the day. No harm done. It burned an old stump and some dead branches that needed to be cleaned up anyway. We used up two fire extinguishers to put it out. Then used several gallons of water to quench the hot coals. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the end result even though I couldn’t find any hot spots or smell smoke a couple hours later. I convinced my brother Doug to bring over the water truck and we put another 100 to 200 gallons of water on the burned area and turned the ashes, sticks, and dirt into a thin ugly soup.
About 900 targets were consumed in the three days. Over 700 of those were on Sunday.
And it is my claim I had the best shooting record of anyone there. I fired four shots, connecting with four boomers, using an AR-15 carbine with Wolf ammo, iron sights, and from a kneeling position.
Of course all my boomers were less than 25 yards away. Most everyone else had to shoot the majority of theirs from at least 375 yards away.
I expect I’ll open up entry for Boomershoot 2008 by the end of the month. Prices will remain the same as 2007. The date will be a weekend near the end of April or the first of May. Expect it to fill up sometime in June or July of 2007.
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The two cardboard boxes on the sides each contain about two pounds of Boomerite (a impact sensitive high explosive manufactured by FlashTek). The cardboard box on the top contains another pound of Boomerite. We call this stress testing.
