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.

Boomershoot 2006 survey results

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Last night I finished up the processing of the Boomershoot 2006 survey. I removed the personally identifiable information from the comments and put the results up here in an Excel spreadsheet.

There weren’t any big surprises. I was a little surprised at how popular the opening fireball is. 37 out of 39 agreed that it is an important part of the event.

I was pleased that the question “Boomershoot safety met my expectations.” had the highest level of agreement with 31 out of 39 strongly agreeing and the remaining 8 agreeing. There was one person that had some comments about ways to improvement and I’ll think about it.

Some of the more interesting comments were:

I would like to see better and cheaper food and drink there.  Also strippers.

a night shoot would be way fun if the neighbors wouldn’t be too bothered.  Keep it really small for safety’s sake but the fireballs would be best at night, and it’s hard to find a place to shoot distance with NV. [I’m working on the details for this. If you have the money, perhaps in the $300 to $500 range, this might happen this year.–Joe]

We need to fix the weather, You should build a giant umbrella.. No a huge kibbi dome over the field!!!  Even better lets get some of those greek weather gods to work for us, and they could push the clouds away. [My family will immediately know who wrote this comment. He didn’t leave his name but I can hear his voice in my head say the words above.–Joe]

I like watching angsty geeks with guns sweat

Bring Stephanie back. [As if I need to drag her out of the garage and throw her in the back of the van. Stephanie knows her way and is always welcome to attend.–Joe]

All gun owners should be shot. [You’re welcome to do the honors. I’ll even supply the shotgun and give you your own very special shooting position. It will be a trench about two feet wide, seven feet long and five feet deep at the 380 yard line. Please wait for the start signal.–Joe]

On the price:

You could charge more-My son and I would still attend

It’s expensive, but I understand why.

I am affraid to admit this, it was a bargain.

Cheaper is always better.

should be $4000 [You can have a private event any day of the year for this price. You have my phone number. Call me any time of the day or night with your credit card number.–Joe]

In the category of “Done”:

Shooting a 50 cal and feeling everyone elses rounds being fired really wears on a person.  Having a spot to go shoot the big gun and then being able to return to a normal slot would be nice. [Position 12 is reserved for this.–Joe]

I would like a lane where you can check your sighting in before you shoot at targets.  Perhaps from 6 to 7 a.m.?  Or do you folks need that time to set up?  Either that or the previous afternoon? [Early morning is out. The range is covered with people setting out boomers. See Field Fire shooters for another option.–Joe]

In the category of “No”:

Of course if I were to have one wish (just behind winning the lottery), I’d like to see 100 pound boomers! 🙂

Permanent lounge structure.  Bigger explosions– of course. [No permanent structures. This is farm land and I want to be able to revert it with a few hours of work with a bull dozer. The explosions are already at the limit. The neighbors have double pane windows that have lost their seals and have had stuff fall off the walls.–Joe]

I was thinking of more comfort oriented things– concrete, covered shooting positions, coffee/beverage waitresses, et al. [No. It’s not going to happen. Although I won’t go as far as Ry suggests, bring in fresh dirt and water it down for the shooting positions, I am inclined to encourage a more ‘natural’ shooting environment.–Joe]

In the category of “You’re welcome”:

thank you and your family for performing this valuable service to mankind.

Joe, if I didn’t tell you before, let me tell you now: 2006 was an absolute BLAST!!! Thank you so much for a great event! After the last couple of years, where getting a boomer to boom was a very difficult proposition, you made it all work great this year. I still get a smile, every time I think of it! Thanks, again!

This is a great shooting event. Please keep it going. I enjoy the photos on your web page very much.

Explosives and Soapbox

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I uploaded a several videos to Soapbox on MSN. They, not to mention Barb, won’t allow me to upload videos of my sex hobby activities. So I did the next best thing:

Video: Kim’s Project Fireball Test
After breaking up with her boyfriend this is Kim’s first smile in a week. Fireballs will do that to you.

Video: Titanium Powder Works
One of our first successful fireball tests.

Video: Boomershoot Project Fireball Test

Video: Rocks Versus Explosives
My brothers had two big rocks in a field they couldn’t get out with either the backhoe or the dozer. Ten pounds of explosives took care of the first one. Twenty for the second.

Video: Fairly Well
This is the first ever successful detonation of the explosive mixture to be used in Boomershoot. After two years of failures I was “enthusiastic” about the results.

Video: Exploding Guitar
It was a cheap guitar. Lyle can explain further. It was his guitar and he fired the bullet that detonated it.

Video: Pumpkin Popping
Aluminium powder gave it a bright flash. Flour gave it the white cloud of dust. It was hoped the aluminium would ignite the flour but it didn’t work out.

Boomershoot 2007 clinic is full

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I just got an email from Gene. The Boomershoot 2007 clinic is now full. Contact Gene to be put on the waiting list.

Boomershoot thoughts

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Last night shooters 92 and 93 signed up for Boomershoot 2007 leaving, excluding the .50 caliber ghetto, only three positions. Even a month ago I could not have imagined such a thing would have happened. It’s five and a half months before the event! What other sort of event fills up that far in advance? My guess is that I could start taking reservations for Boomershoot 2008 right now and I’d be half full for that within a month.

I’m pleased and proud but I need to figure out the answer to just one question, what do we do next with Boomershoot? Soon, I’ll finish my posts “Boomershoot Past”, “Boomershoot Present” and “Boomershoot Future”. They aren’t about the details or the mechanics of Boomershoot. They are about the philosophical principles of Boomershoot. From that I will figure out the implementation details of “Boomershoot Future”.

Update: I had a person signed up to shoot alone request to be moved to a different position shared with his friends.  Position 19 in the main area is open again.

I’m helping

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I should have looked up their IP address (85.94.131.189) before sending my latest response. The guy sent the email from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ATF probably isn’t that interested.

Read from the bottom up.

—–Original Message—–
From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 7:41 AM
To: hood_gangstarr@XXXX.com
Cc: ATF Intelligence Division
Subject: RE: bomb

Nope. I don’t know much about any of that stuff.

There are some people that do know a lot about that sort of thing though. I put them on the Cc: line. They even have a website. Check it out: http://www.atf.gov

-joe-
—–Original Message—–
From: hood_gangstarr@XXXX.com
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 7:23 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: RE: bomb

Maybe just to remove doors locks and also it would be good to remove doors from it’s hinges as well. Do you know how to make that thing like napalm?

—–Original Message—–
From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 7:11 AM
To: hood_gangstarr@XXXX.com
Subject: RE: bomb

What type of doors? Sliding glass doors will disappear with an ounce of high explosives. The bank door to the vault is going to take many pounds and careful placement of several bombs.

Wood? Metal? What is the door frame made of? Do you want the door blown off it’s hinges? Or is removing the locks sufficient?

-joe-
—–Original Message—–
From: hood_gangstarr@XXXX.com
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 4:02 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: bomb

hi man,
can u send me some “recipe” to make a bomb out if stuff i have at home. i need some small bomb of size that could blow doors or something.
send me that if u can, thx 

Boomershoot 2007 celebrities

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I just received word that Neaderpundit plans to attend Boomershoot 2007. We also have bloggers David from Random Nuclear Strikes and Kirk from Fun Turns to Tragedy each attending for the second time. Lyle who is a part-time blogger here and a principle of UltiMAK will be attending too. Ry of Mindless Bit Spew, of course, and “Leroy Brown” from Periodic Journal of my wanderings will be helping make things happen behind the scenes as well as doing a fair amount of “copper engraving” on Sunday.

Lee Ann Frailey (“Everything’s better with a boom“) and her husband will be there.  Steve Joachim will be back with his flying anvil (watch the video or the one here).

In the category of “people with celebrity names but aren’t really” we have Dave Barry and Kevin Klein attending. There are also an amazing number of people from a gun club at a company that must not be named in western Washington including some moderately high placed manager types.

Boomershoot 2007 is going to have some great people attending. This being the 11th Boomershoot I have put on I should be able to deliver on my end of the deal. About the only thing that can prevent us from having great time is Mother Nature.

I’m so tempted

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“Evil thoughts” from reading this:

Your generous donation and bids on our auction will support the Freedom States Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to “Changing the Way America Things About Guns.” 

All proceeds go directly to grassroots organizations working to reduce gun violence.

Our auction items range from exotic vacation getaways to donated items guaranteed to delight and surprise!

I wonder what the reaction would be if I donated a shooting position at Boomershoot 2007 for their auction. I guarantee my donation would “surprise”. And I would get a great deal of delight from it if I could see the expression on their face. But since they would get all the surprise and I can’t get any of the delight I’ll just continue to fantasize about it.

Boomershoot 2007 continues to fill

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Boomershoot 2007 is now almost three fourths full with 52 of the 70 positions are taken and I have received email from people that say, paraphrased, “A bunch of my buddies and I are going to be there. We just don’t know how many yet.”

I continue to be amazed. It was the middle of March before Boomershoot 2006 was this full.

Sign up soon or you’ll have to wait until Boomershoot 2008.

Uncovered meat

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To my female readers, just so you know your place:

Muslim leaders, women’s rights advocates and political leaders in Australia today condemned one of the country’s top Islamic clerics for comparing women who don’t wear head scarves to “uncovered meat” who invite rape.

…

In a translation from Arabic by the newspaper, later verified by other media, Hilali was quoted as saying in the sermon: “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside … and the cats come to eat it … whose fault is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat’s?”

“The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred,” he was quoted as saying, referring to the head scarf worn by some Muslim women.

Of course if some “cat” treats one of my daughters like “uncovered meat” there might be some question as to who is going to end up as “uncovered meat” for the cat. And example of daughter Kim in action is here.

Boomershoot 2007 amazement

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Using a laser range finder and very carefully taking note of how much space I had for shooting positions I opened Boomershoot 2007 up for 70 shooters instead of the 60 we had for Boomershoot 2006. As of this minute Boomershoot 2007 has 42 positions taken which means it is 60% sold out. It wasn’t until the middle of February that Boomershoot 2006 was at a comparable level.

I know some people who are trying to get their schedules figured out and others are waiting for their next paycheck before signing up. I just hope the people I told “no hurry, it won’t sell out before January” won’t be calling me a liar.

Bondage or freedom

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Recently I had a discussion with someone that was resigned to us losing our freedom. I only weakly protested because I don’t think well on my feet. I need time, sometimes lots of time, to formulate my thoughts and to make my case. My strength is in my attention to detail and in my ability to focus on problems for long periods of time. I play a good game of chess but not a first person shooter computer game. Boomershoot for example is a particularly subtle, long term, and yet I believe effective blow against the freedom haters (see also Why Boomershoot).

He claimed Jefferson was right to say, “God forbid we should ever be 20. years without such a rebellion.” He said that it was too late to save our freedom. Our chance for freedom today was lost without a successful revolution 150 years ago. And he invoked this as an argument:

The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.

Never mind that it might actually be an urban myth that Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee wrote this (see also this). It could be true or false regardless of who wrote it. And even if were true when it was claimed to be written in the late 1700’s things have changed a bit since then. In the last 200 plus years the most amazing changes in human history have occurred. What is the effect of those changes? How does it affect our fight for freedom?

These questions affect us all. Do we resign ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren to a life of bondage? Is the best we can do just keep our head down so the “tiger eats us last”?

I don’t have definitive answers to those questions but I have some pretty good hints. Please consider these changes from the time when the above was supposedly written:

  • Long range individual owned and deployed weapons
  • Incredibly cheap and rapid transportation
  • Incredibly cheap, rapid, and secure communications

In the long range weapons category I don’t just mean extending the range of a rifle from a couple hundred yards to a thousand or more. And I don’t mean mortars that can extend that range out to well over a mile. With cell phones and/or the Internet people can now give commands to a weapon from anywhere on the planet to any other place on the planet. We can even deploy “smarts” into weapon systems that can take out a tyrant and/or his minions weeks, months, or even years after being put in place and the weapon owner is long gone or even dead.

There are many who would claim these items help the tyrant as much or more than the freedom advocate but I disagree. China, Russia, or even Canada with its oppressive gun control and socialist health care isn’t any bastion of freedom but each of those governments heavily censored communication to protect the oppressors. And in each case communication recently succeeded despite efforts to suppress them and brought about reforms. As a friend said, Computers and the Internet are a far bigger problem for the government than they are for the individual. Just look at the vigorousness of the response by the Islamic extremists to our “corruption” of their society by our communication. Or the impact talk radio has had on U.S. politics. They, the freedom haters, hate it so because it is so powerful. Open communication is the ultimate enabler of freedom in a war against tyrants and communication has never been so cheap or secure as it is right now.

The rapid and cheap transportation allows the freedom advocate to attend a pro-freedom march on Pennsylvania Avenue, or take action against jack booted thugs near Waco or Ruby Ridge on a Saturday afternoon and never miss an hour of work from his or her job in Seattle or Miami. And the communication makes it possible for them to know about the event and coordinate with others in real time rather than days or weeks after it was over and far too late to participate in a meaningful manner.

My conclusion, for all it’s lack of decisiveness, is that should we have the ambition and the courage to utilize the tools available to us we have it within our power to prevent the loss of more of our freedom and even regain many of the freedoms we have lost. I think the real question is, do you have the ambition and the courage to make a difference? Or are you going to give up?

Boomershoot 2007 is filling rapidly

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I’m amazed. 29 positions have been reserved by 43 people. That is 41% of the positions taken already. In 2001 it took until March until I sold 30 positions–which filled it up.

At this rate (not likely to continue!) it will be filled by Wednesday.

Update (10/17/2006, 22:20): The event is now 50% sold out. 35 positions taken by 53 people.

Boomershoot 2007 entries are now being accepted

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Boomershoot 2007 is April 29th.

I have confirmation that Steve Joachim will be back with his anvils and again attempt to put one of them into orbit.

Gene Econ will be putting on his, as always, sold out Precision Rifle Clinic.

And of course there will be hundreds of highly reactive targets made up of over 1000 pounds of high explosives.

Learn more about Boomershoot here. Sign up for it here.

And so I don’t have to hear it from everyone else…

It will be a blast!

Genius has it limits but not stupidity

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Proof by example:

From: Joe S
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:05 PM
To: joeh@boomershoot.org
Subject: little big boom

hey
i was wondering how to make a small bomb small enough to blow up in my back yard
but big enough to put a small hole in the ground(hehe).
also not to loud because i dont wont some old lady to call the cops.
I really dont wont to go buy thing that need an id.
can you help?
Data point number 1. If you even just glanced at my web page, Want Some Help Building a Bomb? you would know it was an incredibly stupid act to ask me for help building a bomb.
 
My response:
From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:41 PM
To: ‘Joe S’
Subject: RE: little big boom

I’m sure I can help. Would you please tell me the number of your local police department? If I wasn’t so lazy I’d just look up the Akron, Ohio police department myself. I’m sure the police will be able to get Ameritech.net, your DSL provider, to give them your exact address. From there I’m certain you will get all the help you could possible want.
 
You might also want to check out these web pages to see if you can find help there:
 

http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombHelp2004.htm

http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombHelp2003.htm

-joe-

You would think this would be a sufficient whack with the old clue bat to get through. But this guy responded back!

From: Joe S
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 6:24 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: RE: little big boom

thanks it was just what i was looking for. it will take some time to make but ill tell you the results whin im done.

Data point number 2. One would think that he wouldn’t be smart enough to send an email if he is this stupid. Apparently stupidity has no limits.

My position is that if someone is so stupid that they don’t know how to build a bomb and yet want to build one then one should not help them. An exception might be made under carefully controlled conditions such that they only eliminate themselves, and perhaps their immediate friends, from the gene pool.

My first time

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Reno was the first time for me. I’ve had lots and lots of encounters where it could have happened had they given me enough attention. There have been dozens of times I certainly was making the moves on them and wanted something to happen. But it seemed they just weren’t interested in me. Oh well. You try as best you can and it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen.

At the SeaTac airport on my way to Reno I wore my Boomershoot 2004 t-shirt and my Boomershoot 2006 hat. On the way back I was a “good boy” and didn’t wear the provocative shirt. But when they ran the swab over the edge of my gun case and ran it through the explosive sniffer it came back with a positive indication for explosives. The guy didn’t quite know what to do and called a supervisor. They talked about it a bit and seemed to think the boxes and boxes of ammo (probably about 300 rounds of .223 and another 100 rounds of .40 S&W) could have influenced the test. I pulled out my ATF type 20 license (license to manufacture high explosives) and showed it to them and explained I have a lot of contact with explosives. They looked at it but didn’t seem to know what to do with that information either.

Finally they removed most of the ammo from the case and pushed on the foam in the case looking for “something” underneath the foam. They didn’t touch the gun. My guess is they are not authorized to do that. Finally they put all the ammo back in the case and said I could go.

Why this time I wonder? It could be because I’ve never had this case sniffed before and I do use this gun and case a lot to test my reactive targets. Some of those tests result in prills of ammonium nitrate flying back at me (and the gun case). That rifle has been handled a lot after I was mixing up explosives. Whatever. I don’t really think it was the ammo.

I didn’t do it, no one can prove a thing

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NO! I did not bring my chemistry set to Reno with me. This happened before I arrived and I can prove it.

Boomershoot 2007 entry form improvements

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I’ve gradually been making improvements to the Boomershoot 2007 online entry form. It should now be sending email when you have all the required fields filled out and you select a position. I had a few problems getting that to work right for certain email addresses so I would appreciate you verfying that you can receive email via the entry form before I enable everything for actual entries. It will show that positions have been taken but ignore that. They will all be reset when it is enabled for actual entries.

I still have some more things to do such as making the confirmation email real, rather than “this is a test…”, and setting up the payment options. I’m off to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous tomorrow so I don’t know when I will get it completed and will actually be able to start accepting entries but it will be soon.

Interesting details on the liquid explosives

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Pretty much what I expected. I thought that particular explosive needed some more processing after being mixed and perhaps it does but they just aren’t telling us. Also, I would have used something other than a hypodermic needle but other than that there are no surprises here for me:

Scientists tested the ingredients linked to the London plot in the Rio Grande Valley south of Albuquerque, where the canyons and mountains form a perfect explosives testing range. Based on the materials found in Britain, investigators developed a specific theory of the bomb plot, two officials who have been briefed on the inquiry said.

With the seal on a sports drink called Lucozade intact, the plotters apparently intended to remove the drink with a hypodermic needle and replace it with highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide, a syrupy liquid once used as rocket fuel. Another bottle would be filled with a common household substance, which The New York Times agreed not to disclose at the request of Homeland Security officials. After the two were mixed, a detonator hidden in a hollowed-out AA battery would be used to set off the bomb, according to this theory.

What they don’t come right out and say is that they can’t protect us from bombs being brought or made on-board. As long as I am allowed to walk on-board without body cavity searches, remain conscious, unrestrained, and unobserved for at least a short time there will be a way for me to detonate an explosive on-board. Get used to it and stop spending so much money on useless “security”.

John is back

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Xenia’s boyfriend just came home on leave from his army training. Xenia has been anxiously awaiting his return after not seen him for months.

After saying, “Hi.” The first thing I asked him if he brought any hand grenades back for me. Alas, he says access is restricted.

A gentle reminder

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I don’t help people make bombs (exception given to the U.S. Military should they ask but that is exceedingly unlikely). And I don’t help idiots make explosives.

A case in point:

From: Andrewball20@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 5:48 AM
To: blog@joehuffman.org
Subject: Comments on: The View From North Central Idaho

i want 2 get some hydrogen peroxide beacause can u send me some and how much will it cost i live in england by the way.

Hydrogen peroxide is used for many things. But if someone doesn’t know where to get it then almost for certain they want it for making explosives. Otherwise they would go to a retailer that specializes in that particular legitimate use and ask for the substance that performed the function they wanted accomplished. For example you would get acetone for removing paint at the paint store and ask for “paint remover”. Or you would get acetone from the cosmetic department of the drug store by asking for fingernail polish remover.

And why else would he find me (actually boomershoot.org/general/bombhelp.htm and then to blog.joehuffman.org) via this google query:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=how+to+make+a+bomb

My response to this idiot:

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 6:42 AM
To: ‘Andrewball20@aol.com’
Subject: RE: Comments on: The View From North Central Idaho

 
In particular this link should be of use to you: http://nobombs.net/brucel/explosivegraphics.html
 
And as near as I can tell you don’t live in England. You probably sent this message from NYC and certainly from within the U.S.
 
And furthermore if you can’t figure out how to get hydrogen peroxide on your own you are far too stupid to know how to build explosives without hurting some innocent person. I wouldn’t worry about you getting a Darwin Award but hurting innocent people I do worry about.
 
-joe-

I may be wrong about him being from NYC. His email appears to have come from a dialup in NYC. His browsing appears to come in from the U.K.