From Sean and Wendell.
Sean says, “In the spirit of Boomershoot Adventures…”
Skeet shooting has been replaced.
I’m amazed by his excellent aim shooting the shotgun from the hip and what appears to be without sights with the machine gun.
Now if those cars had been filled with Boomerite…
I’ve had several requests to blow up cars but people always lost interest when I told them they would have to help clean up the mess.
I’m working on the web page(s) for reserving a Boomershoot 2007 shooting position. You can see it here. For test purposes only at this time. Let me know what you think.
The pictures were taken March of 2006 on a rather “gray” day. During the actual event the grass is green even if it’s snowing, you have 40 MPH winds, and the forecast is looking up because they are only predicting 20 MPH winds and rain.
Actually, some times it’s beautiful (from Ry, click on the picture for the video):
Now, isn’t that beautiful? One of my favorite quotes says it so well:
I don’t know why everyone does not share my delight with explosives. If they don’t, it has to be some abhorrent character defect.
Ragnar Benson
From: Ragnar’s Guide to Home and Recreational Use of High Explosives
Page 110, Copyright 1988.
When I casually think of an explosion I think of a rapidly expanding sphere of gases. It turns out this is rarely the case. An explosion propagates from the point of detonation along a (typically expanding) “front”. Because the pressure at the front is much greater than both ahead and behind it the gases produced, which are behind the front, expand in a direction away from the front. This video from Ry demonstrates that. The exploding targets are 7″ x 7″ x 1.375″. The gases expand into the axis parallel to the 1.375″ dimension. Until this video we did not realize this.
Whatever shape of the explosive and whereever the point(s) of detonation are affects the directions of the explosion. This is used to great effect in the Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) which can, with a rather small amount of explosives, penetrate over 30 inches of renenforced concrete, or a foot of steel.
Ry gives us video from one of our tests for Boomershoot 2003–Project Fireball. And contrary to what Ry says at the end of the video it did tell us what we wanted to know. I just hadn’t told Ry the entirety of my test plan prior to pulling the trigger. It went like this:
The first target used diesel instead of gasoline for the fireball fuel. It’s safer to work with and has more energy per unit volume. We thought maybe it would work. It didn’t ignite. The second target used “farm gas” which no road tax had been paid. It was cheaper than the gas we got at the Moscow gas station and was the second choice for a fuel. It worked and hence it was what we used. The third and I think fourth targets were both the 10% ethanol gas that we had purchased from the Moscow gas station and had done all our previous development with. We didn’t know if the 10% ethanol was a critical component of our success and needed to know so dozens of shooters wouldn’t be disappointed (they weren’t).
What Ry was concerned about was that once a successful ignition occurred all the following ones were guaranteed. True, but once one of them ignited that was the one we were going to use. Had I shot them in a different order then it would have invalidated the tests and Ry would have been correct.
One of the many, many, endless and uncountable downsides is Leta’s breath which used to be the color of fairy wings and was so sweet it could cure broken hearts. Now it is a visible black smoke that curls into forked tongues and seethes with the voices of screaming demons. I cannot withhold kisses or hugs from her like I can from Jon because she’s just an innocent pawn in all of this, and a true test of parenthood has been willing myself to endure the pain of having my eyebrows roasted off my forehead when, after stuffing her mouth full of licorice, she crawls up into my lap and says HEEEEEEELLLLLOOOOOOO. I just pick up the flesh that melts off my face and stick it back on, pretending that it happens all the time.
Which reminded me of this image (click on the image to get the original 260 Kbyte image):
From Dave at Ozark Pyrotechnics:
It was just over 2 pounds of HE, that was heard over 12 miles away at a lake party, and neighbors 3 miles away came up wondering what in the hell I had blown up this time, as it shook their windows. I’ve set off as much as 10 pounds before that did not get this response. If I keep doing this I will need a seismograph and a deciblemeter.
The video is here.
He was testing a new mixture. He was pretty pleased with the results as he didn’t use any chlorates. Chlorates are considered rather hazardous and something we do use at Boomershoot which makes his experiments all the more interesting to me. Unfortunately when I asked for the recipe and an approximation of the cost per pound he told me:
I have no idea how sensitive the formula is, or really what I actually did. It was at 150 yards with a 20″ barrel Mini-14, with that cheap Russian Wolf 55 grain JHP steel case ammo. You know better than I how fast that bullet was going at that distance. Let me know what you do think the bullet was traveling at that distance.
I estimate between 2200 and 2300 fps.
I was just throwing stuff in thinking that the AN was of no value…
…I measured nothing, but did guess by volumes I’ve used before. The base was 400 mesh AL, with 200 mesh MG, 100-200 mesh MG/AL, the smallest Ti that I have (I’ll have to look up the size), powdered Graphite, and Antimony Trioxide 200 mesh? If I had Zr, I would have thrown that in too.
The AN was so bad that it was nothing but a mush that left your hand wet holding it. The only thing I can think of is that it still had great oxidizer properties and allowed a more complete mixture. The mixture was dry when finished, but was so completely mixed that it is was more like pouring silver colored garlic granules while cooking.
From the fireball (see the picture below) it’s obvious he had an excess of fuel. But that makes for a more interesting display for the participants.
More videos are here.
Anyway, Dave plans to put on another explosives shoot in October. Check with him before finalizing your travel plans I don’t think the date has been pinned down yet.
I have set the dates to be be the last weekend in April but the survey showed that enough people were interested in reserved positions that I want to implement that before accepting the entries.
The price will remain the same as last year. There were only a few in the survey that disagreed with the statement that the price was reasonable and one that strongly disagreed with the statement. But this last guy said he thought the price should be $4000/person so it sort of balances out.
The Precision Rifle Clinic will be April 27th and 28th.
The hotel package option isn’t going to happen this year. Too much work for me to do at this time. Maybe next year. The survey did show some interest in that. So you can go ahead and make your hotel reservations if you want. Suggestions are here.
Via Kim du Toit.
Walter was there when his fellow Boomershoot instructor, Adam, was killed in Iraq. Then he was seriously injuried in Iraq. Now Walter is going back as a civilian and photographer. It makes me uncomfortable to think about it but you can’t get much more “fully informed” than he is. I hope things go well.
My way overdue survey for Boomershoot 2006 is now available:
http://survey.boomershoot.org/
It doesn’t matter if you were there as a shooter, spotter, spectator, or even if you just heard about the event and didn’t attend. There is a survey for everyone.
I want feedback of any type. But just because I’m listening doesn’t mean I’ll change. But I will consider it. And if you want to send an email or give me a call that works too.
I plan to announce the dates and prices for Boomershoot 2007 sometime this weekend. If you have input that might affect that please get it to me before then. But even if you run across this posting in March of 2007 the survey will probably still be up and I’ll still be listening.
Thanks for your input.
Saturday I put in a culvert for easier access to the Boomershoot explosives magazine Ry named the Taj Mahal. This will make it easier for Boomershoot helpers (who are ATF approved explosives handlers) to get to the explosives magazine. I had been thinking about it for a while and finally made it happen. It was either that or get snorkel kits for their 4x4s. More pictures are here.
While I was in the neighborhood I talked to our neighbors just across the road from the Boomershoot site. I want to help them get high speed Internet access (currently they are just on dial-up) and then making the entire Boomershoot site a WiFi hot-spot. They seemed quite agreeable to it and I’ll probably work on that enhancement early next spring. It depends somewhat on the survey of Boomershooters and potential Boomershooters I’ll be doing this week (sometime tonight I’ll be posting the survey link here and sending out emails). If no one is interested then I might not bother with the hassle and expense.
Boomershoot–It’s not just one weekend a year, it’s a year around commitment.
Dave, of Ozark Pyrotechnics, and I exchanged several emails in the past few hours and he pointed out something I sort of knew but it hadn’t really bubbled up to full awareness. He is planning an explosives shoot next month. The format is a little different than the Boomershoot but the targets are similar. If Missouri is in your “neck of the woods” you should check it out.
Ozark Pyrotechnics is now selling binary exploding targets.
Barb and I visited Dave and his family a month ago and I saw a small stock of the targets ready for shipping. We didn’t ask for a demo so I can’t report on functionality but I fully expect they will work as advertised.
If you test them please send me a report.
During Wednesday’s drill, a K-9 trooper put the Semtex on the rear bumper of a pickup truck parked in a Massport pool lot. Troopers have so far disassembled a street sweeper in the hope of finding it sucked into the device. Last night it remained as lost as luggage.
O’Ryan Johnson
September 9, 2006
Security breach at Logan — ‘It’s Keystone Kops’
[If I lose explosives, either by misplacement or theft, I have to report it within 24 hours to the ATF. I hope these Troopers have the same paperwork and hassles I would have if I would have done this.–Joe]
Airport security is getting a lot of attention recently. And as I have often noted it doesn’t stand up well to scrutiny. Here is more data supporting my point:
NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) – The Transportation Security Administration is suspending installation of the only airport checkpoint device that automatically screens passengers for hidden explosives due to problems with the system’s reliability, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
“We are seeing some issues that we did not anticipate” with the devices known as “puffers,” the Times quoted Randy Null, the agency’s chief technology officer as saying.
Duh! It’s an insolvable problem.
They are trying however. I’m actually surprised at the level of effort they are putting into it–without realizing they can’t solve the problem:
Spread out on a table at the Transportation Security Laboratory outside Atlantic City last week, like a dim sum meal, was a collection of small dishes with samples of the explosives people here are working to defeat. They included Semtex, TNT, C4, British RDX and dynamite – several of which are popular among suicide bombers and have been used in successful airline plots – along with liquid explosives in bottles marked only “A,” “A1” and “B.”
Scientists and technicians carefully stuff these raw materials into computers, small electronic devices, shoes and cigar boxes, building every imaginable bomb and then testing them on detection equipment.
“We do our best to try to figure out all the options before someone else does,” said a laboratory technician who would identify himself only as “Mr. T” in accordance with a laboratory policy of not identifying staff members.
Criticism of the Homeland Security Department and the Transportation Security Administration is not so much directed at the 190 federal employees and contractors at the laboratory here, or at Susan Hallowell, the chemist who runs the place.
They are spending millions and millions of dollars on this and yet I am virtually certain that with a team of no more than five people and a couple hours of work by each team member we could shut down all commercial air traffic in the U.S. for a several days without breaking any existing explosives laws or anyone getting physically hurt (economic damage would be rather high however). Repeat once a week or so and within a couple months they would abandon their expensive and stupid attempts at preventing explosives from getting on planes.
But the problem is that most people really don’t appreciate being taught a lesson–especially if it makes them look incredibly stupid. If we were identified as their teachers, unlikely but possible, the odds are that the thanks we received would be in the form of free room and board and a “spouse” that rented us out several times a day for a couple packs of cigarettes.
A couple months ago I heard some rumors of police hostility to Tannerite in some jurisdictions. And I also keep getting hits from “interesting” places looking at my posts on Tannerite. I wonder if it’s getting a little bit too much attention from the wrong people. I’m nearly certain that it stores very well if kept cool and dry (and protected from theft!). You might want to stock up…
Here are some of the hits I’m getting:
This is the most recent:
| Domain Name | senate.gov ? (United States Government) | |||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address | 156.33.195.# (U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms) | |||||||||||||||||||
| ISP | U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms | |||||||||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Language | English (United States) en-us |
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| Operating System | Microsoft Win2000 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Browser | Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) |
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| Javascript | version 1.3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Monitor |
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| Time of Visit | Aug 30 2006 7:12:15 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Last Page View | Aug 30 2006 7:12:15 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length | 0 seconds | |||||||||||||||||||
| Page Views | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL | http://www.google.co…,RNWE:en&q=tannerite | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Engine | google.com | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Words | tannerite | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Entry Page | http://blog.joehuffm…ite And The Law.aspx | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Exit Page | http://blog.joehuffm…ite And The Law.aspx | |||||||||||||||||||
| Out Click | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Zone | UTC-8:00 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visitor’s Time | Aug 30 2006 7:12:15 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Number | 96,907 |
Update: Here’s another one:
| Domain Name | dsl.net ? (Network) | |||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address | 65.86.162.# (Charles County Sheriff’s office) | |||||||||||||||||||
| ISP | DSL.net | |||||||||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Language | English (United States) en-us |
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| Operating System | Microsoft WinXP | |||||||||||||||||||
| Browser | Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) |
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| Javascript | version 1.3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Monitor |
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| Time of Visit | Aug 31 2006 7:00:38 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Last Page View | Aug 31 2006 7:00:38 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length | 0 seconds | |||||||||||||||||||
| Page Views | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL | http://www.google.co…e&btnG=Google Search | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Engine | google.com | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Words | tannerite | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Entry Page | http://blog.joehuffm…ite And The Law.aspx | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Exit Page | http://blog.joehuffm…ite And The Law.aspx | |||||||||||||||||||
| Out Click | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Zone | UTC-5:00 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visitor’s Time | Aug 31 2006 10:00:38 am | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Number | 97,072 |
In May of 2005 ATF Investigator Crystal visited my explosives magazine for the mandated inspection. It was the first time she had seen my magazine and contrary to what every other ATF representative had said she wasn’t sure my locks met the letter of the regulations. She decided to ask the authorities “back east” about it and in June of 2005 sent me an email saying I had to correct the deficiency. I made what I thought were the required changes and sent her the pictures in September of 2005. I hadn’t heard anything about them by March of 2006 and was starting to get worried. Boomershoot 2006 was approaching and I required the use of the magazine. I wrote her an email and got a call from her a couple minutes later. I followed her suggestion and asked for a determination on the locks and hoods. Nothing by Boomershoot time and used her suggested Plan B.
After being not being home for a month I went through my big pile of mail tonight and found a letter from the ATF dated July 18, 2006. In it they said, in part:
After careful review, ATF has determined that the 1/4-inch protective steel coverings do not prevent lever action on the locks. However, ATF believes that the combination of the construction of the locks and the protective steel coverings is substantially equivalent to the requirements of the regulations. Therefore, you are granted a variance from 27 CFR, Part 555, Subpart K, to use the alternate locks for you Type-1 outdoor magazine.
Finally! Bureaucracy moves slowly and unsurely. It wasn’t quite what I wanted but it’s good enough.
I can again legally store thousands of pounds of explosives in the Taj Mahal if I so desire. And I do desire that. Planning for Boomershoot 2007 is underway.
Airport security is a joke. It only exists to make some people feel better. Case in point:
HOUSTON – A college student’s checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight to Houston from Argentina on Friday contained dynamite, and federal authorities are investigating why he had it and what he intended to do with it, an FBI spokeswoman said.
“Certainly we are doing a thorough investigation and trying to find out what this individual’s intention was in trying to bring dynamite here,” FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said Friday.
The dynamite was found during a luggage search in a federal inspection station at Bush Intercontinental Airport shortly after Continental Flight 52 landed about 6 a.m. Friday. Marlene McClinton, spokeswoman for the Houston Airport System, said a bomb-sniffing dog “had a hit” on explosive residue during a further search.
Read that closely. They found the dynamite AFTER the plane landed.
This has to be one the easiest to detect cases. One of the problems with explosives sniffers is that someone can custom make an explosive that isn’t detected by existing detection devices. The problem is similar to the computer anti-virus vendors. They have databases of “virus signatures” they compare suspect attachments and files to. If it matches something they have in their database they flag it as a virus and handle it appropriately. If a new virus shows up they have to update their database with the new signature. Commercially available explosives, such as dynamite, should be within the capabilities of the explosives sniffer.
Even in this easy case the system failed. We don’t yet know why it failed this time but in general it’s an exceedingly tough problem because of what is called the “attack surface”. There are many hundreds of airport, thousands of sensors, doors, gates, fences, and walls defining the “secure” areas, and tens of thousands of people with privileged access to the “secure” areas. Each of these airports, each of these secure areas, and each of these people is a potential point of attack. Together they form the “attack surface”. Because the attack surface is so large the probability of their being a weak spot someplace is very high. Hence the problem is very difficult to solve.
IMHO the problem is so difficult to solve using the existing paradigm we should divert all the existing resources to a different paradigm. That new paradigm is being on the offense rather than being entirely defensive/reactive. First (back in the 70’s) we defended against guns, then box-cutters and knives, then cigarette lighters, and most recently liquids and gels. We are always defending against the most recent attack. We need to make them be defending against our attacks. This paradigm change would also stop the infringment of some of our rights.
But, as you know, airport “security” isn’t about actual security. It’s about making some people feel better.
Update: I forgot to mention that Sean gave me the link to the article.
I remembered as soon as I heard it, Barb and I mispronounce Missouri. It’s pronouced mi-ZER-ah by the locals here. With that small error corrected we are doing fine (other than the marginal Internet connection).
Monday was spent in Branson. In the morning we visited the Titanic museum. We were quite impressed. But why such an extensive Titanic museum in the Midwest? I could see having it in New York City, Belfast, or even London, but Branson Missouri? Never mind. We liked it a great deal.
Monday afternoon we rode the ducks with “Captain Clyde.” Very funny and pleasingly informative.
Monday evening we had dinner at the Shogun Restaurant and were pleased with both the food and the show.
After dinner we went to the Jim Stafford Show. He and his kids are very talented musically but the humor was disappointing.
Tuesday afternoon we visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Mansfield. I haven’t read even one of her “Little House on the Prairie” books or watched one of the T.V. shows but still enjoyed the museum. Her daughter Rose Wilder Lane was quite impressive too and a large section of the museum is devoted to her. Rose is considered seminal force behind the Libertarian party!
Late on Tuesday afternoon we found our way deep into the “hills” to the home of Ozark Pyrotechnics owner Dave and his family. The highest point in the state is 1772 feet and the lowest is 230 feet above sea level so it’s not really possible to have “hills” that qualify to our Idaho sensibilities. Dave is a self described hillbilly. If Dave and his family are representative of hillbillies then it is no insult to be called one. For hours Dave and talked about Boomershoot and his first effort at a similar event while Barb was entertained by the two girls:
Dave, knowing we were celebrating our 30th anniversary this week fixed us a wonderful dinner, complete with champagne, and put on a fireworks show for us. This wasn’t just a few fountains, sparklers and firecrackers. This was a real fireworks show that required a call to the local sheriff and the fire marshall beforehand. Here is a picture of Dave with his idea of real fireworks (the biggest shells for us were ‘only’ four inches):
Update: I forgot to mention the fireflies! Barb and I had never seen fireflies before. We saw our first fireflies Tuesday night as we were preparing the fireworks. The dark haired girl in the picture above caught a couple and showed them to us up close.
It was such a cool way to celebrate our anniversary. Other people celebrate anniversaries by going to Hawaii or Europe. We visited hillbillies in the Ozarks and saw fireflies and our own private fireworks display. How many people can claim an experience like that?
I’m getting a bunch of hits from people searching for liquid explosive recipes. You won’t find them on any of my sites. They are too unstable for my use. The explosive that probably was planned for the most recent event in the U.K. is this one. Note what is said about it:
For its instability, it has been called the “Mother of Satan”.
Even nitroglycerin is more stable.
But if you are planning a one way trip to meet your 72 virgins I suppose that doesn’t much matter.
It’s like a B-grade science fiction movie: Yellow jacket nests as large as Volkswagens.
Although I am fond of the saying, “There is no problem the proper application of high explosives can’t solve.”, I’m not convinced Ry has the correct approach with high explosives. I think some tests are in order to test that hypothesis.
