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 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!
Proof by example:
From: Joe S
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:05 PM
To: joeh@boomershoot.org
Subject: little big boomheyi was wondering how to make a small bomb small enough to blow up in my back yardbut 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?
From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:41 PM
To: ‘Joe S’
Subject: RE: little big boomI’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 boomthanks 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.
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.
NO! I did not bring my chemistry set to Reno with me. This happened before I arrived and I can prove it.
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.
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”.
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.
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 Idahoi 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 IdahoHave you looked here yet: http://www.boomershoot.org/general/Bombhelp.htm ?In particular this link should be of use to you: http://nobombs.net/brucel/explosivegraphics.htmlAnd 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.
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.
