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.

Culvert for Taj Mahal access

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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.

October explosive shoot in Missouri

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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.

Exploding targets for sale

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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.

Quote of the day–O’Ryan Johnson

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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]

Sometimes it’s tempting to teach them a lesson

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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.

Are Tannerite’s days numbered?

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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  
Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  District of Columbia
City  :  Washington
Lat/Long  :  38.8933, -77.0146 (Map)
Distance  :  2,072 miles
Language   English (United States)
en-us
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)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1024 x 768
Color Depth  :  16 bits

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  
Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  Maryland
City  :  La Plata
Lat/Long  :  38.5163, -77.0154 (Map)
Distance  :  2,085 miles
Language   English (United States)
en-us
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)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1024 x 768
Color Depth  :  32 bits

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

Taj Mahal locks are approved

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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.

Just in case you had some doubts

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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.

Missouri

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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?

Liquid explosives

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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.

More tests are needed

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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.

Summer Boomershoots

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NOT!

Those of you that have requested more frequent Boomershoots don’t know what you are asking for. It was 104F there today.

I went out to the Boomershoot site to inventory and organize a few things then fix the broken table we use for making reactive targets that sometimes fell down when we’re using it. For some reason my helpers seem uncomfortable with a hundred pounds of explosives falling to the ground all around them. I can’t imagine why.

Anyway, I arrived by about 8:45 AM and it was already warm. The Taj Mahal was buzzing with wasps and I threw out between five and ten nests and killed a half dozen or so individual wasps. I got stung by a wasp I never did see. I did all my inventory and organizational chores as the temperature kept rising. It was really hot and there wasn’t even the hint of a breeze. I was dripping wet with sweat even though I was working in the shade. I left about 10:45 and when I arrived at my parents house two miles away it was 99F. By 13:30 it had risen to 104F.

Doug and I went back out about 15:30 after the temperature had dropped back down to 99F. We fixed the table and scoped out the possibility of putting in a culvert to get better access during our wet springs. After the last trip through the creek this spring Scott said he would need a snorkel if he had to go through again. And the year before that Ry got his van stuck there (as well as in the middle of the field).

No matter how great the ballistics would be on a day like today you don’t want to lay out in the middle of dry hay field when it’s over 100F and the wasps are stinging you. You really, really don’t.

Visiting Missouri

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Barb and I will be in Branson, Missouri during the middle of August to celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. We will be visiting Ozark Pyrotechnics (who put on a dynamite shoot the week before Boomershoot 2006) as well as various activities both Barb and I will enjoy. If anyone else in the area and would like to get together for dinner or something let me know.

AK clays

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Suppose you could mount a red-dot scope securely on the top of an AK rifle. What would that do for you in terms of target acquistion speed and accuracy? 

The answer is AK clays (~60 MByte .MOV file) are a reality.

Brought to you, in more ways than one, by UltiMAK.

One of these days we are going to make Boomer Clays work.  If nothing else I’m going to fill a milk jug with Boomerite and lob it into the air with giant slingshot for Lyle to shoot.

A warning to practical jokers everywhere

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If this ever happens to me or anyone I care about I will utilize 20 pounds of HE to demonstrate my displeasure with their toys.  Anyone that tries to stop me will have their bullet riddled carcass used for charge confinement.  The video of THAT will then be posted on the Internet.

Bomb help 2005 update

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I’ve updated the Bomb Help 2005 web page.  There are a lot more I need to put up–including a bunch from 2006.  I just haven’t gotten around to getting their email and my responses on the website.  I just hadn’t felt like responding to these clueless twerps for the last year.  I’d look at their messages and draw a blank so they just queued up in my “Bomb help” folder until today.  Then I sort of cut loose when a new one came in today.  Altogether, I think there was 23 of them I responded to today. The people on the Bomb Help Fan Club email list probably thought I was spamming them. 

My favorites from this batch are here:

Oh, I’m getting responses back from some of them too.  This could be lots of fun.

Recoiling in pleasure

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Ry has put up a video documenting some people with their first experience. They seem to like it. I know I do. It’s safe for work in all but the most bigoted of work environments.

Heinlein in leather

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One of my children’s favorite high-school teachers (and a former Marine and a Boomershooter), Mr. Kaag, wrote to tell me:

I know that you probably have the complete Heinlein in a jumble of various paperback and hardback editions, as I do.

Did you know that after The Master died, Virginia renewed all of the copyrights? The lady has a whim of steel—as the most popular Science Fiction writer ever, his publisher wanted to continue to print copies of the canon, and when they asked her for permission, she acceded. But, and here’s the kicker, she politely required they put back in all of the stuff they had taken out because it wasn’t “politically-correct”, like the pro-gun parts of “Red Planet”. So the Heinlein published in the last 5 years or so is all unexpurgated. You might want some new copies. There’s a bunch more to “Stranger”, for example.

And speaking of which, Virginia is no longer among us and the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Foundation has done a joint venture with Meisha-Merlin Books, and is publishing the complete collection of Heinlein, including some previously-unpublished articles and speeches, in a fine leather-bound collection for about $2500 on up.

Here’s the URL: www.meishamerlin.com

I am saving up my shekels.

With a $2200 minimum entry price I’m going to have to pass but I’ll do some drooling.

I wonder

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There are a couple things that come to mind when I read this:

TORONTO (Reuters) – A group of Canadian residents arrested for “terrorism related offenses” were inspired by al Qaeda, had amassed enough explosives to build huge bombs and were planning to blow up targets in densely populated Ontario, police said on Saturday.

Mike McDonell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the group had acquired three metric tons of ammonium nitrate — or three times the amount used in the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City — as they sought to “create explosive devices.”

The first thing I wonder about is will this cause people to walk up any?  Or will they just figure, “Oh, it’s our fault for being in the mid-east, if we weren’t there it would have happened.”  People can’t seem to realize that the Islamic extremists have been trying to convert the world to Islam by force for several hundred years now.  It’s not going to stop anytime soon.

The second thing I wonder about is ammonium nitrate readily available in Canada?  If so I wonder if I can pick myself up a 1000 pounds or so for Boomershoot 2010 or whenever it is that I will exhaust my current supply.

Quote of the day–Ragnar Benson

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The discovery of sugar powder was a landmark event in the history of the Benson family.  In total significance, it ranked right up there with Pearl Harbor and catching our first mink.  For my brother and I, it certainly was the moral equivalent of our first piece of ass.

Ragnar Benson
Chapter 7, page 85
Ragnar’s Guide to Home and Recreational Use of High Explosives
[Sugar powder is a substitute for black powder made from household sugar and potassium chlorate.–Joe]