Wile E. Coyote’s got nothing on us.
Steve Joachim
April 30, 2006
After blasted an 80-pound anvil over 100 feet into the sky, which then buried itself into the ground, for halftime entertainment at Boomershoot 2006.
Category Archives: Boomershoot
Boomershoot 2006
Boomershoot 2006 was the best ever. No doubt about it. I’m way too tired to say everything I want to about it now but here are some links to what the Spokesmans Review (a Spokane area paper) had to say about it:
- Boomershoot 2006 (video Journal)
- Boom with a view (on the front page!)
The high point of the event for me was seeing 17 year-old Sara Young (Xenia’s friend and one of the workers for Boomershoot) detonate a 700 yard boomer on her first shot. Of course she was using the rifle of one the Precision Rifle Clinic’s Instructors and had some expert coaching from him, but it was still quite a thrill for both Sara and I.
Quote of the day–James Hagengruber
For some shooters, the event is all about marksmanship. Others say they’re driven by politics – how the combination of guns and explosives is the ultimate expression of their constitutional rights as well as a gentle show of force for anybody watching in the federal government.
James Hagengruber
May 1, 2006
Spokesman Review: Boom with a view
Quote of the day–James Huffman-Scott
It’s an overcast day and vampires could attack at any time. We take safety very seriously.
James Huffman-Scott
Boomershoot April 30, 2006
Explaining the reason for the wooden stakes being given to every participant at check in. The real reason, which James was not allowed to know, was that each shooter was to get a personal target to put at close (20 to 30 yards) range after lunch. More context from James:
Random person checking in “What’s the stake for?”
Me: “Killing vampires.”
Possible follow ups:
“Bullets won’t hurt a vampire, they’ll just piss it off. That’s why you need a stake.”
“It’s an overcast day and vampires could attack at any time. We take safety very seriously.”
Last post until Boomershoot 2006 is over
I suspect this will be my last post for a few days. I’ll either have Xenia post a “Quote of the Day” or back date them after Boomershoot 2006 is over. I have to work all day today at my new job then drive home to Idaho tonight. Thursday morning I head out to the Boomershoot range to prepare for the big event. No internet access from Thursday morning until late Sunday night. By late Sunday night I will be ready for a shower and sleep.
Boomershoot 2005 video
It’s not done yet but it’s close. And it’s nearly seven MBytes. Boomershoot 2005 history video.
Update: It’s midnight and I just finished it. It’s nearly 7.5 MBytes now. I just need to make 100 CD’s with it (and some other stuff) on it. It’s taking about four minutes per CD so that means I should get to bed about 6:00 AM.
The high resolution version being put on the CD is here (nearly 39 MBytes).
Boomershoot 2006 weather
Weather reports are looking very good. From My-Cast (using the lat/long of 46.5422, -116.39128):
| DAY |  |
Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Mon |
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| SKY | |
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| HI TEMP (F) | |
67 | 71 | 73 | 78 | 77 | 73 | 70 |
| LO TEMP (F) | |
42 | 42 | 46 | 48 | 49 | 49 | 47 |
I’d like to believe this will be the best Boomershoot ever. There is still lots of work to do but things are coming together quite well.
Repressive laws
It may be there is more to it than what appears in the paper. And of course the kid is living and going to school in the repressive Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. What from what I see in the paper, except for the recreational drugs (which should be legal but I would ban them in my house) if it were my kid I would be asking the police, “And your point is?” Instead they are charging him with possession of bomb-making materials.
STOUGHTON — Alexander J. Wilson, 17, who was charged with having bomb-making materials after an incident in March was ordered held on $100,000 surety or $10,000 cash bail Monday in Stoughton District Court.
…
When police stopped Wilson’s car March 29 in the O’Donnell Middle School parking lot next to the high school grounds, authorities reported finding gunpowder and a pellet gun.
Also found were model “rocket engines, igniters for those, wires and miscellaneous other stuff that could be used to make bombs,” said acting Police Chief Christopher Ciampa.
Most of the materials were in the trunk of the suspect’s car, and some were under the front seat, the chief said.
Police also recovered a small amount of marijuana and marijuana residue in a pipe, Ciampa said.
The problem is that it’s a rare house that doesn’t contain materials appropriate for making a bomb. People shouldn’t be charged with possession of things that might be used in a illegal fashion. Only if there is clear intent to do harm to someone else or someone else’s property should they be harassed by the police–which is the way it is in Idaho with explosives.
Boomershoot dinner
I’m posting this everywhere I think Boomershoot spectators might be checking for information. There is a dinner on Saturday April 29th the evening before Boomershoot 2006. Specators as well as participants are welcome. Please get your reservations in soon. Details are here.
Bullets and boomers
I’ve added a new page to the Boomershoot.org website. It’s on the relationship between bullet shapes and the detonation of boomers.
Boomershoot 2006 blogging part VIII
Lots of hits now that we are only 11 days away from the big event (and Ben, bless his heart, can’t seem to think of or blog about anything else):
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Just One Question (minor mention of Boomershoot)
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My primary (actually Ben was so excited about this post he forgot to give it a title)
Boomershoot in the news
As Stephanie has explained to me if you want the media to cover your event you need to write the story for them. Compare this article to our news release.
Keep this in mind when you are complaining about the bias against guns in the media. Don’t hide in the closet. Give the media something positive to say about gun owners and make it really easy for them. Then you can gloat as the anti-gun people whine about the bias in the media.
It’s veni, not vini
As Jason pointed out to me with this link the proper phrase should be “Veni, vidi, BOOM!”. Not Vini. Vidi. BOOM! as in the quote of the day from last week. Unfortunately this wasn’t pointed out to me until after there was one order for a shirt already “in production” before I got the image corrected and back up in the Boomershoot 2006 merchandise shop. I don’t know if that means the image will actually make it onto the shirt or not. So… it’s possible there will be just one shirt on the whole planet that has the wrong slogan on it. It will be a collectors item.
That wasn’t the only change I made either. Here is the before and after:
Vini. Vidi. BOOM!
[I came. I saw. I blew stuff up!]
After:
Veni, vidi, BOOM!
[I came, I saw, I BLEW STUFF UP!]
Order soon if you want to have your stuff in time for the event. There won’t be shirt sales at the event.
Quote of the day–Bruce at mAss Backwards
Vini. Vidi. Boom.
[I came. I saw. I blew stuff up.]
Bruce at mAss Backwards
The winning Boomershoot 2006 slogan entry.
Congratulations Bruce.
Clean Jeep
I managed to get Barb’s Jeep clean before she saw it:
Bomb help web page gets some attention
Yesterday I got a call from some reporter at a Boston area newspaper, The Enterprise. She was looking at the title to this web page: Want Some Help Building a Bomb? In a very hesitant voice she ask, “Why would anyone put up a web page like that?” I asked if she had read the web page. “No.” Okay, so I have to start at the beginning with her… I was tempted to ask her if she knew how to read but figured that would make a poor first impression and I generally try to stay on the good side of people that buy their ink by the barrel. So I explained how I make explosives for recreational purposes and I get email from people wanting to build bombs and I tell them no and if appropriate forward the email on to the appropriate law enforcement agency. She seemed particularly interested in this story about the 13 year old kid waiting in the headteacher’s office for his parents to arrive.
After telling a few stories about how stupid some of these people are–I put all this email on my website telling about how I turned in everyone yet I still get email (and calls from reporters) from people thinking I actually provide help on illegal activities. She then got a lot more friendly and enthusiastic about what I’m doing. It turns out that some kid in her area got caught with pipe bomb materials in his car at high school. Talk turned to “It’s so easy to find bomb building instructions on the Internet” and she was tasked with writing a story about it. The librarian did the research and the reporter was calling the people with the web pages to ask “Why?” She asked a bunch of questions about have I helped catch any other kids with bombs or bomb building intentions. I told her I didn’t really know because it’s rare the police will get back to me with that sort of information. I told her I did get one kid arrested but it wasn’t related to my web page.
She then went on to ask about “this hobby”. I explained Boomershoot to her and she keep asking “Why haven’t I heard of this before?” Again I refrained from pointing out the obvious about this question. She works in Massachusetts, guns are very restricted there. Boomershoot is near Orofino Idaho. We are separated by about 2200 miles and totally alien cultures. I told her, “It’s been in Newsweek, Outside Magazine, and this year we have a magazine coming from the U.K.” Anyway she started seemed quite interested in Boomershoot and people coming from all over the continent to this event and generally seemed quite enthusiastic. I’ll be checking out their website everyday for a while to see if she actually publishes a story on what we talked about.
Long day
Ry and I were out the door of my house in Moscow by 7:30 AM then traveled the hour to the Boomershoot range and made about 45 pounds of reactive targets by 11:00. We tested them with .223 and .50 BMG ball ammo. With the .223 we got detonation 50% of the time at 460 yards which figures out to about 1700 fps. On the .50 BMG there have been problems in the past. Smaller calibers were popping them off just fine but the .50 in ball wouldn’t. No problem today — at least at 460 yards. We also tested some steel targets with the .223 (no damage at 460 yards with VMAX bullets). Targets six weeks old detonated from 20 yards away with a .223 (last year targets just a four weeks old wouldn’t detonated with a .223). Just as we were leaving some guy drives up, walks up to the driver side of the Jeep as we are pulling out on the road and asks, “Are you going to be doing that next weekend?” “No.” “Good!” and he walked off.
Pictures of Barb’s Jeep later. I got a comment of “Been four-wheeling, huh?” when we stopped for a bathroom break in Ellensburg. I didn’t know mud covered Jeeps attracted the attention of pretty college-age girls… I’ll have to keep that in mind for the next time Barb is out of town.
Update: Ry has a couple posts up here and here about our adventures this weekend. And here is the picture of Barb’s Jeep after we got back from the Boomershoot range:
Recalculating the numbers
On February 15 I posted about some tests I did with the new Boomerite mix. At 630 yards the targets didn’t detonate with with .223 ammo I was using. I was using muzzle velocity numbers from several years ago for the same brand of ammo in the same gun but I didn’t trust the numbers because the point of impact was lower than I expected. I measured the muzzle velocity again and found the MV was 135 slower than my previous numbers.
Using the new MV I recalculated the target velocities of my tests in February. My best estimate is the target velocity was 1182 fps. Too slow to expect detonation.
Assuming the weather holds Ry and I will redo the tests tomorrow to find out if 1500 fps .223 bullets will detonate the targets. 1500 fps is the expected velocity of my .223 bullets at about 550 yards under Boomershoot conditions.
Boomershoot.org banned
I got an email from someone that works at the Hanford site for an organization other than Pacific Northwest National Laboratory which has close ties to Hanford as well. He said Boomershoot.org is blocked from his work. Interesting…. I must have quite a reputation. Or else I just flatter myself. I’m not sure which.
I know it is blocked from Xenia’s school. I don’t know the reason there.
A friend who works at Cingular told me, “The website was blocked because of relating to Violence…” I’m insulted by that.
Although I forget who it was someone told me it was blocked from their work access because of related to criminal activities or some such thing. Now that I am really insulted about.
I like to think these things are, as I suggest in the FAQ, because some Puritan is afraid that someone, someplace, is having fun.
Boomershoot blogging part VII
I normally would have waited another week or so to mention more Boomershoot blog posts but this is a special occasion. I forgot one posting last time and today I noticed the first ever negative posting.
The second one is the negative one. And Boomershoot is just a extra brain fart from a barking moonbat that can’t stay on topic. Here is the most of the relevent text:
IT’S APPARENTLY CALLED BOOMERSHOOT AND AS FAR AS I CAN SEE IT IS ONLY FOR THE TOTALLY BRAIN DEAD. NOT THAT ANYONE WHO STOPS BY HERE FITS THAT CATEGORY OF COURSE. NOLA IS STILL A RUIN AND WE HAVE TWATS SPENDING LARGE CHUNKS OF CASH ON SHIT LIKE THIS. THE WORLD IS A SAD PLACE INDEED.
[shrug] I left a comment thanking him for the free advertising. It probably won’t be approved but it was worth a try.