Last post for a few days

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Barb and I are taking the Jeep deep into the woods of Idaho for the next few days.  We hope to exit in someplace Montana sometime on Sunday or Monday.  Obviously there won’t be any posting until we reach civilization again.  The ‘compound’ here in Moscow will be guarded by one of our adult children with training on both handguns and rifles and a goodly supply of ammo for them.  There is a 12-gauge shotgun and ammo as well should there be a need for further “discouragement” of goblins.  And if they wanted to get a little creative they could break out my “chemistry set” since they have experience with that too.  But I would frown on that since the AN supply is limited and it would be a hassle fixing the craters and windows when we get back.

While I’m gone remember what the 4th of July is all about.

Quote of the day–President Theodore Roosevelt

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The great body of our citizens shoot less as time goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world…The first step — in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come — is to teach men to shoot!

President Theodore Roosevelt’s last message to Congress

[Schoolgirls and women should be added to the list. — Joe]

Fertilizer grade Ammonium Nitrate is history

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We took another blow to our freedom this week without it breaking into the main stream media (minor news sources only), without a law being passed in Congress, the President signing an Executive Order, or the Supreme Court redefining the Constitution.

I got this email on Tuesday from my brother:

—–Original Message—–
From: Doug Huffman
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 5:18 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: Fertilizer problem

Joe,

I just heard at Primeland an hour ago, Agrium has announced they are
shutting down their ammonium nitrate production.  They have about 4000
lbs left at Cavendish, that is the end of it.  They indicated we can
have that if we want it, but we have no place to store it.

This announcement seems to have caught everyone off guard.  We knew
Agrium was the last producer of it, but everyone seemed to think they
would be producing for a few more years.

Doug

Agrium (see also their press release on this topic) was apparently the last remaining manufacturer of AN in this country and I think on this continent.  Primeland is the supplier for a lot of the chemicals in the Cavendish area where the Boomershoot is held.  The last several years (when I started using more than about 200 pounds in a year) I bought this main component from them.  One of the local workers at Primeland has attended the Boomershoot as a spectator, has a friend that shoots there occasionally and “really wants to attend” but frequently has to work during that busy time of year for the farmers.  He called up Doug to give me a chance to grab the last of it they had left.  Doug and I knew this day was coming but thought it was at least a couple years away.  I was going to wait until the end of this month and buy maybe 1000 pounds for next year’s event.  This forced my hand.  There won’t be any more fertilizer grade AN produced in this country.  I barely mentioned this to anyone because we have people wanting to shut us down and cutting off my supply of AN for next year would have been way to easy for them until I had it in the back of our truck.  I had to improvise on storage and store some of it in places I really didn’t want to store it (fear of loss, not fear of hazard).  But I did it because of the importance of having a supply for the next few years.

We bought it today to give us the optimal amount of time to get the money in before the bill comes due.  Please send in your Boomershoot 2006 entries early if you can.  I need the money to cover that bill when it comes in on the 19th.  I don’t have a job right now and things are a lot tighter around here than I would like for them to be.

I had about 700 pounds left from my previous purchase of 2600 pounds in 2004.  Today I bought 3480 pounds.  That’s a total of about 4200 pounds.  To put that in perspective, McVeigh (spit, spit) used about 5000 pounds.  He is a major contributor to the shut down of production in this country.  Anyway, 4200 pounds is enough to make a pretty sizable boom or collection of booms.  Assuming Boomershoot uses about the same number and size of targets my supply will last for five years.  That should give me enough time to find a supplier of explosive grade Ammonium Nitrate that isn’t premixed with fuel oil or something else that ruins it for me.  Or maybe find another explosive to use for the targets.

An FYI–the main ingredient in Tannerite is ammonium nitrate also.

Here are a few pictures from today’s efforts:


Drying out the inside of some of the storage containers.


3480 pounds of Ammonium nitrate


My brother Doug helping to fill the containers.

There are a few more pictures here.

Ammonium Nitrate in the news this week:

Simplot announces shutdown
Agrium shutdown in Canadian news
Ammonium Nitrate restictions in Australia

Boomershoot 2005 and 2006 info

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Early this morning I sent out the following email to the Boomershoot announcement alias (subscribe here).

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 12:44 AM
To: Boomershoot Announcements
Subject: [BoomerShoot] 2006 and 2005 info.

Prices and dates are set for 2006.  Sign up early, get a discount, and make sure you will be a participant rather than a spectator:

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

See also:

http://www.boomershoot.org/2006/blast.htm

Gene Econ put together a great AAR and it took me over a month to get around to letting you guys know about it:

http://www.boomershoot.org/2005/2K5AAR.doc

There are links to hundreds of pictures of this year’s event here:

http://www.boomershoot.org/2005/blast.htm

The Boomershoot 2005 Video by Davis Productions is out now.  I’m sure you can still buy a copy.  Here is my blog posting about it:

https://blog.joehuffman.org/2005/06/30/boomershoot-2005-video/

-joe-
—-
https://blog.joehuffman.org
http://www.modernballistics.com
http://www.boomershoot.org

Quote of the day–Eugene Econ

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Blood flowing into the eyes combined with pain has a negative impact on seeing and trigger control.

Eugene Econ
Boomershoot 2005 Precision Rifle Clinic After Action Review

Most everything is here

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I unpacked all the boxes I received from PNNL the other day.  Almost everything appears to be there. They even returned an almost empty shampoo bottle and an empty baby food jar that once upon a time had some change in it.  The first box I opened had the following items in it which I figured would be a high priority item to retain “for evidence” or something.  A 100 yard target and a 500 yard target:


Click here for a high resolution version.


500 yard target.  Click here for a high resolution version.


100 yard target.  Click here for a high resolution version.

The second box I opened had the items I most wanted right away–my Boomershoot hat and HP-48 calculator.  And shortly thereafter I found my collection of books on improvised explosives such as Ragnar’s Guide to Home and Recreational Use of High Explosives which I also thought might be something they would want to hold on to. 

It’s possible there is something I have forgotten about but right now the only thing I didn’t find was some paperwork for applying to Oregon for a Concealed Carry License.  That was in the filing cabinet they claimed they didn’t have a key for.  If I don’t get it it’s not a big deal.  I think I have copies here anyway.

Now I have several garbage sacks filled with Styrofoam peanuts to give to UltiMAK.

Wow!

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This guy is pushing the envelope in main stream media:

Thomas Jefferson clearly stated that when government becomes oppressive, the people have the right to throw it off and establish a new government of their choosing. I am beginning to think it is time for us to start throwing.

He expresses a little bit of fear at being so outspoken too:

About the only freedom we have left is that of the press, and I would not be surprised to hear that I am no longer allowed to speak my mind in this column.

Yup.  I could see that happening.

And what caused him to be so outspoken?  No surprise here either:

…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Amendment Five, U.S. Constitution.
Why is it that the more powerful you become the less ability you have to read clear and precise language? The Fifth Amendment states clearly that private property can only be taken for public use, and that such property must be paid for at a fair rate. How then did five U.S. Supreme Court justices decide that it was legal for the city of New London, Connecticut to force five landowners off their property so it can be given to a giant corporation? The city has no plans to use this property for highways, schools, jails or any other public use.

I think Nicolo Machiavelli may have it right.

Boomershoot 2006

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Tommorrow I will announce the dates and pricing for Boomershoot 2006.  I will send a notice to the Yahoo group when I do.  Please either sign up to be on the announcement list or keep a watch on the web site.  There will be discounts for early entries and with all the publicity we got from the King 5 Evening Magazine show (online video is here) it probably will be a good idea to sign up early.

Boomershoot 2005 video

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Scott Davis (Davis Productions) has finished the Boomershoot 2005 video.  Someone in my house must have picked it up and didn’t bother to tell me it was here.  I had seen the case sitting around for a week or two but didn’t look close enough to see the title.  Barb and I watched it last night.  Very nice.  😀

It not as heavy on the interviews as last year but does have interviews with Chuck Hurst, Jack du Toit (Son&Heir of Kim du Toit), and Sara Young.  There may be some others but I forget right now.  There is also video of the fireball opening, the bowling ball motar, and the anvil shoot.  Kirk’s rifle was featured prominately (as he noted in this blog posting).  There is video of Ry and I being rather animated at one of the shooters meetings.  Thankfully our blatherings were muted and music was overlayed.

I’m nearly certain you can still get a copy by contacting Scott.

Another picture of Amy at West Point

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My brother found another picture of his daughter at West Point.  She is in the foreground just right of center.

Quote of the day–Mohandas Gandhi

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In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.

Mohandas Gandhi

Enabling an old geocache

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One of the first geocaches in the Moscow (Idaho) area was this one which I placed March 11, 2001.  A fire on September 8, 2001 destroyed it.  I replaced it on April 4, 2002.  Then the location went under new managment and no trespassing signs were put up (unrelated to geocaching).  Barb and I moved it a few months ago but I just now got around to getting good coordinates, a picture, and reactivating it.  It used to be called “Stumpy” but I renamed it “Rocky” in the new location.  Here are current pictures of the cache:


In the ammo can under the rock.


“Rocky” from a few feet away.

Testing an UltiMAK prototype

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The UltiMAK office is just a few hundred yards away from my house and I have been hanging out there some recently.  They asked me if I would like to test out a prototype scope mount for them.  They supplied the gun and the ammo I just needed to supply the trigger time.  Yesterday, after taking care of my license to manufacture explosives renewal, I went to the range.  Below are some sample pictures–see the rest here.


A new alloy was being tested on the scope mount. No anodizing on the prototype, just the bare aluminum.


The view from 106 yards away.


About three fourths of the way through the tests the target stand on the right blew over and I took a picture of the targets before I continued.

I was shooting the targets in a quasi-random order. For each five shot magazine I would put at least one bullet on each target before shooting a target a second time. Each shot took, on the average, about one second from 106 yards away.  Each magazine change took about seven seconds.  I went through about 450 rounds nearly as fast as I could reload the magazines and get the gun back on target between shots and magazine changes.

The end result was the prototype worked fine.  It got very hot though.  Even the scope got hot enough that I couldn’t keep my hand on it.  Lyle, at UltiMAK, told me that there have been times during their tests they got the scope hot enough that rain drops boiled when they hit it.  Of course these are intended to be torture tests rather than reality testing.

Quote of the day–Greg Hamilton

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Yeah, I think it’s a gun day.

Greg Hamilton
Insights Chief Self Defense Instructor
February 6, 1999
Explaining that sometimes you just have to accept the fact that unarmed self-defense doesn’t cut it in all situations. Eg., you’ve been trying all your de-escalation techniques for avoiding a fight, but you find that you’re faced with disparity of force.

Explosives license renewal

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I got an email from Crystal yesterday.  It said, in part:

Did you send your renewal paperwork in? Maybe it hasn’t been input yet, but licensing data this morning shows July 1, 2005 as expiration and doesn’t indicate a pending renewal. Licensing goes by received date, not postmarked date.

Ouch!  I was thinking it was July 29th, not the 1st.  I sent a reply back thanking her and started hustling: Fingerprints, special photo, lots of forms to fill out, create a map of the water flow near the manufacturing site.  This morning I still had a question and called her.  She had a great answer and said she would call the recipent of my paperwork to let her know it was coming and that Crystal had signed off on things in May.  Crystal called a few minutes later saying things were fine and send it to a different address, directly to the person reviewing the material.  I got it into the FedEx box a few minutes ago.

Note to all the people who filled out the Employee Possessor Questionnaire for the next Boomershoot: Those questionnaires went in with my renewal.  Thanks everyone.

They really don’t like me

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I received my personal belongs from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory yesterday.  I haven’t opened everything up yet–I’ve been way to busy with other stuff.  But it’s clear they really don’t like me.

In addition to taking three weeks to ship me my stuff they overloaded two of the boxes and they were falling apart on receipt.  Add in they didn’t send me my performance reviews (and some other favorable material) it’s pretty obvious they don’t want me to be having any happy days anytime soon.

One more post then I’m going off to the range soon to put some holes in some cardboad of my own.

See also:

I was fired yesterday
Update on being fired
Termination report delayed
What did I expect?
No performance reviews

Update: It doesn’t appear anything was damaged by the poor packing.

John Lott Jr. in the LA Times

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Sure, it’s a commentary but I don’t see any opposing commentary and it’s in the Los Angles Times.  That’s a very big paper in a liberal city/state.

The Big Lie of the Assault Weapons Ban

This wasn’t supposed to happen. When the federal assault weapons ban ended on Sept. 13, 2004, gun crimes and police killings were predicted to surge. Instead, they have declined.

For a decade, the ban was a cornerstone of the gun control movement. Sarah Brady, one of the nation’s leading gun control advocates, warned that “our streets are going to be filled with AK-47s and Uzis.” Life without the ban would mean rampant murder and bloodshed.

…

For gun control advocates, even a meaningless ban counts. These are the same folks who have never been bashful about scare tactics, predicting doom and gloom when they don’t get what they want. They hysterically claimed that blood would flow in the streets after states passed right-to-carry laws letting citizens carry concealed handguns, but that never occurred. Thirty-seven states now have right-to-carry laws — and no one is seriously talking about rescinding them or citing statistics about the laws causing crime.

Gun controllers’ fears that the end of the assault weapons ban would mean the sky would fall were simply not true. How much longer can the media take such hysteria seriously when it is so at odds with the facts?

Police chiefs polled

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PHXnews.com has this for our viewing pleasure:

When police chiefs and sheriffs are allowed to respond to poll questions anonymously, the politics may be removed from their answers.

…

Gun Control: With regard to private citizens owning firearms for sport or self-defense, 93.6 percent of the respondents supported civilian gun-ownership rights. Ninety-six percent of the police chiefs and sheriffs believe criminals obtain firearms from illegal sources and 92.2 percent revealed they hadn’t arrested anyone for violation of the so-called “waiting period” laws. When asked if citizens concealed-weapons permits would reduce violent crime, 63.1 percent said yes.

Quote of the day–Joe Huffman

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Banning guns to prevent crime is like banning cosmetics to prevent prostitution.

Joe Huffman
May 9, 1997

Amy made it to West Point

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My brother sent this email out to the relatives about his daughter:

Amy flew to Newark Sunday and called us after she reached the hotel in
Newark.  We haven’t heard from her directly since, but we did find her
picture on the internet, so we know she made it to West Point.

In the following link: http://www.usma.edu/Class/2009/R-Day/RDay05.htm

click on image #145.  Amy is the one with the messy hair.  Judging from
the other pictures, they have been standing in lines all day, so she
doesn’t look real happy, but at least we know she is okay.

Doug