2009

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  ... No, it's just Joe.


He's not actually riding to the rescue, either, but he certainly looks like it.  Note the "propaganda corps" patch on his right arm.

Look closely at the picture below.  Can you see anything that looks like a target?  There are lots of them; the easiest ones to see are just in front of the earthen berm with the trees at the bottom of the picture, but the hillside beyond has at least as many.


Yes, all those little white dots are the targets.  Click the picture to get the full version, where you can see them a little better.

One of the more elaborate benchrest setups.

My partner's shooting position at Boomershoot 2009, as it was set up on the second day of the rifle clinic.  You can see the butt of my rifle in the bottom left of the picture; it's almost identical to my spotter's.

UPDATE: For anyone who missed the definitive description of these rifles last year, they are both Savage 12F/TR target rifles in .308 with Nightforce benchrest scopes and Harris bipods. 

Between the two anvil launches I mentioned earlier, there was a fireball.  Unfortunately, it didn't turn out nearly as well as the fireball that everyone got to see on the Blogger Day.  But I did get video rather than a still picture of this fireball, so that balances things out a little bit.

Watch the fireball.

Remember, don't try this at home.

One of the obscure American traditions displayed at Boomershoot is the "Anvil Launch", in which one anvil is placed on top of another, the space in between is packed with black powder, and the whole thing lit with a fuse.  The result: the anvil on top goes flying into the air, hopefully mostly straight up.

This year's boomershoot had two anvil launches.  I got video of both of them.

• The first anvil launch
• The second anvil launch

Keep in mind that a typical steel anvil weighs about 100-125 lbs, and can reach what looks like several hundred feet into the air. 

I probably don't actually need to say this, but don't try this at home.

OK, so they are large handguns shooting rifle ammunition.  They are, nonetheless, handguns and they can be shot with a single hand accurately enough to hit a boomer.  I took a few minutes during lunch to talk with the person shooting them on camera, and look at a few of the pistols.  I didn't get as much time as I had hoped -- the shooting starts up again on the end of the video.  I didn't have my ear protection with me, so I wrapped things up as quickly as I could and left to find my ears.

UPDATE: I forgot to link Random Nuclear Strikes, where the subject of this interview blogs (including a little about the video itself).

Video from Joe's short speech introducing Boomershoot 2009 is here.  Highlights include some details about targets for this year (camoflage, hanging from string) and a brief discussion about the tv crew that was supposed to be on site for the fireball.  Unfortunately they were not able to make it for the opening ceremonies so the fireball was rescheduled for the lunch break.

Ironically, one of the highlights of boomershoot in years past has been the "cleanup" part of the event.  This traditionally took place after the main event, to clean up any remaining targets that had been missed by the shooters.  People would take their semi-auto rifles to point-blank ranges and detonate any remaining targets from there.

Demand for this event was high.  There weren't enough targets, so Joe started making more targets designated specifically for cleanup.  And he started charging for participation.  In 2009, Joe reached the final stage in the evolution of the "Cleanup" event: it is now a separate event held on a separate day only for those who pay, and doesn't really have anything to do with cleanup at all... so he renamed it the High Intensity Event.

And I got it all on video.

Since I had attended Gene's clinic last year, I knew pretty much to expect: shooting steel in the morning, shooting steel in the afternoon, and shooting at some of Joe's reactive targets (boomers) before calling it a day, with short but informative instructional periods before each shooting session and lots of coaching available while the shooting happens.  I was pretty much exactly right.

There were a few differences.  Some of the instructors changed, and Gene had a bound databook put together specifically for the event that was absolutely wonderful.  It manages to wrap everything needed for success at Boomershoot into a pocket size 20-page or so booklet.  Range tables, windage estimates, ballistics data for common cartidges, even a few pages to record shot calls and actual hits. I didn't need to look at anything else while I was shooting, and that's valuable. 

Here's a view of the targets at the 380 yard berm.  These aren't the only targets on the berm, there are more up on the hill -- but they are out of range of the camera.


Some additional targets are visible further up the slope. 


Those are the steel targets used for the precision rifle clinic, before the actual boomershoot targets go up.  The boomershoot targets are... smaller.

I will reiterate that, if you are considering going to boomershoot, you really, really want to do the Clinic too.  At worst, if you just sign up for the field fire exercise, you'll get a chance to get sighted in and get a feel for the range.  At best, you'll get expert coaching and the instruction that you need to be able to hit steel targets out to 700 yards on the first shot or two.  Even if you don't need the instruction, you can use a refresher and the chance to practice.

Plus, sometimes people set up wind flags. 


Those are very useful when trying to judge wind speed and direction, which will be very, very important when trying to hit the smaller targets on the big day.

So, as you may have guessed, the "Wizard of ID" is in fact Joe Huffman of Boomershoot. I am attending his shooting event for the second time.. and this time around I am much better prepared.  I am using the same rifle I used last year (no last minute panics!) and know more about what I'm doing.  I also have better blogging equipment, which will enable me to bring a lot more of the event to the web for my readership.
My one regret: I started the day with the wrong type of media for recording video.  I was at least able to dispatch a minion to retrieve the correct media, so I will have video tomorrow.  I hope, anyway.

This time, I flew into Lewiston rather than Boise, saving me about 5 hours of driving time.  This was a good decision.  When I arrived last year, after being up for about 36 hours straight and driving for the last 6 of those, I didn't have time or energy to do much more than sleep.  

Unfortunately, I couldn't bring my kittens.  They were disappointed.  But kittens and explosives don't mix, even if the kittens do volunteer to be targets:


The media day started around 10am, with an orientation and tour (which I missed) followed by a drive to the Taj Mahal.


Oh, and did I mention that Joe does great bumper?


We would be learning how to manufacture the targets, along with such tasty tidbits as learning the recipe for boomerite.  Yes, I said tasty -- who knew explosives could be tasty?  Well, at least one of the bloggers in attendance can now say with a straight face that they have eaten an explosive and it was good.  (Bitter, how's about coming up with your own recipe for edible boomerite?)

After that, the safety briefing was almost anticlimatic.  Don't set it off too close to anyone.  Be prepared to put out a fire if you do set one off, especially if it involves flame.  Don't get the stuff on your clothes or on metal; it will corrode those materials "like salt water on steroids".  Do not expose to sunlight, because it will spontaneously combust...  later on when you aren't watching it anymore.  If anything goes wrong, pour water on it.  (Most of the safety lecture really did boil down to pouring water on the problem).

Oh... and don't drop the targets.  They should be safe to drop... but please don't test that.  Just in case.  Especially not while standing next to me.

Joe went first and made a sample batch of his boomerite.  Look how manly he is as he practices his domestic explosives preparation skills! 


(I got that picture by waiting for an opportune moment and asking Joe to "Look up and strike your most manly pose.")

Joe made up a batch of boomerite for a sample target then we all helped clean up the place, after which Joe detonated a sample target for us.  It was entertainingly close. 


Then it was time for lunch.  It seems someone gave Joe a bunch of MREs that he's been trying to get rid of since the Vietnam war at least, and we were a captive audience.  Plus, the MREs themselves provided the fodder for another impromptu lesson in chemistry.


After lunch, we covered the  chemistry of explosives in a little more detail. The major takeaway from this for me was: "Making things blow up is harder than it looks."  Trial and error and lots of testing.  Preferably safe, careful testing.

After a few more amusing stories from Joe, we covered the theory of fireball construction.  This continued the theme from earlier -- making things explode is hard.  Making them explode in a brilliant fireball is harder. 

Next on the agenda: we made our own targets.  Once you have the right ingredients and the recipe, mixing them together wasn't difficult, though care and caution was and should be used.  Experienced, adult supervision is also helpful, especially when the supervision comes from people who can tell you what not to do in so many different and exciting ways out of their own personal experience.

There was a general consensus on using some of the boomerite to do a fireball.  As mentioned earlier those can be hard, and you would think that with inexperienced manufacturers doing the work, the fireball might not come off very well.  But we managed it, with the best fireball I have seen so far.   

Here's a still image from shortly after detonation.  (This was not the best image by any means, just the one I happened to catch)


After the fireball, we placed the rest of the targets along the berm and detonated them by carefully aimed rifle fire.  These were definitely entertainingly close.  I got hit by clods of dirt all four times, even lying prone.  (Slow-moving clods, thankfully).

Here's an over-the-shoulder view of me and one of my targets, prior to detonation:


And following detonation:


Finally, Joe gave us a bit of Boomershoot history.   The original inspiration was an event called Blanchard's Blast that used soda cans and dynamite.  There was more, but right now I'm not remembering it at all.

That ended the events at the Boomershoot site itself, but we gathered for dinner at Ponderosa and gained a few new arrivals (Kevin of The Smallest Minority and Squeaky of Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease, among others).  Dinner was good food among good folks, and a good time was had by all.

That's about all the posting I can manage in a few hours.

I will update this post later with a complete list of all attending bloggers.   Right now I would only leave folks out, which would make them sad.

Oh... and Ry caught an absolutely amazing picture of one of my targets at the moment of detonation.

UPDATE: Here's the picture:

... the wonderful wizard of ID.