Boomershoot 2012–A Quick Rundown

I got home and finished unloading my stuff from the rig.  I’m now beginning to unpack.

Here’s a quick rundown with some pictures from each day.  I’ll be coming back over the next couple days and filling in detailed posts of the major items.

Day 1:

Soaking wet.  Trudging through mud.  Lots of boxes to be assembled.  After which we decided to eat warm food in town.  I loaned Joe the shower in my hotel room so he could warm back up.

Day 2:

Filled boxes with explosives, arranged boxes in the mud for the PRC shooters.

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After which we stood out in the cold and wind to run the high intensity event.

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I cleaned up after high intensity at entertainingly close distances, evidently the ESS guys filmed my stupidity.  Again more on that later, last night it turned into a two part series.

The minute in-laws were running a bit late.  We were going to meet a group in town for dinner and were running late.  Way late since I looked like I had been rolling around in the mud.

We didn’t have a single seat left in the room we were in.  It was like the pre-Boomershoot dinner that was just a social hour.

Day 3:  I was instructed to guard the pot of gold, Paul Barrett, and ensure he had a good time and enjoyed himself.  He told me that mission was accomplished even with one minor hiccup.

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I got both of them on steel at 400 yards and he just barely missed the steel at 630 when it all went south.

I helped with the high intensity again.  After which I stuck around since there was handling of firearms on the range to ensure safety while the ESS folks did some model shooting with Shelly and Anette.

I was chatting with the photographer and he ended up taking some pictures with me as well since I had one box to clean up afterwards.

Day 4:  Woke up way too early, so we could be on the berm setting up targets at 0700.  I was starting to feel all the walking, bending, and repetitive motions associated with the shoot.  I trudged through tossing boomers and getting them staked out.  We did a quick interview with one of the ESS videographers explaining some of the physics, and then Rolf gave an impressive show by juggling the explosives.  Yes this is the same Rolf of “Entertainingly Close”.

We get the boomers laid out, a bunch of guys are working up on the hill and then we get read for the fireball.

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Yes that is Ry in the lower right.  His post on the fireball is here.  I will be doing a separate post with TMW’s video here in the near future.  I love that picture because Ry just looks like a bad ass in it.  He lost hair this weekend, I bled a bit.

There were a few exciting events, which I will blog about later.  The most exciting of which however could have ended the event permanently.  Luck prevailed and it didn’t go boom.

After the shoot was over we began the staff cleanup.  There was a lot leftover this year.  It 3 waves of a full high intensity event to get everything cleaned up.  We were exhausted, but I headed down the hill to grab dinner and then go visit with the RNS guys.  As exhausted as I was, we finally left their place about 0100.  I only see them once a year normally so it was worth it.

There were a few other side stories that I’ll be pushing up in the next couple days.  I’ve got a large pile of video and pictures for gun porn too!

So With that I’m going to go continue decompressing.  If I saw you this weekend and looked exhausted, in a rush, or like a man on a mission, it’s probably because I was.  Yes this is a “vacation” but it’s a lot of work and it’s exhausting.  So if you were looking forward to chatting with me more and didn’t get a chance, it’s not because I don’t like you.  It’s because those down times are actually pretty rare and usually done in parallel with stuffing our face.

I know there were a few people who asked me questions, and I’m very glad they asked, I was a little curt and blunt with the answer.  Again, I wasn’t trying to be or sound like a dick, at that point I was starting to seriously shut down.  I would much rather if someone thinks a target is questionable or doesn’t make sense that they ask instead of just shooting at it.  So to the man that asked me about the targets down on the end, hope this helps explain my curt response.

Quote of the Day–Paul Barrett (04/30/2012)

“Before we continue let me just say one thing.  That was fucking amazing.”

Paul Barrett – On the Boomershoot Firing Line

April 28, 2012


[I spent the day with Paul and his wife Saturday on the firing line at Boomershoot.  I teamed up with some support from Gene Econ and some of the instructors to ensure that Paul had a good time.

The above was the quote out of his mouth after smacking some steel at 400 yards.  Then we did it again and again.  He was ready to stop after his first hit because his ratio was 1 for 3 on hits.

There is no question though with that comment he had a good time.  Even with what happened later, he shrugged it off and said, “It’s another story.”  I’ll write up details on that one later.  He was also looking forward to telling the story in the office on Monday. –B]

Quote of the Day: Anonymous – 04/26/2012

Joe: Well we have an ATT microcell at Mecca if you want to call your wife.

Anonymous: I’m good, she wants me to call but the thing is, I’m on vacation.

Anonymous – Dinner Conversation with Boomershoot Staff


[I was going to credit this individual but he seemed to think he would be in some sort of trouble with his significant other.  His justification is he spends all day on the phone doing tech support and his wife wants to talk on the phone with him constantly about nothing.  In other words his wife is wanting him to continue his job without pay. -B]

Confetti, Non-Dairy Creamer, Charcoal, Steel, and Explosives

Joe, Ry, and I headed out to the Boomershoot site today to do some testing with Chalk Dispenser V3.0.  We had previously tested the chalk dispenser and it did quite well.  The main problems we found weren’t with the design, but with the material being dispensed.  This time we were going to try glitter, Mylar confetti.  At the last second we also added non-dairy creamer and match light charcoal.

In hindsight reviewing the pictures we should have taken a couple from up on the hill because up close it just doesn’t look the same.  From the previous testing though it looked as though we had bruised the hillside. 

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As we got into the middle of the colored area, we noticed more evidence of the chalk problem we saw previously.  It had obviously clumped into small balls.

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First we tested small charges of 50 grams.  While it did work, they were difficult to load requiring special preparation. 

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That is 50 grams of the most fun intoxicant this side of the Rio Grande.  It is so little that it’s hard to place it in such a way to fill the hole to complete a visible target, but it still packs a punch.

Joe forgot the glitter, however we did have the confetti to try as well as the newly added charcoal. First up was the non diary creamer.  We had already done the one 50 gram test when this picture was taken.

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The results were lacking in significant difference, it looked the same as without the creamer.

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Second up was the confetti.

 

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We packed it in there.  The results though were less than pleasing.  Do you see the confetti, we didn’t as it happened.

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Next was the charcoal after that dismal failure.  We were actually hoping to get the charcoal dust to ignite, however these results were still fantastic.

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It wasn’t good just once though.  It was repeatable!

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And I caught the brass in the air on both of those pictures, how awesome is that!  We attempted another test that I didn’t get pictures of since I was shooting.  I some how got the Boomerite to start burning, with the charcoal above it.  I let Ry finish it off since it was his gun and I was frustrated to say the least.  Still no fireball though.  We wanted to get this thing to toss a fireball, how could we get it to toss a fireball.  We then started going through Joe’s truck looking for things that could be used.  We found a spray can of window deicer.  We put that on 100 grams of Boomerite with and we pulled the Boomerite through to make sure we would hit the Boomerite first, not the can.  We also had attached road flares to help with ignition.

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Still no luck.  However we later had a discussion about the road flares and wondering what causes them to be extinguished.  The assumption was that the concussion would result in removing the heat and liquid material preventing the flare from continuing the burn.  It’s only the gases that burn, the burning melts the solid, which will then turn to gas, and burn.  We though maybe the concussion blew off the liquid and gasses killing the flare.  Both this picture and the following one would beg to differ though.

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This brought an abrupt end to our testing.  We had done something very stupid without realizing it.  We placed a piece of metal between us and the explosive.  The pressures from the explosive split the welds along the top.

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So what is a guy to do when you still have Boomerite left, and no target to test it in?

The answer is quite simple, put 4 pounds in the non dairy creamer bottle, put the target on top and launch it in the air.

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The target can be repaired, but I would say it looks no where near like when we got itJoe already has video of the stuff that really matters.  I’ll work on editing the video tonight and tomorrow and see if I got anything worth while.  For now, enjoy the story board and pictures.

Update:Video is here.