Private Boomershoot Party

Today I went out to the Boomershoot site to help Joe with a private party with some coworkers from Microsoft. We met up around 0800 at “The Breakfast Club” in Moscow. I had French toast which was extremely yummy, however what was totally awesome was the fact they had “Green Eggs and Ham”.

I would not eat green eggs and ham.

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

If you don’t get it, well you need to go read more Dr. Seuss. From there we drove out to the Boomershoot site. Joe stopped off for a couple quick history lessons like showing the grade school he went to growing up, as well as stopping by the farm he grew up on as we left.

The weather for the event today was downright miserable, the Explorer said it was 36 degrees out. I’m extremely happy it didn’t happen last weekend. Winds were about equal to Saturday for the PRC, what was bad is the fact that it was raining, sleeting, and snowing most of the time. Everything was so moist as a matter of fact a new possible issue with manufacturing was discovered. The PC in the high humidity had a tendency to re-clump while sifting. This created issues in getting correct measurements. We had about 7-8 crates of left over targets from last weekend. Joe attempted to detonate some of the targets which provided an extreme disappointment.

Lesson learned: they will not store for a week.

TMW and Kim then proceeded to mix up targets for the private party. Only about 15 were mixed up, however while they mixed I burned. About 7-8 crates of targets were burned and I only lost the hair of the back of my left hand. That oxidizer lights up fast when it finally goes, and boy does it burn hot. After that we fully introduced Joe’s coworkers to the world of firearms and explosives. We pounded stakes, let the current squal pass, performed the saftey lecture and then got into it. I was going to destroy some harddrives for a friend however it appears I had left them at home. Another time do an Idaho Stress Test/data reduction method. For today it was going to be an extreme test as we were going to destroy them under the fireball as well.

The conditions continued to deteriorate; I was soaked through my Carhartts, inner layer, and base layer. What makes it worse was it was ice that was pelting us and quickly melting so it chilled to the bone.

Notice how my coat is glistening from being saturated.

Joe the ever vigilent instructor.

The productive results.


The happiness doesn’t fade either

The next shooter with Joe giving position instruction.

A successful hit.

As Joe says, people who complain are puritans.


Another happy customer. The white streaks are hail.


A smile attempting to hide.


Why Joe does it.


Proof that’s why Joe does it!


Satisfaction, He hit it… Finally. Where’s the grin, we assume just straight satisfaction!

After that everyone took a second boomer, some used my rifle instead, others used Joe’s. As a finale we attempted a fireball. Key word attempted. Unlike the blogger day the year before where we set the field on fire, it failed. It was too freaking wet and windy.

So after we finished up we then headed to the viewpoint overlooking Dworshak Dam. Joe gave us a short history lesson and thankfully we were able to stay out of the rain somewhat. After Dworshak we went to the Ponderosa for some dinner and conversation. Interestingly we discovered that Joe’s daughter, Kim, was married on the same day, same year, and same exact time as my wife and I. Amazing the little things you discover. Enjoy the pics from the dam.

Boomershoot 2010 Video and Report

Boomershoot 2010 was awesome and a lot of fun. I don’t know exactly why, but I ended up shooting the opening fireball for the shoot. Laurel from Politics Guns and Beer was there along with an entourage of help. I spent some time behind the rifle, but I spent more time educating and making sure others had a blast. And I’m glad to say, it appears they did have a great time.

The high intensity(video) shoots were fun as usual; feeling the boomers go off rattles your soul from head to toe always puts a smile on my face. The dinner though was a great social hour.

Oleg Volk

Oleg was there along with Laurel, Mike and Abigail.

Abigail

As well as some friends from my days back in scouts. I told them I was going to put this pic online and I’m a man of my word. For those who don’t know, yes I’m an Eagle Scout and the reason I carry is to “Be Prepared.”

Mike, Andy, and Robert

We had a wonderful dinner which raised $2000 in raffle tickets. Half of which went straight to Soldiers’ Angels. The other half is put into a raffle lottery split into 10%, 10%, and 30%. David won the $600 which he then stated that he was going to make a $1000 donation to Soldiers’ Angels when he got home. Thank you David.

Overall it was yet another awesome year at Boomershoot, with a great reminder of how great the people are who participate. I hope to see you all again next year.

B

Friday High Intensity Video

Youtube has finished processing my uploaded video and my collaboration of the footage for the Friday High-Intensity is now up. Enjoy.

By the way, I’m working on a Boomershoot Video for 2010, but it appears it may just be 480p due to some unforeseen reason. Software is complaining and I can’t figure out why. I’ll work on uploading it in the morning.

Boomershoot 2009

Last weekend was Boomershoot 2009. Best 5 day vacation I’ve had in a long time. I even grabbed a high def video camera just for it. The next couple days I’m going to slowly start posting stories and I’ll post video as I clean it up and edit it. Why must I edit it you ask, the full high-intensity video is a whopping 768 megs. The anvil and failed fire ball are 1.2 gigs. I do have a video of the successful fireball that we did on Thursday.

Pictures will also be posted slowly but surely as well. I have very limited internet currently. It’s on my laundry list of things to do, but at the top is finishing moving.

Here’s a pic from the anvil launch.

Anvil Shot

And here’s the fireball from Thursday.


It was 3 seconds of pure awesomeness followed by 20 minutes of firefighting. I wish I had my camera on a tripod and caught the whole episode. In hindsight it was fun I guess, at the time though it was a little scary. We had all forgotten about Joe’s post on Sunday.

Stress Relief, Death to pumpkins

I saw a post on Joe’s blog last night about heading out to the Boomershoot site for some pumpkin destruction.

I arrived just after one as was asked. Good timing evidently because he was just finishing up the explosives as the wife and I showed up.

We spent the next bit chatting, I met a coworker of Joe’s, Kris, and I proceeded to gut and dismember the pumpkins much like Hannibal Lecter would to feed a man his own brains.

We then crated up the poor little victims and moved them to their zone of destruction.

This was a pumpkin that was in dire need of destruction. It was molding and becoming extremely soft. Big enough however it required two to move.

Six pounds of HE however would deal with this quite well. Besides the two that were rotting on top, well that was just nasty when it covered my hand.

We then proceeded to their destruction, first my wife, ladies first and all…

Followed by Kris…

And finally, here’s the video of my shoot. Along with a pic. Joe said “Just the big one left, give me a count of two so I can get the whole thing.” Sweet!!!! So I get to shoot this mother! AWESOME, Thanks JOE!

And as a final closing statement, we found pumpkin chunks 71 yards away. It quite literally rained pumpkin. Wife got hit in the leg, nothing major, I danced to get out of the way. The final dance move was to the right.

We drove back through Orofino to eat at Ponderosa, and gassed up outside the Casino for a low $2.18 a gallon. Thanks for a mini vacation Joe, much, much appreciated.