Here it is 2 weeks after Boomershoot and I haven’t had any time to do a run down on the event.
As you will recall, Boomershoot is an annual event that takes place in North Central Idaho. This is an area of the country that I have grown very found of over the past few years. Boomershoot is a one day event, that is preceded by a 2 day precision rifle clinic. After the trials and tribulations of dragging myself and all of my gear from a client site in Memphis, back to Chicago, and then on to Spokane for the drive to Orofino I awoke on Friday to rather cold an unpleasant weather. Having signed up for the field fire option of the precision rifle clinic rather than instruction, I decided to drive up to the site and check things out. I loaded up the gear, and made the drive up the mountain, through the low ceilings and all. When I got up there the wind was blowing, the rain was spitting a bit but mostly it was just cold and wet. Pretty much deciding not to shoot I hung around and watched Gene Econ and his team of instructors work with the students. Right up until the point when Gene turned to me and said, “…would you go grab your rifle and spotting scope and work with…”. So, after getting my ego back in check I grabbed my gear and wound up shooting that day. Typically, we would expect the weather to improve during the day, it did not. By 1430 or so the snow was falling sideways and we had to pull back from shooting the >500 yd target because we couldn’t see them. Even the 375 yd targets became problematic. But, as I told everyone who asked, “Any day out of the office and in the outdoors is a good day”.
Saturday was a good day at the site. The wind was about the same as Friday but the sun came out and helped to dry things up. Wind was average 12 – 15 mph full value but it seems like that is pretty normal for this location. When we got the boomers set up at the end of the day, I had a nice one shot, one boom on the first target and called the day a success.
I would be very content to sit there on the line and shoot with the 20 – 30 folks that come out on Friday and Saturday. It is rare for me to find people that I can relax and be comfortable around but every year Boomershoot seems to bring those out. The big event is Sunday though, and the atmosphere changes. Not necessarily for the worse, it just changes because it is an event. You walk up to the line and there are a thousand or so small white boxes scattered across the hillside, and those are your targets. There are a couple hundred new acquaintances (most armed) wandering around and getting set up. It is just a different atmosphere, and it does make it an “event” which is good.
My words really don’t describe the event. So let me give you a series of videos that will help out. Every year, the event is kicked off by an opening fireball. Some times it works other times, not so well. The afternoon session tends to kick off with the anvil toss. This year they tossed in some bowling ball mortars. Here is a taste:
A similar montage from a different angle that Barron put together:
There is a long and interesting story behind that revolver that you see being fired. It can be found here, please go read it. One of the really interesting things about weapons is their history, and this one has a history.
Here is a time lapse that one of the folks down in the low lands shot. A couple of things to note; the targets are not visible to the camera, the changing direction of the smoke from the boomers gives you an idea of the conditions, the levels of targets up the hill to the left are 500 – 700 yd targets the treeline is at about 375 yards.
And finally, this one that is a great up close experience of shooting 700 yard boomers.