Archive for April 26th, 2010
Boomershoot 2010 Fireball, Kodak PlaySport camera
I picked up a Kodak PlaySport camera for $150. With tax, SD card, and cheap tripod, it was about $200 total; with that small investment, I set the camera downrange at about 10-15 feet from the HE.
(click to embiggen)
The first shot is from the Kodak. The second is from my JVC; note the shower of prills.
Press targets
Last year, I set out four seven inch targets (~2 MOA) at ~375 yards for use by the press. They never showed; after lunch, I used the White Rifle to talk my daughters and my father in. They all claimed a boomer at distance; my dad commented on how Zen the whole of long range shooting is. It very much is not the Hollywood experience.
This year, I set out four four inch targets. The White Rifle is about a 2 MOA gun; add in the wind and light bullets, and you’re in for a ride. I had Arden hold on the 12 o’clock position of the stake; wind made the shots dance around, furrowing the earth just left and right of the target. Eventually, she got one. Anna took about 1/3 as many shots; once Arden coached her to treat it like a Zombie, Anna hit it with the next shot. I’ll have to remember that.
One of the next-door neighbors from over the road sat down and took one in four shots. He’s an experienced rifleman and was able to spot for himself; this makes my life easier. The spotting scope I won at the raffle made the trace pop; it was fun to watch bullets fly without having to try to read the trace and adjust. When Arden was shooting, I could see the trace wobble on the way down; when Anna was shooting, the trace was perfect little arcs. Amazing how much harder that wobble makes hitting the target.
When the press was there, and I pointed out the targets reserved for them, they expressed little interest. C’est la vie. I’ll have to wire up a video camera to a spotting scope and get footage of trace some year; here’s some video (start at 43 seconds to see a nice one).
Someone had to do it.
A gentleman claimed the first boomer at range with my social 50 BMG carbine. To put this in perspective – he called 5 shots for himself using ammo from 1945 manufactured for machine guns; the one time I bothered to shoot a group with it, I got about 5 MOA @ 100 yards. The rifle has an EOTech 65MOA ring, 4 MOA dot. Honestly, if I hadn’t seen him do it, I’d say bullshit, too.
His first shot was about 2′ right; you could see the dirt fly up. He called it as 2′; the next shots were 18″, 1′, 6″, and BOOM. 7″ target @~650 yards.
And the crowd went wild. Seriously. It was his birthday, and he was certainly the hero of the hour.
Rumrunners
I never found out which camp was flying this flag. Should have walked around a little; spent most of the day playing host, RSO, 50 caliber ambassador, and cease-fire-caller.
Marketing
Met Oleg Volk; as it turns out, he is doing some work for a company from which I’ve bought equipment. As such, this gear was used for pictures of other people shooting; expect to see a lot of the SEBR, White Rifle, and Position 1 in the future.
Thank you, Rivrdog.
Without Petey the Popup, there would have been many more miles on the rental car; without breakfast, Sunday would not have happened. Thanks!
