Thor’s Hall

Finally a few minutes to put forth some thoughts on my Boomershoot adventure this year.

I have given you some of the highlights of the efforts it took for me to get to Orofino for the event.  This year my travel was complicated by the fact that I have been working in NYC.  Now, if I had been working in say Fort Worth it would have simplified some of the hoops that I had to work through.  There are easier ways to get to Orofino than flying through Missoula but, that drive time through that stretch of country was spectacular, and I benefited from it as much as from the event itself.

I arrived in Orofino Friday night and the weather was FANTASTIC.  By morning, things had deteriorated and when I got up to the range and checked in for the clinic it was sprinkling with winds ranging from 12 to 20+ mph.  It made for a very challenging day but, with the help of Gene Econ, Monte Milanuk, and the rest of Gene’s team, I was ringing the steel targets on a regular basis and had dusted off my rifle skills at extreme distances.  This is a great group of guys that I always feel very comfortable around and I am always humbled by the amount of skill and knowledge that they bring to the clinic.

This was the first year that I participated in the high intensity event.  Being within 30 yards of detonating boomers is awesome.  Like all explosions, that pressure wave pummels your body.  When my relay was up to shoot though I found that I was concentrating so hard on connecting with the boomers that I didn’t even notice the pressure wave of the blast.

Dinner was a bit of a let down, as the keynote speaker (Michael Bane) was unable to attend.   I found myself welcomed by Gene and his team for dinner and it made the event much more enjoyable for me, than meeting new folks.

Sunday was the big event.  The weather was great.  I had connected with another shooter on Saturday afternoon to form a shooting / spotting team.  Jason and I worked well together and paired up again on Sunday for the event.   Describing everything that goes on at an event like this is impossible.  When you are pairing well with your equipment, and your spotter, and the weather conditions — you have success.  When you have success at an event like this it is AWESOME, and it is generally repeatable.  Others have characterized this as a “zen like” moment behind your rifle.  That is spot on, locating a target, communicating, focusing, adjusting to your spotters call, relaxing into the position and steadying the point of aim, stilling your body, and pressing that trigger with the payoff of a boom and a cloud of smoke at the end.  Truly priceless.

My thanks go out to Joe Huffman and his large team of “elves” that make this event a reality.

If you want a bit of a taste of what this event is all about check out these sites:

Barron’s Video

Laurel’s Take

Purple Ducky was there

Riverdog had this to say

Michael Bane gave Boomershoot double coverage at his blog and in his podcast this week.

There are a lot of folks that seemed to enjoy last weekend.  Go read their stuff.

Things have been busy lately, and not a lot of blogging happening.

To give you a brief idea, I am writing this from a hotel room in Orofino Idaho.  Yesterday I was in New York City.  Between 4 PM EDT yesterday and now I have left NYC, flew to Chicago, drove to the secret outpost and spent 10 hours with my family, returned to O’Hare, flew to Denver landing at minimums in a snow storm, flew to Missoula, and then drove 3+ hours to Orofino.  All that just to spend the weekend in the fresh our of Idaho working on my long range precision rifle skills at Boomershoot.

At at least two points today, I was standing in an airport wondering if it was worth it.  The travel, the time in the airports, hauling gear and rifles all over the country.  Then I got off the plane and started driving.  After getting out of Missoula proper the first thing I notice, a herd of Buffalo.  That’s right, American Bison.

The road from Missoula to Orofino is primarily US-12.  Funny thing, US-12 is a road I drive often in the midwest and here I was spending a few more hours on it, just a thousand mile removed from the midwest.

Once I turned on to US-12, it was two lanes almost the entire way to Orofino.  Through the Lolo pass, and winding along the rivers and creeks of Idaho and Montana.  There was very little traffic which made for a very pleasant drive.  As I was driving along, I was mentally comparing the road to all of the other mountain roads that I have driven in my lifetime.  Through Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, there was something very familiar and relaxing about this drive but it took me a long time to pinpoint it.  Finally, it dawned on me how very similiar this drive was to all of the many drives that I made around Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams, and the Sisters, through Rainier and the Olympic National Parks, even over the Coast Range in Oregon.  The tall hills, in many cases snow capped.  The small towns and settlements.  Winding along the rushing rivers.  The remaining snow on the road as I reached the summit of the pass.

And throughout this whole drive three very distinct thoughts came to mind.

1. How the Hell did Lewis and Clark have the perseverance, and fortitude to make it through this same trail with only canoes, horses, and their feet?
2. Damn, I miss this part of the country.
3. Yes, the trip is all worth it.  Because as much as I enjoy Boomershoot it isn’t only about the weekend shooting.  The trip to this corner of the world does more to rejuvenate my spirit than anything else I have done in the past 12 months.

I need to get out here more often, and bring the whole family too.

Quotes have their place.   For a while in my life, I was in a mode where I was always looking for the quote that would fit situations I was finding myself in.  Unfortunately, Winston Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Ben Franklin only cover so much ground.

Through life I have realized that quotes can cover a lot more ground, and really can just be the phrase that rings true at the moment.

Joe Huffman has a home run in his Quote of the Day today.  Go over and read it here.

On a related note:  I finally have my therapy arrangements set.  I’ll see you at Boomershoot next month.

Note to self:  When shooting from prone position, on the very hard earth for several days having elbow pads is a very good idea.

I knew this, I just forgot that part of the packing and boy was I paying for it by day 3.

Another early day and drive up from Orofino to the shooting site.  Hauling stuff up and down the stairs at the hotel got very old.  The day started out cold again, although a bit warmer than previous days.  The skys were threating a bit of precipitation but it seemed to holdoff.

With the full number of participants showing up for the event on Sunday there were a lot more folks around enjoying things, and lot more equipment to appreciate.

I wound up spotting for the first string which was okay.  I would have liked to have had a shot at the first boomer of the day but, it wasn’t that important.  My partner had a light barrel in his rifle that tended to walk as it warmed up so we were shooting his first and then letting it cool.  I got him on target fairly quickly at 380 and we had some boomers there before switching over to my turn.

Concentrated on the 380 line to get things loosend up and wound up going shoot – miss, shoot boom, shoot boom, shoot boom, shoot miss, shoot boom before looking for the hanging targets.  Turns out that they hung a handful of targets from the trees, and painted them to blend into the background.  That presented a bit more of a challenge but I managed to get one of those as well.

We spent a lot of time trying to get the 600 and 650 yd targets.  Bryan was able to connect with a couple.  I managed to snag a couple as well but either missed the explosive inside, or just did not have enough energy left in the round to detonate it.

By the end of the day I was wiped out.  I was having a hard time holding a steady position to trigger the remaining boxes, and still had a fantastic time.

The post is a bit late but better late than never.

Another cold morning to start the day.  The weather overall though was pretty good.  Winds ranging 6 to 10 which impacted the shooting but after having to remount my optics overnight (using locktite this time) I figured I was going to have to start pretty much from scratch on all my zero setting sfrom the day before.

The day ran pretty much the same as the previous day.  Picked up some pointers from MSG Hubbard and from Monte which were good.  Wound up making some modifications to my physical shooting position and the way that I was postured behind the weapon.  Using a bipod means I really did not need that front hand supporting the rifle, so I was able to adjust my entire left arm and use that hand to steady up the back end of the weapon more.

The shooting went well.  I was able to rezero the weapon very quickly, and wound up reaching out successfully on the steel to about 650 yards.   Anything beyond about 550 though got to be very challenging.

We came back into about 380 to shoot boomers and I was very pleased with my performance.  One to two shots on each.  Very comfortable with that range.

That evening was the Boomershoot Dinner met some new folks and faces.  Gene Econ was pressed into service as the guest speaker when the scheduled speaker cancelled.  He did a fine job.  I wound up having dinner with Joe Huffman and his family.  A very enjoyable time, and Barb made me feel right at home.