Reactive target shooting.
Edward429451 was surprised that people would be able to connect with 600 yard pop cans. Yes, it can be done. In fact at the now defunct Blanchard Blast (
http://www.boomershoot.org/Blanchard/blast.htm) people have connected with a dynamite filled pop can as far away as 1200 yards.
At the Palouse Practical Shooters Boomer Shoot (
http://www.boomershoot.org) we don't have quite that much range available. In the past it has been limited to about 660 to 675 yards. Next year (it's a once a year event) it will be a full 700 yards because of the range modification we just made. We don't use dynamite or pop cans. We make our own explosives (See "Project Nitro" at
http://www.boomershoot.org/general/reactive.htm) to reduce costs (we go through several hundred pounds each year). We also don't use pop cans because of the danger of flying metal in the case of an accident. We use 1/2 pint milk cartons and 1 L soy milk (and juice, and tea, and whatever else we can find in that form factor) cartons. People have hit the 1/2 pint cartons at the extreme range, but it's a real life exercise in probablity and statistics.
I spend a lot of time working out the probabilities (I use the ballistics program I wrote:
http://www.modernballistics.com) to make the target distribution at the various ranges such that it doesn't get too discouraging for people and that there are enough targets to last. I figure people with a 1 MOA gun should be able to hit a target at the extreme ranges at an average of no more than one hit every 20 shots. Any more than that and it gets too frustrating. At the closer ranges it figures out to about four or five shots per target. Of course with some guns, an SKS for example, it is much, much worse. And with some shooters and guns it is very close to one shot, one hit at the closer ranges.
The format for our Boomer Shoot is much different than the Gateway Dynamite Shoot (probably the one Edward429451 was told about). At the Boomer Shoot we have a shooting line where dozens of people can shoot at the same time at the same targets. People can shoot for about six hours total at nearly 400 targets. Most people run out of ammo or get tired before we run out of targets. Running out of money to shoot at the targets doesn't happen.
Another thing that is different about the Boomer Shoot is the introduction this year of a new type of target. Here is a video of my daughter testing one of the new targets:
http://www.boomershoot.org/2003/Kim.avi (turn up your volume to hear the voices near the end of the video). You may need to download and install a free codec to play it:
ftp://spin.mohawkc.on.ca/Utilities/iv5.exe We won't have very many of these new targets but they are very impressive.
As for how this relates to "The High Road" --- another gun rights activist (
http://www.boomershoot.org/2001/pictures.htm#Stephanie) has experience with dealing with the press. She has twice run for U.S. Congress and has a fair number of contacts and also experience with press releases, etc. Newsweek magazine actually sent a reporter out to cover the event in 2002 and wrote about it an a fair manner (
http://www.boomershoot.org/2002/Newsweek.htm). Other news coverage has been quite positive as well (see
http://www.boomershoot.org/coverage.htm). My experience has been that if you invite the press and do your best to show them a good time they will be fair and positive. If you react to the press after they have been contacted by the anti-freedom people you loose. The Boomer Shoot is a good vehicle for getting the attention of the press in a positive manner. It's an unusual activity, people are having fun, it's visual enough for spectators to enjoy, and no one gets hurt (well... there have been a few cases of "scope eye"). Very few (if any) other gun sports can draw spectators like the Boomer Shoot can.
Another way it relates is that it is one of my main motivations for this is that it gets people to acquire the equipment and skills to accomplish the task of long range precision rifle shooting. The more people owning and shooting firearms the more likely the politicians are to fear us at the polls.
See you next May? People from all over the country come. As far away as New Jersey, California, Michigan, North Dakota as well as the Pacific Northwest. See
http://www.boomershoot.org/2004/blast.htm for details on the next event and how to enter. Don't wait too long because last year it sold out in February.
-joe-
