The story: For precision shooters at Sunday's Boomershoot, the thrill of the event comes in the form of an explosion.

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From a soggy farm field near Cavendish, Idaho, about one hundred heavily armed men (and a few women) took aim at high-explosive targets up to 700 yards away. Joe Huffman, a Seattle software programmer who organizes the annual Boomershoot, uses the event to further gun rights. “I want to give people a reason to get guns and have fun with them,” Huffman told Spokesman-Review reporter, James Hagrengruber on Sunday.

Politics aside, it was way cool to watch, especially the sideshow where they blew an 80-pound anvil 75-feet in the air. To start off the event, organizers had someone shoot at a box of high explosives that was surrounded by a half dozen-gallon jugs a gasoline. The gathered crowd loudly cheered the ensuing fireball. Yes, this is guy stuff at it finest. That said, the people at this event were not what you would expect. Most are professionals who work for companies like Microsoft and Nike. The guns they shoot are precision instruments that need exact calibration and a shooter with a steady aim. After viewing the video, check out the link to James Hagengruber's story below.

The weekend-long event is held each spring in a remote Idaho farm field and is considered a "Magic Kingdom" for serious long-distance shooters, said organizer Joe Huffman, who spends most of his time in Seattle working as a software programmer...

Read more of James Hagengruber's story

Good ol' boys blowing things up. Sweet.

Very fun video story.

Thanks Colin. I know it took a lot of time.

Thank you Colin. That was very nice. You left out all my slightly mangled words that I was worried about. :-)

I do take a slight exception with Steven A. Smith's "Good ol' boys blowing things up" comment. Most of the people in the video have college degrees and work in the computer industry. We have doctors, lawyers, physical theraphists, scientists, computer programmers, insurance adjusters, and company executives participating. This year one Seattle area exec flew back from Europe for the event, then flew back to Europe afterwards. This year we also had one guy in England hear about the event on Thursday, get on a plane, and participate on Sunday. Not exactly a "good old boy"!

Thanks again.

Hey Joe, you forgot the architects... ;)

I'm also college educated and white colar, and have been lamenting that I wasn't at Boomershoot with Grandpa's Remington. That probably makes me a Good Ol' Boy, and proud of it. Point is, I don't think Steve Smith meant the term as an insult, Joe, and I wouldn't take it that way... Of course, he's my boss, so you wouldn't expect me to say otherwise.

I didn't take it as an insult. More of slightly misleading in the characterization of the participants. It's easy to dismiss people with some sort of derogatory name for them. I wanted to head that off.

I expect there will be a Boomershoot next year. Send an email to BoomerShoot-subscribe@groups.yahoo.com to get on the email list for the announcement of the next event schedule. Private parties are also a possibility if you just can't wait that long.

This imported, city-dwelling farm girl just wants to say that this looks like one of the coolest events she's heard of in a long time.
And what a great video!

Just one question: on the exploding anvil, um, demonstration - it looked like a bunch of guys were rigging up the explosives.... but it was a woman who lit the fuse and had to run for her life?
Am not trying to read anyting at all into that, except that she must be one very fast woman.
Good luck next year.

It wasn't an "exploding anvil". It was about 1.5 pounds of black powder (a type of gunpowder) under the anvil which didn't explode. The black powder burns very rapidly. And explosion is something different. We make explosives for the targets and are never used for the anvil. But that's not really the issue you are getting at. It's just that I'm a scientist/engineer and get nitpicky about such things...

Anyway. Sara, age 17, was given the honor of lighting the fuse. Other than being a little bit shy about all the attention she was thrilled at being able to do it. She was selected by the owner of the anvil because he wanted to tease her about losing one of his throwing knives at Boomershoot 2005.

If you would like to correspond with her about her Boomershoot experience this last weekend send me your email address and I will have her contact you.

Among other things she did on Sunday she hit a seven inch square boomer target, 700 yards away, on her first shot. She went home very "high" with her contributions to Boomershoot 2006.

I photographed the event for the Spokesman-Review and, like everyone else, had a "blast" when I was there.
The amount of work invested by volunteers like Joe Huffman and others is very impressive. The event moved quickly and seemed very safe all around.
Thanks to Joe and his group for letting us attend and tell folks about it.
Jesse Tinsley
photographer

Hi Joe:
I just wanted to Thank you for all of your hard work in putting on a great BoomerShoot 2006.
Fred Forgnone and myself found the 4 inch targets at 380 yards a challenge for us "Squirrel Hunters" from California. We normally shoot in the 100-300 yard range and once dialed in at 380 yards had a great time igniting fallen boxes on their side while multiple ordinance was striking all around the target.
It was a pleasure to meet everyone there to include "Anvil Man" and his wife. Fred and I look forward to visiting with you again in 2007 and having a real "Blast" once again.
Thank you once again to you and to all of your volunteers that helped you put on this truly remarkable event.
Sincerely
Bruce J. Leininger
Da Squirrel Hunter

you're all welcome to come back next year, should be fun. As for me, I'm as much a redneck as anyone and I'm OK with that.