THE TAX BLAST

   After months of preparation, planning, hope, and hard work, Tax Blast 2001 kicked off at Camp Stasa on Saturday, April 14th, 2001.
   In all, about 100 people showed up to participate in this annual event.

The weather started off Saturday morning with a few sprinkles, so we were afraid this would keep people away. It cleared up later, and aside from a hard, steady breeze, the weather became cooperative. 

Open shooting began right around 10:00 AM, which was a good sign. Most people enjoyed shooting tax forms (who wouldn't? ), and a mess of extra nice United Nations targets were donated by Brass Roots. I can't understand why anyone would want to shoot at targets of this fine organization, but they proved to be popular.
   Following this festival of plinking, the Big 50 showed up.

    Dave's .50 cal Barret M99 bolt-action rifle quickly (and loudly) stole the show. The range was backed up to about fifty yards, and folks lined up to blast (literally) away with this magnificent beast of a rifle. Hearing and eye protection were mandatory for anyone in the area. Dave personally supervised the firing of his rifle.

 This proved to be much more popular and time consuming than anyone thought, as more and more people kept lining up to shoot. Dave brought along regular ball ammo, AP ammo, tracers, and the most wonderful round of all, .50 cal armor piercing incendiary rounds. You have not lived life to its fullest until you have witnessed the effects of an AP incendiary round having its way with some helpless target, whether it be a bowling pin, a water jug, or a series of steel plates affixed to one another as a glorious sacrifice to the gods of muzzle energy....

   Looking back (and ahead), we think that the .50 cal should have its own special day scheduled, instead of being squeezed into an already jammed day. This would be entirely up to the owner of said rifle (unless, of course, my wife lets ME get one...).

   Just a quick word on the fifty. SOMEBODY brought his girlfriend out and let her shoot the fifty cal. This was nice and good, except that it was the first time she had ever handled a firearm of any sort, ever. Well, everything else should be easy for her, anyway...

    We then moved on to the looter shooter competition. The generator kept experiencing a circuit-breaker trip, so our field expedient engineer person devised a manually- operated rope scheme which just about made up for the lack of a generator. Good thing the folks had oiled up the track the week before...

   About thirty shooters participated in the looter shooter, which was range mastered by the incomparable Mike Hoban. The winner was (name withheld due to embarrassing repeat of last year's winner, who bemoaned the lack of competition, but will enjoy keeping his Turkish Mauser this time ..).
    Then the pin shoot started. Only 18 folks shot in this one, probably due to the later time. The fastest time from each session moved on to the next round, so six people made it into the second round. The fastest of each group of three advanced, so two were left to face each other. A weapon jam left a clear winner standing. This was also a winner from last year, who's name has been withheld by request.