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THUNDER IN THE HILLS
Dynamite Shoot
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Contingency
Firework and Explosive
Storage

Firework Construction 
and Projects page

BIG BOYz TOYz FIREWORKS - ONLINE SHOPPING

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

----Constantly Under Construction----

As you see we really need to work on our picture and video taking equipment and abilities!!! We are not much on taking photos anyway, so this is not high on our "to do" list, but with all the requests that we get to "see" the things that we do here, we have decided to add this page. 

We will be adding more photos and videos as we have the time.

After a long day of shooting on our 16 September 2006 Sniper Match, we "FIXED" a microwave oven that stopped working on the day of the shoot. ---- We "fixed it" like a good Ozarks Hillbilly would -- with a -- Suitable Application of High Explosives!!!! ----  Fixing The Microwave   We WILL be doing more of this in the future!!!!!!

This video is the test of a "fireball exploding target" as an experiment to see of we want to use these at our THUNDER IN THE HILLS Dynamite Shoots. If you have sound, you can hear the hot pieces of burning material hitting the ground like rain near the cameraman. At the end you can hear Dave, saying "I'm on fire" and laughing. Some of the pieces of Titanium were rather large and flew farther than expected and landed in his hair. In the very last frame you can see how close he was standing to the target. Everyone else was smart enough to be hiding behind trees for this test. (Think ya' used enough Dynamite there Butch?)

Short movie of a Fireball at night.  Out of the 4 camera's, this is the best movie of the 6 fireballs, day and night, that were set off. Cool, but we really need to work on our photography... 

One of our first tests of an electronically fired rimfire target.

Three grainy videos of our 1/2 pound exploding targets. You can't "feel" the explosion on video. Even with these small targets there is a shockwave that people standing around can feel.
For larger targets that rock cars in the parking lot, show up at our twice a year  THUNDER IN THE HILLS Dynamite shoots.

Video1 
Video2 
and a sideways view  Video3

BLACK POWDER RELATED PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Here is a photo of Dave minutes after "putting out" his Tipi at a Rendezvous, Tipi Fire. Gotta dig that loin cloth he's wearing! Be afraid, be very afraid!  The photo is named Tipipuppy as the puppy in the picture started the fire when left alone in Dave's Tipi. Yup! He still has this dawg.

A very cool photo of Schuetzen Black Powder in action as a large Cannon is being fired off.

This photo is of a friend, also named Dave, and his homemade Black Powder Cannon. 

Video of "Ringing the Anvil."  This is shooting an Anvil in the air using a Black Powder charge. Anvil shooting is a BLAST! :)

FALL 2006   THUNDER IN THE HILLS

The fall shoot had a very low turnout as the weather was very cold and windy, and there was a light rain off and on during the day too. But, the weather did not stop the diehards that love to shoot at explosives!

Video of the first shot of the day. The sound of the explosion echoing through the hills is great. The fall colors were beautiful.

Picture of the fall colors.

During this fall shoot we had to stop shooting twice. The first time a herd of deer wandered onto the shooting range, then a few hours later we had to stop when a flock of turkeys came by. We tried hard to get photos if this, but by the time we got the camera out (inside from the rain) they were gone each time. Amazing how the sounds of the gunshots and rock the ground explosions did not bother the animals at all.

Photo of a properly loaded microwave. The inside window area was covered in bags of explosives to insure an easy hit. Then more explosives were placed inside the microwave itself. The only purpose for the duct tape was only to hold the cover on, the guy working on the microwave could not find the screws that held it on.

Winner of the raffle got to shoot the microwave you see above filled with explosives. In the video you cannot see the light rain, but you can hear the cold wind blowing. You can also hear how much everyone in attendance loved watching this.

ICE STORM 2007
THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

(We'll upload the photos as soon as we have the chance to do so)

If you watch the national news and the weather channel, there is a gap between Kansas, Oklahoma, and Illinois. Well folks, in that gap is Missouri, and Missouri never seems to get covered, no matter how hard we get hit. The ice storm was considered "historic" by the local weathermen. During this ice storm we lost buildings, expensive equipment, and a lot of products from fireworks to supplies to manufacture explosives and fireworks. It took a very serious toll on our small family business.

These photos are well after the actual ice storm and after some of the ice had melted.

The ice was actually very beautiful, however 15 lives were lost in Missouri, due to this beast of an ice storm, and this is never good. 

When the sun hit the ice it would shine like diamonds as far as the eye could see. We tried very hard to capture this, however beautiful some of the photos are, not one seemed to come out as the beautiful glistening diamonds that they were in person. (Like the twinkling of a star cannot be captured on film.) You'll see in the photos that there is no ice on the roads, and some other areas. The ground was warm enough that the ice did not stick, but stuck hard to just about everything else. 

During the night of the storm we dressed the kids warm and went outside. We only remained outside for 5 minutes it was so cold. In that 5 minutes you could hear more trees and limbs cashing to the ground than you could count. You could constantly hear this for two day and nights.

There were so many trees down in the road that we were going nowhere. Here is a picture of a large tree just after it was cut up and off of the road, after it had fell across the road and onto our perimeter fence, barely missing the power lines. 

The wind was blowing so hard at one point that icicles on some things were perfectly horizontal, like on the power lines shown, while standing directly below them. Farther down the same power line, protected from the wind by trees, the ice can be seen hanging down, the way God had intended them to be hanging. We were grateful that at least our power lines were still up! For those that think the power lines were just twisted due to the weight we attempted to get photos of the tree tops with the same icicles, but none of the photos came out. The guys that came out to check the power lines thought it was cool too.

The ice covered gate to the shooting range. With so many fences down, a lot of good a gate does :)

Would you really want to drive under these large, heavy oak trees?

Unlike the ice in your freezer, this ice was clear as a window pane.

After the ice the news was calling for up to 12" of snow on top of the ice. But, the weather was good to us then. It started snowing so hard you could barely see. With less than an inch of snow it changed over to sleet and ice, then it finished with a lot of rain that actually melted most of the ice. Then, we were up to our chins in mud!