I saw a very large pumpkin cannon today; my son was very excited almost as much as me. The barrel is about 30 to 35 feet long; it's connected to a 400 to 600 gallon air tank? Looks awesome built with one hell of a paint job. The thing is on a triaxle trailer. I went in and asked when they use this thing and next weekend is the one time a year they compete. It's not truly open to the public but it's along a public road. I hope to get out and get a few pictures this weekend. Now this is someone with some serious time to do some BIG metal working projects. The owner is a welder.
Pumpkin Guns/Cannon holy #@$%
Oct 10, 2005
32 Replies
Saw a program about Punkin Chunkin. They shoot them from air cannons, and have a centrifugal sling class. They also have one of those medieval flingers, can't recall the name.
Looked fun, and they got some incredible distances.
Steve
trebuchet?
Onager! Bugs
On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 06:33:26 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, t quickly quoth:
That's it. Links follow:
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pianos, anyone?
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- Scattered Showers My Ass! * Insightful Advertising Copy
- --Noah * formatting link
--I still wish I could interest a few folks in my area to help me put one together, but nobody seems to want to spend the time! I've got two great junkyards to snag hardware, too. Sigh...
You guys have seen the Punkin Chunkin website I guess?
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Chris
Exactly what part of the planet is your area? A pumpkin cannon sounds like a fun project. I'm a bit north of the DFW area.
Pete C.
Pete, I'm south of DFW. I've got a 500 gallon propane tank and a gas air compressor. What caliber is a pumpkin?
Hard question to answer - Which one did you designate "ammo" for this particular shot? :)
| >> --I still wish I could interest a few folks in my area to help | >> me put one together, but nobody seems to want to spend the time! I've | >> got two great junkyards to snag hardware, too. Sigh... | >>
| >> -- | >> "Steamboat Ed" Haas : A greasy donut, a cup of | >> Hacking the Trailing Edge! : coffee and thou... | >>
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| >> ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words--- | >
| >Exactly what part of the planet is your area? A pumpkin cannon sounds | >like a fun project. I'm a bit north of the DFW area. | >
| >Pete C. | | Pete, I'm south of DFW. I've got a 500 gallon propane tank and a gas | air compressor. What caliber is a pumpkin?
What's the thing called that's holds shot in a shell? I'm drawing a blank here. They use that to keep the pressure from destroying the pumpkin before it can get very far up the barrel. In fact, that's part of the range problem, because that usually falls short while the pumpkin continues on. I guess they started tying the thing with a cable or something to the gun so it wouldn't classify as part of the projectile, thus getting around a technicality. If that's what they have to do, and technicalities mean that much, then those guys don't just put some serious money into it, they put some serious emotion into it as well!
You're looking for the word "wadding".
Actually...in this case..its "sabot"
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the s*it out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
| >> blank here. They use that to keep the pressure from destroying the pumpkin | >> before it can get very far up the barrel. | >
| >You're looking for the word "wadding". | | Actually...in this case..its "sabot"
That's it. I was starting to feel stupid there for a minute. Glad to know I wasn't the only one drawing a blank!
The holder of the world record (5 years running IIRC) submitted a 1446 pounder this year, missing his best by 3 pounds. Again, IIRC. It's been
10-12 hours since I read the article. I'll let someone else guess what caliber it might be.mj
"carl mciver" wrote
If it's holding shot in a shell it's a shot cup. If it's surrounding a single bullet in a bore it's a sabot. If it's supporting ammo in a gourd gun it's a chunkinpunkinpushincusion.
They use that to keep the pressure from destroying the pumpkin
On Tue, 11 Oct 2005 18:04:23 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Andy Asberry quickly quoth:
As a Texican, you'll recognize "big ol' honkin'" caliber, right?
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- Scattered Showers My Ass! * Insightful Advertising Copy
- --Noah * formatting link
--Santa Rosa, CA. About an hour north of San Francisco.
It's a good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read that. I'd have to go buy a new computer!
That was good!
Would it not be correctly termed "wadding" if it is behind the pumpkin and serves to cushion the accelerating force on the pumpkin, vs. a "sabot" that surrounds the pumpkin on the sides as well and serves to seal and guide it in the bore?
Pete C.
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