Sending Pumpkins Where No Gourd Has Gone Before

fjordboy writes: "Getting tired of shooting potatoes long distances? Then check out world championship pumpkin chunkin' contests. Pumpkins are hurled out of pneumatic or mechanical devices (sorry, no explosives) and are sent flying for hundreds and thousands of yards. Perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon." Or Halloween ;)

Comments

Bizarre contests.

[Kiss the Blade]

This reminds me of all the bizarre contests you get here in Blighty. For example, Dwarf throwing is a hearty contest, where contestants decide who can throw a dwarf the furthest.

And also Cheese rolling, where contestants roll large Stiltons downhill at great speed.Unfortunately this was banned by the local council of the county where it takes place, as being too dangerous, but I hear it's making a comeback.

And Golf, where, umm...Thats probably the most stupid;)

Re:Bizarre contests.

[pigpogm]

Cricket.

Re:Bizarre contests.

[Goonie]

Hmmm. You're calling cricket bizarre, and you're (presumably) from the land of the game where a bunch of 500 pound guys pile on top of each other, for ten seconds, and then everything stops for five minutes where the captain, the coaches, the umpires, the crowd, the commentators, a bunch of drunks in a sports bar, and the computers at the Pentagon analyse the play.

Like I said - hmmm.

Ah, we did it better

[empesey]

We used to have pumpkin skeet shooting, launched from our very own human powered pumpkin launcher. Two or three people had to jump on the glorified teeter-totter, which got launched the doomed pumpkins a pretty good distance (in the other direction of course).

Re:Genetic Manip

[onion2k]

Why not genetically manipulate one into a carriage.

No, wait, thats Cinderella..

Feds Reply to the Spudgun Guy

[onion2k]

We have determined that these devices, as described, are not firearms provided that they are used solely for launching potatoes for recreational purposes

You've got to wonder what was going through the mind of the person that wrote that. There is no way anyone could write something along those line without a smile. Great.

Re:Feds Reply to the Spudgun Guy

[Xenu]

BATF agents are not issued a sense of humor.

i doubt it

[alprazolam]

these people are serious about their pumpkin launching. very serious

Another Pumpkin Chucking site Morton IL

[Sanity-is-Boring]

This pumkin event was held last month (why? I don't know) Any way its in Morton IL and their champion (Aludium Q-36 Pumpkin Modulator: 3539 Feet) currently holds the world record. Even though the other site has a winner of over 3600 feet. Maybe Guiness was there or something anyway here's a link to it.

Old joke

[arkham6]

This one is old, I know, but I have to do it.

Why do computer programmers get halloween and christmas mixed up?

Because oct(31)==dec(25)

Re:Genetic Manip

[ballista]

Since I have some experience in this area (as a competitor), The concept is sound. The problem you will run into though is that the competition is out in a large field with no available electricity. Unless you wish to build a power station right on the field or you invent really good super conductors, it won't work.

What would be more interesting in term of genetic manipulations is to breed a super pumpkin. The problem with the big cannons that the pumpkins explode in the barrels when hit by high pressure. If you were to breed a pumpkin similar to a white pumpkin with a higher density it may be possible to push a pumkin to super sonic speeds.

Also you could shape the pumpkin into more of a bullet so to cut down on wind resistance. Of course the holy grail would be to shape the pumpkin like a little airplane with wings that won't brake off and can be shot out of a cannon at high speed.

You ain't from around here are you boy?

[schporto]

Sorry I live in DE. This event's been going on for quite a while. They've had to move it in recent years because the machine were starting to fire pumpkins near a church (and or Rt 1). The thing does get insane though with lots of people, lots of beer, duct tape, heavy machinery, and people who are way too serious about hurling pumpkins into tomarrow.

As for those concerned about people starving, realize these are left over pumpkins, that probably couldn't be shipped anywhere in time to be of use.

My friends and I really want to enter this. One of these years we will. Not to win mind you. Just to have some fun.

-cpd

Gratuitous plug...

[don_carnage]

But what the hell, it's Hallowe'en and I'm sure if you all appreciate hurling pumpkins, you can appreciate the Fire in the Bottle trick and Mission Imposible Midge:
--

Church

[glowingspleen]

Speaking of the church, I was there three years ago when their recent summer tweaking on the big cannons put their expected distance at the END of the "long field," across the road, and pretty much INTO a church on the other side.

So did they call off the competition?

Nope. They evacuated the church and said they would pay for anything they broke. It was also around then that they unfurled a giant tarp on the roof of the church that looked like a bullseye ;)

Anyway, don't go. It's uh, too crowded or something. It's not fun. And I won't be camping there on Saturday night this weekend. Nope. Not me.

Re:Hmm

[cetan]

yeah, they could use trolls...

I saw one of these a ways back

[jht]

Back in Columbus Day 1998, my wife and I were in western New York visiting friends of ours (they own a golf course - how cool is that), and we went to see one of these at a festival in scenic Busti, New York. Man, they were some cool machines...

The competition was broken into two categories - mechanically-powered devices (generally slingshots and catapults), and air or pressure-powered devices (the massive air cannons). The better slingshots could chuck the pumpkin around a hundred yards - the cannons could fire a half mile and up. The highlight was when one of the catapults misfired and tossed the pumpkin straight up about a hundred feet and slightly backwards, so it landed in the crowd (people just stepped a few feet away from the landing area and let it go splat).

It was actually a lot of fun - If I'm out there again during punkin' chunkin' season I'll go see it.

Also, one of the people I work with here is on a team that built an air cannon for the big festival that's in this article. I can't remember the name of it offhand but I'm trying to find the message with the group's website link - I'll post the link if I find it.

- -Josh Turiel

How about a pumpkin puking?

[antdude]

http://www.hardocp.co m/n ews_images/2000/oct2k/103000e.html Ewwie!

where this all came from

[fjordboy]

I first saw this story about 2-3 years ago in "Compressed Air" magazine which was distributed freely by Ingersoll-Rand It was a very cool magazine, and it always had cool articles. The one I am speaking of had a large writeup about a competition in Deleware where these MASSIVE air compressors (hmmmm..and several were made by ingersoll-rand...conspiracy? or is the magazine biased?) that powered these pumpkin chucking devices. I thought this was really cool, but because of my young age and lack of ability, I was forced to build a potato gun instead, which doesn't have quite the same power. So the other day I looked up this pumpkin thing and I was completely blown away by all the stuff they did now..there were hundreds of pages about it. I was very impressed.