Maker

Big Blowhards

Who will be the first to make a machine that propels a pumpkin more than a mile? By William Gurstelle

WHAT WEIGHS 28,000 POUNDS, stretches 100 feet into the air, and shoots vegetables, frozen turkeys, and bowling balls? The biggest, baddest air gun of them all, dubbed Second Amendment. This is the machine that won first place in the 2006 World Championship Punkin Chunkin, as it did in 2002 and 2003.

Built by a team of arc-welding air gun builders headquartered in the exurbs of Detroit, Second Amendment is an enormous, truck-mounted breechloader, a howitzer capable of shooting a 10-pound pumpkin just shy of a mile. Last year, on the weekend following Halloween, Second Amendment and a couple dozen of its high-pressure cousins met in a harvested cornfield in the wilds of Delaware to show off their prowess at making stuff fly.

Punkin Chunkin ( punkinchunkin.com) began officially 21 years earlier, when its three founders met informally to build hurling machines capable of flinging leftover Halloween pumpkins. Little by little, the hurlers improved their machines, and every year the pumpkins flew a bit farther. Things changed radically in 1995 when Trey Melson, one of the co-founders of the event, upped the ante.

Jaws dropped and eyes widened when he hauled Universal Soldier to the firing line. The first truly giant pumpkin-shooting air cannon, Universal Soldier ushered in a new era in hurling. Now there are more than two dozen monster air cannons, all capable of shooting projectiles more than 2,000 feet. And a couple have even fired 5,000 feet.

Photography by Dale Dougherty

30 Make: Volume 11