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
