# Man builds gun to fire pumpkin a mile **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 18, 2002, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-builds-gun-to-fire-pumpkin-a-mile/132876 "2002-10-18T19:31:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![agentfroot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@agentfroot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agentfroot)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-builds-gun-to-fire-pumpkin-a-mile/132876/21 "2002-10-20T04:59:05Z")
dude, i want a pumpkin gun! _evil laugh_ ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-builds-gun-to-fire-pumpkin-a-mile/132876/22 "2002-10-20T06:13:33Z")
Two questions: 1.) What do you think is going to happen when [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=139201) guy hears about it? 2.) When is someone going to post pictures/blueprints of the guns on the net??? ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-builds-gun-to-fire-pumpkin-a-mile/132876/23 "2002-10-20T07:52:32Z")
Man. Oh, man. Words, for once, fail me. I want to see it. I want so, SO badly to see it. I want DESPERATELY to see a pumpkin fly a mile. With a muzzle velocity of either 900 mph or 900 fps; I don’t care. I have GOT to see this. (And by the way, I agree with **Starfish** ; having carved and otherwise dealt with many pumpkins in my life, I was skeptical of the chances of accelerating a pumpkin to that speed without _squash_ing it. Har har.) ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-builds-gun-to-fire-pumpkin-a-mile/132876/24 "2002-10-20T08:23:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by starfish \* > \*\*The story sounds wrong. 900mph is supersonic. I doubt you can get a pumpkin to supersonic speeds in a 30 ft long barrel without destroying the pumpkin. The resulting pumkin pulp would not travel a mile. \*\* The little group I was in did some research on this sort of thing. We figured that the easiest way to get any pneumatic gun’s projectile supersonic would be to pump the air out of the barrel, with a bit of aluminum foil over the end to hold the vacuum. Amazingly enough, kitchen aluminum foil can hold 15 PSI. The projectile would then just bash through it. The problem is that the projectile would be subsonic in the evacuated barrel, then suddenly supersonic when it pops through the foil. Since we mostly dealt with darts and cans of concrete, rather than the messy biological projectiles, no one was quite sure how it would hold up. By the way, the record was around a mile and a half the last time I checked, shooting a rebar-reinforced PVC dart. That’s from a much smaller gun than this. **Fibonacci** is right about the unorignality. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-builds-gun-to-fire-pumpkin-a-mile/132876/25 "2002-10-20T08:24:33Z")
I think I’ve found [pics](http://2ndamendment.tripod.com/images/Dsc00004.jpg) of it and a [couple](http://www.sheeneyman.com/pumpkinchuckin.htm) of [sites](http://2ndamendment.tripod.com/album.htm) dedicated to the things. Them puppy’s is huge! It also looks like they hate the Partridge Family, judging by some of the photos. ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2002, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-builds-gun-to-fire-pumpkin-a-mile/132876/26 "2002-10-20T19:10:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fibonacci \* > \*\*[The World Championship Punkin’ Chunkin’ event](http://www.worldchampionshippunkinchunkin.com) has been taking place in Lewes, Delaware since about 1986. \*\* And up until they moved locations, was about two miles from my house. (Badandi lives a bit further down the highway than I do.) I could sit on my roof and watch it. And they wonder why I was glad to get out of Delaware… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-builds-gun-to-fire-pumpkin-a-mile/132876.md?page=1)