What do punkin chunkin winners win

After a warning siren, Labrie puts one clean through its side. Later, he hands Bingham three pieces of fruit to load into the breech all at once and walks away grinning.

A moment later, they tear through the metal. The fruit size and air pressure are fractions of their competition counterparts, but inside the mobile home, there is only destruction: a stove punched across the room, a sink busted from the countertop, melon guts on everything. Each September, the team also does long-range testing and gathers data with a muzzle-mounted radar gun, pole-mounted weather station, and thermal-imaging cameras. Several years back, The Big 10 Inch sent a pumpkin 5, A large contingent of the team is here for the lone long-range test of the pre-season.

Underneath a shade canopy, Sommer and Colantonio man laptops while spotters Jim Moreau and Steve Pierce are stationed thousands of feet downrange.

A survey crew will measure the distances between the barrel and the splattered pumpkin with GPS and radio back the numbers. Labrie and company tried last year, but the gusts never came.

The plan is to try after lunch. At 11 a. By p. So they raise the cannon barrel and load a pumpkin into the breech. The distance reading comes back at 4, They let the air compressor hum for more than 30 minutes to fill the tank, reload, then Labrie hits the button again.

The cannon roars like a jet airplane. The La Estrella is gone in an instant. The spotters relay digits that fall short of the mile: 4, The Guinness record remains in the distance. In fact, launching pumpkins into the air has evolved into a sport of sorts. Each year teams from across the country and abroad compete in this action-packed, squash-slinging event.

The machines used to launch the pumpkins in Punkin Chunkin include slingshots, catapults, centrifuges, medieval-style Trebuchets, and pneumatic cannons. The range achieved by these devices depends upon multiple factors including: mass, shapes, size, yield limits, stiffness, pitch, elevation of hurler, and weather conditions. To accomplish this feat, the team placed the pumpkin in a tube with a valve separating it from a large tank of high-pressure air.

The second farthest chuck on record 3, April 30, : Officials in Ocean City, Maryland, vote in support of hosting the event , but no formal agreement is put in place. The preliminary proposal calls for the event to take place at the Inlet parking lot where pumpkins would be launched into the ocean instead of farm fields.

Punkin Chunkin officials indicate that there has been interest in areas outside of Delmarva, including Illinois and Colorado. May 28, Punkin Chunkin organizers announce that the event is moving to Rantoul, Illinois. It will be held in November. Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck delawareonline. Punkin Chunkin's Delaware history, from its humble beginnings to trouble in recent years. Brandon Holveck The News Journal.

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