
	GOURDS IN SPACE - HISTORY In the crisp fall October 2000 air, the first Punkin Chunkin Event was held at Fort Missoula. Twenty teams entered machines from hand powered truck leaf springs to crude air cannons. The local rock and roll station Z100 sponsored the event. Garrett Grothen and I being the gadgetiers that we are, decided to build a contraption. We started work on a, well, not really sure what to call it. We began with a 16’ long piece of thick wall PVC pipe. We cut slits in the side and made a plunger that fit inside the pipe. At first we used 5/8” bungee cord, then added large garage springs as the power source. It took a 2 ½ ton come-along to winch back the piston. Thus the first “Gourds in Space” was built. Scott Kuehn, being an inventor and an avid Muppets fan, thought this contraption was something Professor Honeydew and his assistant Beaker would have thought up named and built. At the competition, we set up next to Cub Scout Pack 7 who built a Trebuchet. We all had a practice shot and we didn’t do too well. In the end, we only shot 162’, and the Cub Scouts Pack 7 beat us with a shot of 210 feet. It’s pretty humiliating when two grown men (Scott with 5 patents to his name) who worked weeks, only to get beat by the Cub Scouts. From then on it was war! A local brewery took some of their old brewing tanks and made a crude air cannon. I remember one shot, they aired it up, hit the valve and you could hear the air rushing out and the pumpkin slowly tumbling its way up the barrel. It finally made its way out the barrel, dropped like a rock and rolled backwards for a negative 17’ shot! 2001 We threw out the plunger style gun and decided to build an air cannon. We found another 20’ piece of thick wall PVC as our barrel. We acquired two air tanks from a wrecked locomotive and hooked them in series to an old steam valve. After making a frame and air cylinders to lift and lower the barrel, we were ready to test fire. Back then you could use wadding, but nothing could cross the starting line. We built an aluminum plug that would trap the air and we attached a 5/8” bungee cord to it inside the barrel. Thinking the plunger would push out the pumpkin and once the plunger left the barrel, the bungee cord would catch it and retract it back. Our first test shot not only shot the pumpkin, but our plunger as well. It broke the 5/8” bungee cord like it was twine and out flew the pumpkin. So much for that idea. Our next idea was simple and worked great. We took a piece of foam 2” thick and about 2’ square and wrapped the pumpkin in this and shoved the whole wad down the barrel. When the pumpkin left the barrel, the foam expanded and let the pumpkin fly and the air caught the foam and it fluttered down about 10’ in front of the barrel. We just moved the machine back 15’ and the foam never went over the starting line. We shot 1127’ that year. We didn’t win, but we beat Pack 7!! 2002 In January 2002, my good friend Garrett was killed in an avalanche. That fall I almost decided not to enter, but decided to build a bigger and better cannon dedicated to Garrett. I figured I could do some minor additions to the old air cannon, but would soon reach its limit. I wanted to go much bigger. I was able to get a trailer load of locomotive air tanks from Norm Jones and Jim Fleshauer. With my vision of a much bigger cannon, I not only needed help, but also needed a bigger shop. I asked Ed Cheff, a local logger if I could use his shop to build the big cannon. He said sure. It had several welders, overhead cranes, and a 90’ bay. I began by cutting off the round ends of the air tanks and welding them together until they were 22’ long. I made two of these long tanks and welded them side-by-side. I begged and borrowed an 8” air operated butterfly valve from Smurfit Stone Container and some scrap steel 8” pipe for the manifolds. I’d work nights, weekends, and take the afternoons off to cut and weld. At first Ed Cheff’s crew would come in from the woods and laughed at what I was building. Within a couple weeks, he was pulling guys off his logging crew to come help weld and build the cannon. Ed caught the Punkin Chunkin Bug. Late one night, when were just about done building the cannon, we decided to do a test fire. We parked Ed’s huge excavator outside the shop door and we aimed at the side of the bucket. We loaded up a pumpkin, aired up the cannon, and touched it off. None of us knew what to expect, so we were all hiding behind something solid for protection. When we shot it off, the cannon slid back about 5’ and let out a cloud of smoke and dust. We could not see where the pumpkin hit the bucket. About that time, we all began to panic and thought when the cannon slid back, it moved and we missed the bucket. We went out in the yard and couldn’t find any traces of the gourd. Then we started looking farther and we looked up and saw that just beyond there, were some houses and shops. We began to panic thinking we overshot out target and hit a house. After about 20 minutes, someone looked at the bucket and it was all wet. The pumpkin had hit the bucket, only to vaporize. There was a thin wet film in line with the bucket, where the pumpkin hit, vaporized, then traveled sideways. There was not a single particle of recognizable pumpkin guts left. The distances were getting long enough that we had to move the competition from Fort Missoula to the Hanson Ranch in Butler Creek north of Missoula. Unfortunately, many of the original hand held devices, Cub Scouts and others started to drop out. Even though we had several divisions, fewer competitors entered. Our cannon was so large that it had to be lifted by a crane. We originally only had a 40’ barrel, but two days before the competition, Ed decided to go all out and add another 21’. We were welding and painting until midnight the night before the competition getting it ready. The next day, we won with a shot of 3160’. A far cry from 162’ loss to the Cub Scouts two years before. 2003 We figured, as Tim Allen would say, “More power!” So we rounded up another trailer load of locomotive air tanks and added two 18’ long tanks and mounted them on top of the original tanks. This gave us 1920 gallons of air or 270 cubic feet. We had to come up with a way to combine all of the air from 4 tanks into an 8” butterfly valve. We hooked 10” pipe from the ends of the new tanks and angled them into the old tanks. The thought was that all the air would be pushed into the 10” manifolds, through a bell reducer necking it down to 8” into the butterfly valve. That year we won with a shot of 3477’. 2004 What can we do to shoot farther? We figured four large air tanks necked down so much is restricting our airflow. We replaced the 10” 90 degree manifolds with 12” manifolds and replaced the 12” to 8” bell reducer with a longer transition manifold. This allowed the 1920 gallons of air to escape much quicker. We won with a shot 3644’. 2005 Of course we had to do something to the machine; we just can’t leave well enough alone. So, we added 20 more feet of barrel, making the barrel 82’ long. We had to build a new expanding supporting mast. It’s getting so big, without being able to expand and collapse the support tower; we can’t haul it and be under legal height. Adding 400 pounds of barrel, we also had to add more and redo all of our old support cables. We won with a shot of 3657’. Our first shot went over the spotter’s heads and they were out 3500’. They spent an hour in the adjoining pasture looking, but never found it. We were disappointed that our longest recorded shot was almost the same as 2004, but there is always next year! In 2005, we also built two other smaller cannons: Mini-Me and Super Mini-me. Mini-Me is a mobile cannon with a 120 gallon air chamber, 4” x 18’ barrel, and the entire cannon raises and lowers with the operator at the controls sitting in an air ride logging truck seat. It has hand and feet controls to raise and lower, and open and close the butterfly air valve. Mini-me shoots grapefruit, oranges and small pumpkins. Though more for demonstrations and target practice, it did shoot 1625’ for distance. “Super Mini-Me” has a 15 gallon (30 pound) propane tank for the air chamber, and a 3” x 10’ long barrel. Designed for shooting spuds and apples, it is also an absolute crowd pleaser shooting candy for the kids to run after. Load up the barrel with a couple bags of candy and let-er-rip. On our first attempt I used 100 psi, which in hind site was a bit much. At 100 psi, it blows the wrappers off the candy and all the wrappers fluttered to the ground, while the candy shot out and hit the ground wrapper-less. The kids didn’t care at all though. The barrel is the perfect size to slip down a pop or beer can as ammo. First we tried an empty can and it ripped it to shreds. Then we tried a full beer can. At first we went with 40 psi, and blam! It shot the beer can out like a rocket. So after consuming lots of our ”ammo” we decided to try a full beer can at 110 psi. I touched it off and was immediately knocked on my butt and broke the shoulder strap. It did shoot the can over the neighbor’s house, never to be seen again (at least by us).

GOURDS IN SPACE - HISTORY

In the crisp fall October 2000 air, the first Punkin Chunkin Event was held at Fort Missoula. Twenty teams entered machines from hand powered truck leaf springs to crude air cannons. The local rock and roll station Z100 sponsored the event.

Garrett Grothen and I being the gadgetiers that we are, decided to build a contraption. We started work on a, well, not really sure what to call it. We began with a 16’ long piece of thick wall PVC pipe. We cut slits in the side and made a plunger that fit inside the pipe. At first we used 5/8” bungee cord, then added large garage springs as the power source. It took a 2 ½ ton come-along to winch back the piston. Thus the first “Gourds in Space” was built. Scott Kuehn, being an inventor and an avid Muppets fan, thought this contraption was something Professor Honeydew and his assistant Beaker would have thought up named and built.

At the competition, we set up next to Cub Scout Pack 7 who built a Trebuchet. We all had a practice shot and we didn’t do too well. In the end, we only shot 162’, and the Cub Scouts Pack 7 beat us with a shot of 210 feet. It’s pretty humiliating when two grown men (Scott with 5 patents to his name) who worked weeks, only to get beat by the Cub Scouts. From then on it was war!

A local brewery took some of their old brewing tanks and made a crude air cannon. I remember one shot, they aired it up, hit the valve and you could hear the air rushing out and the pumpkin slowly tumbling its way up the barrel. It finally made its way out the barrel, dropped like a rock and rolled backwards for a negative 17’ shot!

2001

We threw out the plunger style gun and decided to build an air cannon. We found another 20’ piece of thick wall PVC as our barrel. We acquired two air tanks from a wrecked locomotive and hooked them in series to an old steam valve. After making a frame and air cylinders to lift and lower the barrel, we were ready to test fire. Back then you could use wadding, but nothing could cross the starting line. We built an aluminum plug that would trap the air and we attached a 5/8” bungee cord to it inside the barrel. Thinking the plunger would push out the pumpkin and once the plunger left the barrel, the bungee cord would catch it and retract it back. Our first test shot not only shot the pumpkin, but our plunger as well. It broke the 5/8” bungee cord like it was twine and out flew the pumpkin. So much for that idea.

Our next idea was simple and worked great. We took a piece of foam 2” thick and about 2’ square and wrapped the pumpkin in this and shoved the whole wad down the barrel. When the pumpkin left the barrel, the foam expanded and let the pumpkin fly and the air caught the foam and it fluttered down about 10’ in front of the barrel. We just moved the machine back 15’ and the foam never went over the starting line. We shot 1127’ that year. We didn’t win, but we beat Pack 7!!

2002

In January 2002, my good friend Garrett was killed in an avalanche. That fall I almost decided not to enter, but decided to build a bigger and better cannon dedicated to Garrett.

I figured I could do some minor additions to the old air cannon, but would soon reach its limit. I wanted to go much bigger. I was able to get a trailer load of locomotive air tanks from Norm Jones and Jim Fleshauer. With my vision of a much bigger cannon, I not only needed help, but also needed a bigger shop. I asked Ed Cheff, a local logger if I could use his shop to build the big cannon. He said sure. It had several welders, overhead cranes, and a 90’ bay.

I began by cutting off the round ends of the air tanks and welding them together until they were 22’ long. I made two of these long tanks and welded them side-by-side. I begged and borrowed an 8” air operated butterfly valve from Smurfit Stone Container and some scrap steel 8” pipe for the manifolds. I’d work nights, weekends, and take the afternoons off to cut and weld. At first Ed Cheff’s crew would come in from the woods and laughed at what I was building. Within a couple weeks, he was pulling guys off his logging crew to come help weld and build the cannon. Ed caught the Punkin Chunkin Bug.

Late one night, when were just about done building the cannon, we decided to do a test fire. We parked Ed’s huge excavator outside the shop door and we aimed at the side of the bucket. We loaded up a pumpkin, aired up the cannon, and touched it off. None of us knew what to expect, so we were all hiding behind something solid for protection. When we shot it off, the cannon slid back about 5’ and let out a cloud of smoke and dust. We could not see where the pumpkin hit the bucket. About that time, we all began to panic and thought when the cannon slid back, it moved and we missed the bucket. We went out in the yard and couldn’t find any traces of the gourd. Then we started looking farther and we looked up and saw that just beyond there, were some houses and shops. We began to panic thinking we overshot out target and hit a house. After about 20 minutes, someone looked at the bucket and it was all wet. The pumpkin had hit the bucket, only to vaporize. There was a thin wet film in line with the bucket, where the pumpkin hit, vaporized, then traveled sideways. There was not a single particle of recognizable pumpkin guts left.

The distances were getting long enough that we had to move the competition from Fort Missoula to the Hanson Ranch in Butler Creek north of Missoula. Unfortunately, many of the original hand held devices, Cub Scouts and others started to drop out. Even though we had several divisions, fewer competitors entered. Our cannon was so large that it had to be lifted by a crane. We originally only had a 40’ barrel, but two days before the competition, Ed decided to go all out and add another 21’. We were welding and painting until midnight the night before the competition getting it ready.

The next day, we won with a shot of 3160’. A far cry from 162’ loss to the Cub Scouts two years before.

2003

We figured, as Tim Allen would say, “More power!” So we rounded up another trailer load of locomotive air tanks and added two 18’ long tanks and mounted them on top of the original tanks. This gave us 1920 gallons of air or 270 cubic feet. We had to come up with a way to combine all of the air from 4 tanks into an 8” butterfly valve. We hooked 10” pipe from the ends of the new tanks and angled them into the old tanks. The thought was that all the air would be pushed into the 10” manifolds, through a bell reducer necking it down to 8” into the butterfly valve. That year we won with a shot of 3477’.

2004

What can we do to shoot farther? We figured four large air tanks necked down so much is restricting our airflow. We replaced the 10” 90 degree manifolds with 12” manifolds and replaced the 12” to 8” bell reducer with a longer transition manifold. This allowed the 1920 gallons of air to escape much quicker. We won with a shot 3644’.

2005

Of course we had to do something to the machine; we just can’t leave well enough alone. So, we added 20 more feet of barrel, making the barrel 82’ long. We had to build a new expanding supporting mast. It’s getting so big, without being able to expand and collapse the support tower; we can’t haul it and be under legal height. Adding 400 pounds of barrel, we also had to add more and redo all of our old support cables. We won with a shot of 3657’. Our first shot went over the spotter’s heads and they were out 3500’. They spent an hour in the adjoining pasture looking, but never found it. We were disappointed that our longest recorded shot was almost the same as 2004, but there is always next year!

In 2005, we also built two other smaller cannons: Mini-Me and Super Mini-me. Mini-Me is a mobile cannon with a 120 gallon air chamber, 4” x 18’ barrel, and the entire cannon raises and lowers with the operator at the controls sitting in an air ride logging truck seat. It has hand and feet controls to raise and lower, and open and close the butterfly air valve. Mini-me shoots grapefruit, oranges and small pumpkins. Though more for demonstrations and target practice, it did shoot 1625’ for distance.

“Super Mini-Me” has a 15 gallon (30 pound) propane tank for the air chamber, and a 3” x 10’ long barrel. Designed for shooting spuds and apples, it is also an absolute crowd pleaser shooting candy for the kids to run after. Load up the barrel with a couple bags of candy and let-er-rip. On our first attempt I used 100 psi, which in hind site was a bit much. At 100 psi, it blows the wrappers off the candy and all the wrappers fluttered to the ground, while the candy shot out and hit the ground wrapper-less. The kids didn’t care at all though.

The barrel is the perfect size to slip down a pop or beer can as ammo. First we tried an empty can and it ripped it to shreds. Then we tried a full beer can. At first we went with 40 psi, and blam! It shot the beer can out like a rocket. So after consuming lots of our ”ammo” we decided to try a full beer can at 110 psi. I touched it off and was immediately knocked on my butt and broke the shoulder strap. It did shoot the can over the neighbor’s house, never to be seen again (at least by us).