2007 - The Big 10 Inch Has Risen Again!

On Friday, the first day of the 2007 competition, we were ahead with a shot of 3490 feet. The current champ, “2nd Amendment”, gets to shoot last each day. Theirs went 63 feet farther.

The winds from offshore hurricane Noel shifted from NE on Fri, to right into everyone's barrels out of the N on Sat. We had the best shot that day at 3416 feet, beating the champ by 178 feet.

Sunday, the winds died down somewhat and came out of their prevailing NW. We fired the best pumpkin we’ve ever had for a 4211 footer. This bested all others by 631 feet that day and matched our best shot in 2005.

The Big 10 Inch is now 2-Time World Champions!

2006 - World Championship Punkin Chunkin

How did we do? Not well. Actually, we sucked. Well actually, no one did well – the cold temps and wind knocked down all shots, but we were hit harder than many. Our poor showing (6th) relative to the other cannons could be attributed to our competition growing every year. There were 22 cannons this year. If you have 10 fully competitive foes your odds of finishing “in the money” fall off, just due to the “vagaries of vegetables”.

2005 - World Championship Punkin Chunkin

The competition got even tighter this year with 20 air cannons participating, including the 2003 and 2004 world champions, “Second Amendment” and “Old Glory”. We were very pleased to establish a personal best shot of 4211 feet (1.28 km) (That’s 8/10 mile)! This gave us a third place finish — hats off to “Second Amendment” and “Y ask Y” who edged us by 121 and 56 feet, respectively.

2004 - World Championship Punkin Chunkin

The competition got tight this year. Now a half-dozen machines have achieved mechanical parity. Since this leaves one at the mercy of the “vagaries of vegetables”, it becomes an odds game. All competitors had the same wind, though, and the Big 10 Inch rose to the occasion — at the end of the first day we were in first place with a hurl of 3770 feet. It was not to hold and by the end of the second day we dropped to fifth.

We will NOT, in the coming year, be like the football coach who plays for the “long bomb” and loses games because he didn’t drill the less glamorous basics. We may have spent too much time, as seasoned competitors, worrying about refinements at the expense of basics.

2003 - World Championship Punkin Chunkin

Distance shooting needs good ammo. After two years of drought we had one of drenching rains. Every year it seems is the year of the pumpkin, and other stuff. After having been awarded the second-place trophy for Adult Air Cannon, web-posted results gave us third in the new Championship Air category. In ’04 the growing season and new changes may yield exceptional results.