Knimrod
11-01-2005, 07:17 PM
Michigan team hopes to regain national pumpkin-shooting title
October 31, 2005, 4:14 PM
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) -- A pumpkin-shooting team from Livingston County hopes that new larger gun valves will help it shoot its pumpkins farther than ever this weekend at the world championships in Delaware.
Team Second Amendment, based in the Howell area, has won the title twice but lost on a technicality last year. The team launched a rock-hard white pumpkin nearly a mile from a 100-foot-long gun barrel, but members couldn't find the pumpkin after it landed.
That resulted in a second-place finish for shooting one a mere 4,065.6 feet.
This year, the team is putting the finishing touches on new guns with 12-inch valves rather than 10-inch ones, which will give the guns greater air flow and send pumpkins flying farther.
"We're under the gun right now to get them working before we leave Wednesday," Bruce Bradford, designer of the gun, told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.
They've already shot pumpkins 4,800 feet in practice, but they don't know what changes their competition has made, Bradford said.
Bradford said Second Amendment won't lose its pumpkin again.
"This year, we're going to make sure we walk the field properly," he said. "It always gets tougher every year. The distance increases every year, and everyone's trying to do what we are trying to increase their distance."
Members of the winning team at the championships will have their names placed on a 700-pound wooden trophy shaped like a pumpkin.
Link to story (http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw123435_20051031.htm)
October 31, 2005, 4:14 PM
HOWELL, Mich. (AP) -- A pumpkin-shooting team from Livingston County hopes that new larger gun valves will help it shoot its pumpkins farther than ever this weekend at the world championships in Delaware.
Team Second Amendment, based in the Howell area, has won the title twice but lost on a technicality last year. The team launched a rock-hard white pumpkin nearly a mile from a 100-foot-long gun barrel, but members couldn't find the pumpkin after it landed.
That resulted in a second-place finish for shooting one a mere 4,065.6 feet.
This year, the team is putting the finishing touches on new guns with 12-inch valves rather than 10-inch ones, which will give the guns greater air flow and send pumpkins flying farther.
"We're under the gun right now to get them working before we leave Wednesday," Bruce Bradford, designer of the gun, told the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.
They've already shot pumpkins 4,800 feet in practice, but they don't know what changes their competition has made, Bradford said.
Bradford said Second Amendment won't lose its pumpkin again.
"This year, we're going to make sure we walk the field properly," he said. "It always gets tougher every year. The distance increases every year, and everyone's trying to do what we are trying to increase their distance."
Members of the winning team at the championships will have their names placed on a 700-pound wooden trophy shaped like a pumpkin.
Link to story (http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw123435_20051031.htm)