2017 - Volume #41, Issue #1, Page #20
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Truck Cannon Shoots Pumpkins
With 500 gal. of air at 40 psi propelling 8-lb. pumpkins more than half a mile, Carroll Walter’s Pumpgun Cannon attracts a crowd.
“The dads love it. There’s nothing more fun than watching a pumpkin flying through the air,” says Carroll’s wife, Becky, who planted the seed for the pumpkin business when she started growing and selling mini pumpkins in 1986.
To promote the business in area parades, her husband, Carroll, mounted the cannon on a 1954 Chevy grain truck with a 14-ft. bed and a hoist. He painted the truck orange and black and mounted an empty 500-gal. propane tank on back.
Becky dubbed it the Pumpgun Cannon, and it’s a big draw every weekend from the third weekend in September through October. On the hour, an air horn is blown. A large air compressor fills the tank with air. The hoist raises the “cannon” to about a 30-degree angle. After a countdown, the large valve releases a blast of air to shoot the pumpkin out of a 20-ft. long, 8-in. dia. oil field pipe.
It’s just one of the many attractions the Walters offer, but it’s the loudest. “It makes a big boom when the air is released,” Carroll says. “Ninety percent of our customers live in the city. The men say, ‘I’ve got to have one of those.’ It’s comical to hear people’s reactions. They ask questions and are interested and fascinated.”
See it in action on YouTube at Pumpkin Cannon.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Carroll and Becky Walters, Walters’ Pumpkin Patch, 10001 NW U.S. Highway 77, Burns, Kan. 66840 (ph 316 320-4150; www.thewaltersfarm.com).
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