Ka-POW! goes the pumpkin
Mechanic develops grand gourd gun

NOBLESVILLE, Indiana (AP) --Jim Bristoe is getting a blast out of his 
pumpkin cannon.

Bristoe figures his 30-foot-long, two-ton contraption can fire the orange 
orbs up to five miles. On Saturday, he entered his launcher in the Pumpkin 
Propulsion Contest, where the cannon far outclassed the competition.

So Bristoe stepped aside and let the lesser rivals compete for top honors.

"I actually bowed out of the money race and let the guys with the 
catapults compete," Bristoe said. "I only shot at 20 pounds of pressure 
and a 10-degree angle, and still cleared their whole range."

Bristoe, a 42-year-old electrician and mechanic, estimates his cannon's 
range at about 5 miles. He's yet to fire the cannon at full power, 
although a pumpkin fired in a demonstration last week went through the 
rear of a Pontiac.

Bristoe wowed the crowd at Saturday's contest by using the cannon to 
launch toilet paper rolls.

"Everyone up there loved it. They let me shoot 36 rolls of toilet paper 
through the gun," he said. "That was impressive. They got about 200 feet 
in the air and then just unrolled."

Meanwhile, he is looking for better competition.

"I intend on shooting in competition, and I'm going to change my barrel 
size to regulation so I can compete with the other big guns," he said. 
"That'll be next year, when pumpkins are ripe again. This is way too much 
fun to stop."

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press