Pumpkin chunking (or "punkin chunkin" or "pumpkin chucking") is hurling vegetables (usually pumpkins) by mechanical means over great heights and distances so as to smash and dash them for entertainment. In increasing effectiveness, the devices include compound slingshots, catapults, trebuchets, and air cannon s. The range achieved by loads greatly depends on their mass, shape, and size; the yield limits, stiffnesses, pitch, and elevation of the hurler; and the wind speed. The better pumpkin chunkers specially grow dwarf, regular, firm pumpkins ideal for use as a cannon projectile, as sabots are prohibited in competitions. Such competitions disallow self- or ground-powered pumpkins by chemical reactions. Another rule is that the pumpkin must be whole after leaving the device for the chunking to count, which limits the forces in the cannon barrel. Outside of lengthening the barrel, the limit is on the pumpkin which, as a corollary, of course must be natural. The special pumpkins grown by some are thus not suitable for eating. The latest record for a chunked pumpkin is about 4800 feet.
