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November 5th, 2009

Pumpkins Fly This Weekend at 'Punkin Chunkin' Festival

The 24th Annual “World Championship of Punkin Chunkin” will be held Friday November 6th through Sunday, November 8th, in Sussex County, Delaware. This hugely popular event draws 40,000-50,000 spectators each year. They gather to watch 100 or more amazing air cannons, catapults, trebuchets, giant slingshots, and other fantastic devices launch pumpkins into the air. In conjunction with the Punkin Chunkin Championship, there will be cooking contests, and live rockabilly music all three days.

On Saturday, the “Miss Punkin Chunkin” Pageant will be held around noon, with a large fireworks display at dusk. Proceeds from the annual event go to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, various other charities, and scholarships. Daily admission is $9.00 per adult and $2.00 parking per vehicle. Children under 10 are admitted free of charge. There are reasonably-priced hotels nearby and camping is permitted at the Championship site east of Bridgeville, Delaware. Directions are available online, or plug these coordinates into your GPS: Latitude = 38.7101657968, Longitude = -75.5315404535.

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Want more Punkin Chunkin footage? Believe it or not, there’s a full-length feature movie about the event: Flying Pumpkins: The Legend of Punkin Chunkin. To view movie clips, CLICK HERE.

You can find complete event info, including directions, on Punkinchunkin.com. To view many of the amazing machines, visit the event’s Online Photo Galleries.

One of the greatest “big guns” in Punkin-Chunkin history is the aptly-named “Second Amendment”. This 14-ton monster boasts a 100-foot-long barrel that can toss an appropriate projectile (e.g. a pumpkin or frozen turkey), over 5,000 feet (nearly one mile!). Muzzle velocity is an impressive 500 miles per hour (about 733 fps). The big cannon, shown below, holds the official world Punkin distance record, and is a 4-time overall winner (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006).

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November 5th, 2009

Care and Maintenance of Reloading Dies

Sinclair Int'l ReloadingIn this feature, Bill Gravatt, President of Sinclair International, explains how to clean and maintain precision reloading dies. This article first appeared in Sinclair’s online Blog, The Reloading Press, where you’ll find many other useful Product Spotlights and ‘How-to’ articles.

Reloading dies if taken care of properly will provide years of service to their owner. Most dies are hardened and then micro-polished for that mirror internal finish many of the dies exhibit. Many of them are also treated with some type of rust preventative before they leave the factory floor. But dies still need some attention before they are put to use.

Clean Your Dies Before First Use
The first step in taking care of your dies starts when you receive them. We advocate cleaning all new dies before you begin to use them. Beginning with your sizing dies; take the decapping assembly completely out of the die body. Flush the decapping assembly with a good degreaser (such as Hornady One-Shot Cleaner & Dry Lube, Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber or Shooter’s Choice Quickscrub III) and wipe the expander ball clean.

Sinclair Int'l ReloadingThe only part of the decapping assembly that should come in contact with your brass is the expander ball and the decapping pin. Pay particular attention to the decapping ball as it determines the final interior dimension (bullet grip) of your case neck. Make sure you inspect it after cleaning to make sure that the surface is clean and free of burrs.

Next, flush the interior of the die body out with some more degreaser. Using a pistol cleaning rod or a dowel rod, push a couple of wet patches all the way through the die. Then run a couple of dry patches through. Reassemble your sizing die and you should be good to go.

Seating Die Cleaning and Maintenance
Taking apart your seater is fairly simple depending on the complexity of your seating die. A standard seater just requires you to turn the seating stem out of the die body exposing the interior of the seater. Flush and clean both the body and seater as described above. Benchrest sliding sleeve seaters such as Forster or Redding Competition Dies have a few more parts involved. Just make sure as you take them apart you know how the spring is oriented and how any other parts such as chamber sleeves or seating plugs are arranged. Any springs or threads can be wiped down with a very rag or patch lightly coated with a fine oil. Make sure you inspect the opening in the seating stem for debris. You can twist a patch and use the end to clean out the smaller caliber stems/plugs.

Sinclair Int'l ReloadingRegular Cleaning and Storage Advice
Regular maintenance of your dies should include their routine cleaning. Sizing dies collect excess lube off the cases and this lube can begin to build up. We have seen dents formed in the case shoulder from the hydraulic compression of the excess lube in the die when the case was sized. We recommend cleaning the dies every 500 to 1000 rounds depending on how frequently they are used and the cleanliness of your reloading area. For longer term storage of your dies, I recommend putting a light oil or rust preventative on them, especially if you have a shop that has a humid environment.

My reloading area is in the same building (different room) as my woodshop and I have to watch the dust so I keep most of my reloading dies covered or stored away. I keep a cover over my press and scales as well.

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