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October 25th, 2025

Saturday Movies: Pumpkin Blastin’ Videos for Halloween Week

Pumpkin shooting blasting Halloween dirty harry tannerite
Pumpkin Blast event graphic from P2K Sports Range in El Cajon, CA.

Halloween (originally “All Hallows Eve”) is celebrated every year on October 31st — this upcoming Friday. That means it’s pumpkin time. Just how much fun can you have with pumpkins? Watch these six videos and find out. In the first video, the RatedRR team sends a few orange gourds to pumpkin heaven using Det Cord, C4, and binary explosives. The sequence starting at the 2:00 minute mark in the first video is truly amazing. WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Oh, and as a bonus for you guys who like ladies who can shoot, we included a fun video with the enthusiastic YouTuber and gun enthusiast Babee Blue. She posted: “Had a leftover Halloween pumpkin and wanted to blow it up using a Ruger .270 Win rifle. Add some Tannerite and it made for quite the fun explosion. Doesn’t everybody blow up their leftover Halloween pumpkins?”

NOTE: For all the videos, if you don’t hear sound, then click the speaker icon.

Pumpkin shooting blasting Halloween dirty harry tannerite

Watch Pumpkin Blasting with Explosives

In this lead video, the RatedRR team blasts a collection of pumpkins using Det Cord, C4, and binary explosives. The sequence starting at the 2:00 minute mark is jaw-dropping — truly top-tier Hollywood-style colored explosions. WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Pumpkin Face Carved in 5.5 seconds with Handgun

Halloween pumpkinIn six days, on October 31st, we celebrate Halloween (which was originally called All Hallows’ Eve). That means the neighborhood kids will be ringing doorbells as soon as it gets dark. No doubt some of you procrastinators will wait ’til the last minute to set out your Halloween decorations and Jack-O-Lanterns.

Don’t worry, in the video above, our friend, 3-Gun ace Taran Butler, shows how to carve a pumpkin in just about 5.5 seconds, give or take a tenth. Taran performed this feat of speed-carving with his trusty Infinity handgun, chambered in 9mm Major.

Kirsten Carves Pumpkin Face with .22 LR Volquartsen

In this video, the lovely and talented Kirsten Joy Weiss shows off her impressive trick-shot skills. To help celebrate the gouls/goblins holiday, Kirsten “carved” a pumpkin using her semi-auto Volquartsen .22 LR rifle. Kirsten had to send a lot of rimfire rounds into her orange friend.

Halloween Pumpkin Kirsten Joy Weiss carving Volquartsen

It turns out that Mr. Pumpkin’s posterior side was better than his front. On inspection, Kirsten saw that the most impressive Jack ‘O Lantern face appeared on the reverse side of her pumpkin. It turns out the little .22-caliber bullets worked better on exit than entry. Those “exit wounds” made a very successful Halloween face.

Babee Blue Blows Up Pumpkins with .270 Win and Tannerite

In this video, the popular Babee Blue uses a rifle to drill pumpkins that were filled with some Tannerite. The result is an impressive blast when Babee puts a .270 Win round into a pumpkin downrange. This is a fun video to watch, and Babee Blue is an enthusiastic pumpkin blaster.

Which Cartridge Best Destroys a Pumpkin

This video is more about pumpkin blasting than pumpkin carving. Hosted on the Garand Thumb YouTube Channel, this engaging video has been watched over 1.7 MILLION times. The shooters try a variety of cartridge types to determine which firearm destroys pumpkins the best? The host explains: “In this very spooky special we will be putting lead to gourd in the most kinetic way possible. Which gun will do the best? Only science can tell us.”

Carving Pumpkin with Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum Revolver

Hickok45 Carves Pumpkins with Handguns
To celebrate Halloween, here’s an example of master wheelgun marksmanship. Popular YouTube host Hickok45 skillfully creates a smiling face on a pumpkin using a S&W Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver. Hickok45 is using the classic blued, double-action revolver popularized by Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. To form the eyes he uses multiple shots then uses a string of shots to form the mouth, reloading his Model 29 along the way. Carving pumpkins with bullets has become a tradition for Hickok45 — every year he puts a face on a pumpkin using a different firearm, typically a pistol, but he’s used other handguns and a couple rifles as well. SEE PUMPKIN Shooting Playlist. Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin shooting blasting Halloween dirty harry tannerite
Halloween graphic from P2K Sports Range.

Watch .50 BMG Rifle vs. Death Star Pumpkin

In the next video, a pumpkin carved as a Death Star serves as the target for a .50 caliber rifle (looks like a Barrett M82 .50 BMG). As you may guess, the pumpkin Death Star suffers the same fate as the Hollywood version in Star Wars. NOTE: At the 0:42 mark in the video, a graphic displays “30,000 FPS”. That’s the high-speed camera’s frame-per-second rate, NOT the projectile velocity in feet-per-second.

Warning: These demonstrations were carried out on closed ranges by experienced professionals certified to use explosives. Possession of C4 and Det Cord may be a violation of various Federal, State, and local laws. Detonating cord and C4 are classified as high explosives and are regulated by the BATFE. Don’t even think about trying to repeat these stunts on your own.

Permalink - Videos, Handguns, Shooting Skills No Comments »
October 25th, 2025

Steiner 8×30 — Everything in Focus from 20 Yards to Infinity

Steiner model 2033 8x30 military marine binoculars

A while back your Editor was in New Mexico, on a prairie dog expedition. While in the field, my companions and I used two pairs of Steiner 8x30mm Military/Marine binoculars to spot the critters. Finding the Prairie Dogs (PDs) could be challenging in the high grass. Often, a PD would reveal only its head — a small target at distances approaching 400 yards. We really needed sharp optics with high contrast to spot the dogs hiding behind tufts of grass or dry brush.

The Steiner Military/Marine binoculars performed superbly. I came away very impressed with these armored 8x30mm binoculars (now called Model 2033). The glass is bright and super-sharp. And the rubber-armored body is truly rugged. These binoculars offer both right and left diopters — important for me as my left eye requires more correction than the right eye. One great feature of the Steiners is the focusing system which keeps everything you can see in focus. This really is a big deal. You don’t have to constantly fiddle with focus — everything past about 20 yards is in sharp focus all the time.

As one Steiner owner reports: “Focusing set-up is worth the price of admission. Set it and forget. Amazing. This single feature makes these worth owning.” And the sharpness is impressive. I compared the Steiners’ image with a 6.5-20x40mm Leupold EFR riflescope set at 8X. Both 8×30 Steiners were brighter than the Leupold scope, and the Steiners resolved individual blades of grass and fine details better than the Leupold. Of course, comparing a binocular optic with a riflescope is like comparing apples and oranges. The advantages of binoculars (compared to a monocular scope) are well known — the brain combines the two images (left eye and right eye) to create a more vivid, 3D effect, with greater perceived contrast.

steiner military marine 8x30 binoculars

Good Binoculars Are a “Must-Have” Item for Hunters
After three days in the prairie dog fields I came away convinced that a good set of binoculars is absolutely essential for varmint hunters. As the PD population was fairly thin where we were shooting, we probably spent five minutes glassing for every minute actually behind the trigger. Over 90% of the dogs were first spotted with binocs rather than riflescopes. We had a fixed (non-rotating) bench so it was difficult to swing the rifle more than about 30° from one side to another (60° total arc). With the binoculars, and their wide field of view, we could quickly scan a much wider arc.

steiner military marine 8x30 binoculars

steiner military marine 8x30 binoculars
Steiner 8×30 Military/Marine Binocs are Just $255.70
At the end of our hunt, I told my host that I planned to purchase some Steiner 8×30 Military/Marine Binoculars similar to the units we used during our New Mexico varmint hunt. When I arrived home I was amazed to see that the Steiner 8×30 Military/Marine Binoculars are now just $252.82 on Amazon.com (#ad), with FREE shipping. That’s a great value, considering the ruggedness and optical quality of the unit. Most other vendors sell these binoculars for $299.99, so you can save $47+ with Amazon, plus get FREE shipping.

Steiner model 2033 8x30 military marine binoculars
steiner military marine 8x30 binoculars

Need more power and low-light capability? The Steiner 210 10×50 Military/Marine (#ad) is also offered on Amazon.com. It has more magnification and better low-light performance. However, it costs $524.99, more than double the current price of 8×30 Military/Marine on Amazon! Unless you really need the 10×50’s extra low-light capability, the 8×30 M/M is the smart choice.

Permalink Gear Review, Hunting/Varminting, Optics No Comments »