Today is October 31st, Halloween (originally “All Hallows Eve”). That means it’s pumpkin time. Just how much fun can you have with pumpkins? Watch these two 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!
Watch Pumpkin Blasting with Explosives
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.
Watch .50 BMG Rifle vs. Death Star Pumpkin
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.
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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 Monday. 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.
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
In two 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 below, 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.
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 1.3 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 Hickok 45 — 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 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 Monday. 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.
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
In two 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 below, 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.
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 1.3 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 Hickok 45 — 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!
Happy Halloween
Hickok45 Carves Pumpkin Faces 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. This is the classic blued, double-action revolver popularized by Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. This has become a tradition for Hickok 45 — every year he puts a face on a pumpkin using a different firearm, typically a pistol, but he’s used a couple rifles as well. This year’s 2022 pumpkin-carving effort was done with a suppressor-equipped 9mm Mini Uzi. SEE PUMPKIN Shooting Playlist for all Hickok45’s annual pumpkin blasts.
Want to see more? Hickok45 has also carved pumpkins with a dozen firearms. Here is a pumpkin carved with a genuine, WWI-era Colt 1911 carried by an American soldier in the Pacific theater.
And here is a rather grim-looking face applied using the .40 SW Glock 23.
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Today is October 31st, Halloween (originally “All Hallows Eve”). That means it’s pumpkin time. Just how much fun can you have with pumpkins? Watch these two 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!
Watch Pumpkin Blasting with Explosives
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.
Watch .50 BMG Rifle vs. Death Star Pumpkin
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.
Share the post "Halloween Boom Time — Pumpkin Blastin’ with Explosives"
Happy Halloween
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. This is the classic blued, double-action revolver popularized by Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. This has become a tradition for Hickok 45 — every year he puts a face on a pumpkin using a different firearm, typically a pistol, but he’s used a couple rifles as well. The latest pumpkin-carving effort, in October 2020, was done with a SIG M17 pistol. SEE PUMPKIN Shooting Playlist. Happy Halloween to all our readers.
Want to see more? Hickok45 has also carved pumpkins with a dozen firearms. Here is a pumpkin carved with a genuine, WWI-era Colt 1911 carried by an American soldier in the Pacific theater.
And here is a rather grim-looking face applied using the .40 SW Glock 23.
Share the post "Pistol Pumpkin-Carving by Hickok45 — Halloween Handgunning"
In October 2015, the legendary Jerry Miculek won the Trijicon Shooting Challenge at the Rockcastle Shooting Center. That impressive victory earned Jerry big bucks — a $50,000 grand prize. By any measure, that’s some serious cash — mucho dinero.
To celebrate his October Trijicon Challenge victory, Jerry Miculek decided to do some pumpkin carving — with a .50 BMG Barrett rifle.
Shooting the 30-lb rifle off-hand, Jerry blasted some serious holes in Mr. Pumpkin. Needless to say, the results were dramatic, if somewhat messy. Advancing the science of terminal ballistics, Jerry (not surprisingly) confirmed that “the 663-grain bullet did manage to penetrate the pumpkin all the way.”
Jerry Miculek earned $50,000 as the winner of the 2015 Trijicon Challenge.
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October is Halloween month, so we thought we’d share the seasonal spirit with our readers. In this video, our friend 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. It turns out the little .22-caliber bullets worked better on exit than entry — Mr. Pumpkin’s posterior side was more impressive than his front. But overall, the effort turned out very well indeed, as you can see. Nice job, Kirsten.
On inspection, Kirsten found that the most impressive Jack ‘O Lantern face appeared on the reverse side of her pumpkin. The “exit wounds” were better than the entry holes.
Share the post "Kirsten “Carves” Halloween Pumpkin with Volquartsen .22 LR"
Happy Halloween
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. This is the classic blued, double-action revolver popularized by Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. This has become a tradition for Hickok 45 — every year he puts a face on a pumpkin using a different firearm, typically a pistol, but he’s used a couple rifles as well. The latest pumpkin-carving effort, in October 2020, was done with a SIG M17 pistol. SEE PUMPKIN Shooting Playlist. Happy Halloween to all our readers.
Want to see more? Hickok45 has also carved pumpkins with a dozen firearms. Here is a pumpkin carved with a genuine, WWI-era Colt 1911 carried by an American soldier in the Pacific theater.
And here is a rather grim-looking face applied using the .40 SW Glock 23.
Share the post "Handgun Pumpkin-Carving with Hickok45 — Happy Halloween"
Here’s the super-speedy way to turn case-necks. Our friend Erik Cortina figured out how to turn his match cartridge case-necks using his milling machine. Erik told us: “While in Raton [a while back], Mid Tompkins told me that he turns his brass on milling machine. He said he could do about 500 in two hours, so I decided to try it.”
Erik fitted a Don Nielson “Pumpkin” neck-turner to the mill, and he used a modified 21st Century case holder to secure the brass. As you can see from this video, Erik was very successful with the process. The tool spins at 1500 rpm, turning Lapua 6.5-284 cases that have been necked up to 7mm.
Video Shows Eric Cortina Neck-Turning Cases with Milling Machine:
Cartridge Brass: Lapua 6.5-284 necked up to 7mm
Lubricant: Lithium grease inside and outside of neck
Neck-Turner: Nielson Pumpkin running at 1500 RPM
It’s hard to argue with Erik’s results. Here are his turned Lapua cases, which have neck-wall thickness consistent to two ten-thousandths of an inch. Think you could do better turning manually?
Some of Erik’s Facebook friends had questions about this process:
Q: Who makes the shell-holder?
Erik Cortina: I did! The shell-holder you can get from 21st Century. I Tig-welded a punch as a handle.
Q: I love the idea of working smarter not harder! Any galling issues? What are your mitigation techniques?
Erik Cortina: No issues. I use lithium grease in spray can. Makes a foam that I dip necks into.
Q: Shouldn’t either the case or the cutter be floating to allow most precise neck turning?
Erik Cortina: Up until [I tried this] I believed the same thing. I was going to build a floating case holder but decided to try rigid setup on a few cases before I built it. Results were great. Neck thickness doesn’t vary more than .0002″, which is same as when I was doing it with floating case holder on the lathe.
Q: Any problems with the Pumpkin changing the cut as it heats up?
Erik Cortina: No — there were no issues with that.
NOTE: Erik Cortina is a very skilled machinist who custom-crafted fittings used for this process. This kind of neck-turning with a milling machine may not be for the everyday hand-loader!
Nielson “Pumpkin” Neck-Turner
The circular orange cutting fixture on Erik’s Milling Machine is a Don Nielson “Pumpkin” neck-turning tool. Don designed this tool to be used by hand or with power. The Pumpkin boasts an eccentric mandrel that allows the cut to be adjusted easily in precise .0001″ increments. Benchresters like this as it allows for very precise control of cut depth and neck-wall thickness.
Nielson Neck Turner with carbide mandrel. Photo Courtesy Butch’s Reloading.
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Today is October 31st, Halloween (originally “All Hallows Eve”). That means it’s pumpkin time. Just how much fun can you have with pumpkins? Watch these two 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!
Watch Pumpkin Blasting with Explosives
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.
Watch .50 BMG Rifle vs. Death Star Pumpkin
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.
Share the post "Pumpkin Blastin’ with High Explosives — Amazing Stuff"
Here’s the super-speedy way to turn case-necks. Our friend Erik Cortina figured out how to turn his match cartridge case-necks using his milling machine. Erik told us: “While in Raton, Mid Tompkins told me that he turns his brass on milling machine. He said he could do about 500 in two hours, so I decided to try it.”
Erik fitted a Don Nielson “Pumpkin” neck-turner to the mill, and he used a modified 21st Century case holder to secure the brass. As you can see from this video, Erik was very successful with the process. The tool spins at 1500 rpm, turning Lapua 6.5-284 cases that have been necked up to 7mm.
Video Shows Erik Cortina Neck-Turning Cases with Milling Machine:
Cartridge Brass: Lapua 6.5-284 necked up to 7mm
Lubricant: Lithium grease inside and outside of neck
Neck-Turner: Nielson Pumpkin running at 1500 RPM
It’s hard to argue with Erik’s results. Here are his turned Lapua cases, which have neck-wall thickness consistent to two ten-thousandths of an inch. Think you could do better turning manually?
Some of Erik’s Facebook friends had questions about this process:
Q: Who makes the shell-holder?
Erik Cortina: I did! The shell-holder you can get from 21st Century. I Tig-welded a punch as a handle.
Q: I love the idea of working smarter not harder! Any galling issues? What are your mitigation techniques?
Erik Cortina: No issues. I use lithium grease in spray can. Makes a foam that I dip necks into.
Q: Shouldn’t either the case or the cutter be floating to allow most precise neck turning?
Erik Cortina: Up until [I tried this] I believed the same thing. I was going to build a floating case holder but decided to try rigid setup on a few cases before I built it. Results were great. Neck thickness doesn’t vary more than .0002″, which is same as when I was doing it with floating case holder on the lathe.
Q: Any problems with the Pumpkin changing the cut as it heats up?
Erik Cortina: No — there were no issues with that.
NOTE: Erik Cortina is a very skilled machinist who custom-crafted fittings used for this process. This kind of neck-turning with a milling machine may not be for the everyday hand-loader!
Nielson “Pumpkin” Neck-Turner
The circular orange cutting fixture on Erik’s Milling Machine is a Don Nielson “Pumpkin” neck-turning tool. Don designed this tool to be used by hand or with power. The Pumpkin boasts an eccentric mandrel that allows the cut to be adjusted easily in precise .0001″ increments. Benchresters like this as it allows for very precise control of cut depth and neck-wall thickness.
Jason C., commenting on Erik’s YouTube video stated: “I have a couple of those too. Nothing cuts like a Pumpkin. [Don Nielson] made the best cutter tool ever.” These are still available if you ask around. The photo shows Don with a case-holder mounted to a power assembly. A talented machinist and tool-maker, Don has also been a successful short- and long-range benchrest shooter, who has won NBRSA 600-Yard Championships. CLICK HERE to read about Don’s success with the 6.5×47 Lapua.
Nielson Neck Turner with carbide mandrel. Photo Courtesy Butch’s Reloading.
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In two 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 below, our friend, 3-Gun ace 
Hickok45 Carves Pumpkins with Handguns
The circular orange cutting fixture on Erik’s Milling Machine is a Don Nielson “Pumpkin” neck-turning tool. Don designed this tool to be used by hand or with power. The Pumpkin boasts an eccentric mandrel that allows the cut to be adjusted easily in precise .0001″ increments. Benchresters like this as it allows for very precise control of cut depth and neck-wall thickness. 
