41st Annual Nevada Day World Championship Single Jack Drilling Contest
The 41st Annual World Championship Single Jack Drilling Contest takes place at 11:05am on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014 at the Carson Nugget west parking lot. Come view the old-world contest of strength, skill, and Sierra White Granite grit; free for spectators.
Contestants used 4 1/2 pound hammers and as many as 11 bits of graduated steel to drill a 3/4 inch hole in a 4,320 pound piece of Sierra White Granite.
The contestants have ten minutes to pound the drills into the solid stone, their only help from an assistant who runs water into the hole so the loose stone chips are splashed out with every stroke of the hammer on steel. The deepest hole wins.
The world record was set in 1993 at 16.34 inches deep by Scott Havens of Elko, Nevada.
The contest goes back to the Comstock mining skills of earlier times, when blast holes for dynamite were punched into ore bodies by hand.
The attraction of a chance at a world champion title plus a total purse of up to $5,500 makes an entry fee of $50 seem small! The champion receives $2,000.
Get an application and official rules here.
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