Now there is a shotgun! Outlawed though and rightly so.

Looks like artillery.

 

I had to Google that monstrosity. Here's what I got.

Why was the punt gun banned?
A Punt Gun, used for duck hunting but were banned because they depleted stocks of wild fowl. Called the “Punt Gun” this firearm of unusual size could discharge over a pound of shot at a time, and dispatch upwards of fifty waterfowl in a single go.

Soooooo. They were blaming guns for bad human decisions way back 150+ years ago. At least the .gov is consistent with their stupid laws.

(In no way am I condoning taking flocks of birds in 1 shot. Just saying that big brother doesn't need to decide how I use it. Maybe I like to blow up watermelons like Gallagher?)

 

Holy. That's like sending 10 heavy waterfowl loads (supermag, 1 5/8 oz) on one shot.

IIRC, there are 7000 grains in a lb, so 2 full boxes of .308 in one shot.

I don't think anyone could shoulder that gun and take that kind of abuse. I'm guessing they set it on the ground and shot it like a mortar tube?

 

I stand corrected. Apparently they were boat mounted. 2 Gauge....2!

 

Yes, these were boat mounted.

 

Those guns used whatever the gunner had on hand for shot. Old nails, screws, metal scraps, etc. Many were pivot mounted and some were used in blinds.

I've carved shore birds and ducks and have read about market gunning. It was devastating and detrimental to waterfowl populations. It was a different time back then where flocks of shorebirds would darken the sky overhead. Locally market gunning was done as side work, by folks who were out in the marshes and beaches on regular jobs. I'll see what my books at home have for information or pictures.

I have a photo of a punt gun on my desktop from a museum. I'll dig it up later. Amazing history to look back on, and see how it lead to waterfowl protection laws.

 

Just had a quick look up of punt guns. While the 2 gauge seems insane, there were bigger punt guns. The 2 gauge has a inner barrel diameter of 1.326", and there were bigger ones yet. A 2" inner diameter punt gun had an "A" designation.

Just as we know going from a 6" pipe to an 8" pipe there's a massive difference, I would suspect the same going from a 2 gauge up to the "A" gauge.

 

Here is a 2 gauge barrel and a shell.

barrel blank:$395
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/608879433

shell:$375
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/608749240

thats an expensive reload

 

For that price (empty case), a guy might be better off to get the casing dimensions and have them turned on a lathe.

 

These two were at The Shelburne Museum in Vermont. They have an excellent decoy collection there. I'm curious how these were loaded. They must have had a pack of powder and one of shot with a rod to set it down the barrel?










Backwoods Savage, this museum has an early base burner soapstone stove that I believe was made originally in New Hampshire, and that the Fireview was based on.

 

Those don't look like you can open the breech (breech loader), so I would imagine they load like a musket (muzzle loader) on a much larger scale.

 

Now, that would knock you on your *** when firing. LOL

 

Muzzel loaders -black powder and cap lock actions- Likely some were still flint locks as caps cost money.

 

I seem to recall these were also used to decimate the passenger pigeon (extinct now) these birds used to fly in flocks on the 10s of thousands and were shot down by the thousands, the birds were widely used for hog fodder, packed in lard for later use for feed.

FWIW I am pro gun and pro hunting, but the extinction hunting of these birds is as disgusting as it is mind boggling.

as for the punt gun, its kinda neat to see but IMHO the ban on them is a good thing I would assume most waterfowl hunters would agree on.

 

A ban on your right to own and use a firearm is never a good thing.



Now a ban on murdering animals by the flock is a different story.