Kill 50 ducks with one shot

[Guest TankerHC]

2 Gauge Punt Gun. Had never heard of one. Has the recoil of a small cannon. Had to look it up on Wiki, used for commercial waterfowling. Could take up to 50 birds with a single shot.

 

"A punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations and private sport. Punt guns were usually custom-designed and so varied widely, but could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches (51 mm) and fire over a pound (≈ 0.45 kg) of shot at a time.^[1] A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water's surface. They were too big to hold and the recoil so large that they were mounted directly on the punts used for hunting, hence their name. Hunters would maneuver their punts quietly into line and range of the flock using poles or oars to avoid startling them. Generally the gun was fixed to the punt; thus the hunter would maneuver the entire boat in order to aim the gun. The guns were sufficiently powerful, and the punts themselves sufficiently small, that firing the gun often propelled the punt backwards several inches or more. To improve efficiency, hunters could work in fleets of up to around ten punts."

 

http://youtu.be/EzwbcVbE9rw

[RED333]

Thus the reason they were outlawed to hunt with.

Nearly wiped out the ducks many years ago.

Would be a hoot to fire "one" time.

[bersaguy]

Very un-sportsman like to shoot ducks sitting on the water but to do it with a cannon makes it even worse. I know they said it was also used for commercial use also by still it just ain't right but still interesting read about the gun..........jmho

[Pat]

I would love to have one of them things. Holy cow. That's a biggun!

[Guest TankerHC]

I was looking at this video again and when the photo from Dr. Harry Walsh's family passed stopped it because I didnt see an action. Then notice its a sidelock muzzle loader. Even on RIA, production sidelock muzzle loading shotguns are listed as extremely rare, wonder what this thing is worth? Has to be a small fortune.