The old punt gunner

[Kent]

These guys made a living hunting ducks n geese with these guns on our estuaries.
Many of the large punt guns where made at home workshops.
A few still exist but it's no longer a profession
Tough men to work the cold n wet winter marshes, risking drowning and exposure or getting hit in the face by one of those big guns recoiling back into thier face.
On the upside most where so deaf they couldn't here thier women folk nagging

 

[arther dailey]

makes my 32" miroku look a bit short !

 

[Tigman]

is it a case of the longer the barrel the further the range ? theyre big guns

 

[angellonewolf]

is it a case of the longer the barrel the further the range ? theyre big guns

i dont know for sure but used to do air rifle years ago and the longer the barrel the more accuracy over the distance but will not make the bullet go further

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

They were basically large shot guns, full of 1/4 to 3/8 shot. Used to "Take out" water birds. Either in reeds or in the middle of a shallow lake.

In WW2 a lot were repurposed into beech defence weapons. sadly not to be retuned. They point was one shot upset a lot of invaders, quickly.

In 1996 The national motor museum had one on display, mad bit of kit.

 

[Kent]

The gun is fired like a cannon. The boat was a small punt. The length added weight and a long sighting plane really.
When fired the boat shots backwards, they attached a rope to limit the recoil but Newton's law dictated weight hence length.

They sneaked up on thier bellies in small flat punts. Waited for the birds heads to go up then fired as the birds just got airborne. Shooting at sitting duck was actually not very successful as thier vulnerable bits would be hidden under the water. Or by the mud and sand.
Of course this was all in winter so sissies where not present
Out with the ebb back with the flood mainly moving in with paddles like tables tennis bat's.

 

[Kent]

Yes they did use them on the beaches during the war. I once shot a two bore that was fastened to a trawler and the skipper let a good few loads go as he took our guys off the beaches.
They didn't like it up them those Germans

 

[Gritineye]

As kids we once watched our local posh land owner (who was gun crazy) shooting a gun like that on the old firing range butts, he was laid down legs spread wide, and there was a puff of smoke from the flintlock, a cloud of smoke from the muzzle, and he shot backwards a few feet. We were on a hill above him and an almighty bang reached us a second later!

Someone said it was an elephant gun.

Amazing how some things are so impressive they stick in the mind.

 

[KemppiFrog]

Little story:
My paternal grandfather was in the RNAS in WW1 and was stationed on the east coast for a bit. (Also at Gallipoli..) Anyway, they found a punt, but minus it's gun, so made one up from a length of tube and a brass cartridge case, winding lots of wire with solder around it, bit like the big naval guns. Put a pound of blackpowder and a pound of shot in it and tested it out. Very satisfying bang and hail of shot. Then they mounted it on the punt and set out before dawn on the marshes by the base, where they had seen large numbers of duck. Gently paddled until they reckoned they were well within range, then wacked a paddle on the water to scare them up and fired. Somewhere between 50 and 100 duck were taken home, but they found the gun had cracked, so decided against another try.....

 

[Keith 66]

I knew a few old boys who used to do this, typical size gun would be 1 1/4" bore or bigger !1 1/2" was common & some were bigger still. Largest i ever saw was in Venice where similar conditions provided similar solutions, one gun was 3" bore & took a cartridge like a drainpipe. God only knows how many ducks that thing was capable of slaying.
Shot size was usually BB's & the gun was laid so that the pattern would start to strike the water at about 60 - 70 yards. When setting to fowl it was usual to startle the flock a split second before firing so that they flew into the hail of lead. An old boy at Leigh on sea got badly smashed when he was stalking a flock of widgeon, the tide was ebbing & the stern of the punt gently grounded as he fired the big gun. Unable to move back the breeching rope broke & the gun recoiled into his face, breaking his jaw & bashing out most of his teeth.
The last punt gunner round here was Sid Cripps who made a living of sorts at it. His punt fell to bits at Sam hearns boatyard in the 70's & the gun disapeared about the same time.
You gots to be rich to use one today as Non toxic shot rules apply, Half a pound of tungsten polymer shot is going to set you back about £40 a pop!

 

[roofman]

Looking at the metal there for shooting birds i cant imagine there being more than half a beak left to eat

 

[outofthefire]

i dont know for sure but used to do air rifle years ago and the longer the barrel the more accuracy over the distance but will not make the bullet go further

The length of the barrel increases power, with a short barrel the pellet leaves the barrel and releases the air pressure before it's full potential is achieved. In shotguns the effective range can be adjusted by the size of the opening (choke) of the barrel and the amount of powder in the cartridge. A smaller choke keeps the spread of shot tighter over a longer distance.

 

[Keith 66]

A muzzleloading punt gun would not be choked & i doubt any breechloaders were. They are meant to take out a flock so a big spread is an advantage. They also used black powder for which long barrels were supposed to be an advantage. I have a big bore muzzleloader with a true cylinder bore (no choke). It is extremely sensitive to what load you use & the pattern spread can vary hugely. There was an old saying, "Little powder, much lead, Shoots far kills dead". My old gun proves this to be very true, a heavy powder charge will blow the pattern wide open, drop the powder charge & the pattern tightens considerably. Choke works at short to medium range but at extreme range the difference is often not so noticeable. Different guns like different loads!

 

[doubleboost]

I once fired a 4 bore muzzle loader great fun
The bore size refers to how many balls you can cast from one pound of lead
12 bore / 12 balls
4 bore / 4 balls
20 bore / 20 balls

 

[Beeezer]

I once fired a 4 bore muzzle loader great fun
The bore size refers to how many balls you can cast from one pound of lead
12 bore / 12 balls
4 bore / 4 balls
20 bore / 20 balls

What about a 410 ??

 

[doubleboost]

What about a 410 ??

0.410 inch bore just under half an inch
Actual bore size
Very good point
12 bore is about 3/4 inch 0.750 (19 mm)

 

[ronan]

There was a series of articles about the building of a punt gun years ago in the shooting times magazine.

It involved James Robertson Justice, the actor who was in the doctor films years ago. Himself and the writer of the articles, were able to get a train axle, under the counter, to turn up a barrel, a lock was bought from someone in the birmingham gun quarter, back when there was a gun quarter. It was all assembled and carted off to the proof house and tested.

All very informal and reasonably easy to do back then, before common sense died.

Punt guns cannot be used anymore, afaik, its illegal to shoot game with a shotgun above a certain bore diameter.

 

[Olderisbetter]

Cracking gun if you want to rob a bank from the seat of your car.

 

[Farside]

You gots to be rich to use one today as Non toxic shot rules apply, Half a pound of tungsten polymer shot is going to set you back about £40 a pop!

Surely iron would be ok? I mean, it's not like there's not plenty of it in the waters around the coast anyway.

 

[graffian]

I once fired a 4 bore muzzle loader great fun
The bore size refers to how many balls you can cast from one pound of lead
12 bore / 12 balls
4 bore / 4 balls
20 bore / 20 balls

There used to be a 2 bore punt gun in one of the antique shops in Dorking, big old thing.
There was a gunmaker/gunshop in guildford high street and they used to have a pair of
really big duck guns on the wall. They either had a label or the bloke told me what they
were; but I thought they were like the 5foot wingspan swiss army knife; all for show.

The bore is pretty easy to work out.
20*(454.5/[11.34*12]*3/[4Pi])^(1/3)

paste it into google and change the 12 to whatever you want.