Back in the day...and I mean way back, Centennial Arms Corp. had what they called a "Coach Blunderbuss" which was only 27 &1/2 inches long with a big steel barrel about 14" long with a big bell. They came with ebony finished stocks and a polished barrel and lock. All my pictures of then went to Galveston Bay some years ago with Hurricane Elisa, or one of them, when I carelessly left all my historical pictures at my folks house down near the coat. Point being, no pictures...maybe someone has one and can post one of theirs. Kits were available back in the dim, dark past. :wink:
Basically, a blunderbuss is just a sawed off shotgun from another era. The bell makes no difference as to pattern size and sure is harder to aim than a purely cut down fowler or trade gun. The much abused "canoe gun" is an example of the idea without the useless barrel enlargement, though the bell would make loading easier on horse back, stagecoach seat box, frigate's fighting tops or while being run through the woods by less than humored Iroquois! To put it bluntly, it's big noise, much smoke and wide patterns. However, loaded with a fist full of policed up .22 LR cases, it's a smasher on ole heavy paper oil cans (and yes, they did come in heavy paper once-upon-a-time!) :wink: :haha:
Your 20" long piece of barrel should work fine, but effective range will probably be fairly short and a lot of powder in the charge will give you blow-by and mucho racket, to say nothing of smoke and concussion! Lest I frighten you off, it's all worth it since they are a hoot to shoot! Just think of range in feet rather than yards, pattern WILL open up but at midnight New Year's Eve..YEE-HAH!!!!!!! :thumbsup: :rotf:
