Canoe guns again

[BillinOregon]

I've been working my slowly through one of my Christmas presents: "Firearms of the Fur Trade," the first volume in the Museum of the Fur Trade's Encyclopedia of Trade Goods, by Dr. James Hanson. At nearly 600 pages and packed with illustrations, this book is a must-have if you are serious about the subject.
Anyway, I just wanted to note that I have so far seen at least three photos of Northwest trade guns modified to "canoe gun" dimensions in the book so far. We'll never know if the guns were cut down as a result of burst barrels, or because the owners found the resulting firearm incredibly handy. But they were there back in the day.

:grin:

 

Everyone knows that at some time, somewhere, guns were cut down. It had nothing to do with "canoes". Somebody throw some dirt on this horse. :rotf:

Here! Here's a Canoe Gun, prior to being cut down.

 

[BillinOregon]

Jack, of course you are right. "Canoe gun" as a term is a modern fiction. Cut-down Northwest guns were a fact of the fur trade frontier and have their rightful place in the living history community -- but primarily with a First Nations persona unless borrowed for a buffalo run.

 

[Greenmtnboy]

I've been working my slowly through one of my Christmas presents: "Firearms of the Fur Trade," the first volume in the Museum of the Fur Trade's Encyclopedia of Trade Goods, by Dr. James Hanson. At nearly 600 pages and packed with illustrations, this book is a must-have if you are serious about the subject.
Anyway, I just wanted to note that I have so far seen at least three photos of Northwest trade guns modified to "canoe gun" dimensions in the book so far. We'll never know if the guns were cut down as a result of burst barrels, or because the owners found the resulting firearm incredibly handy. But they were there back in the day.

:grin:

I got it last winter, a great read!

 

[BrownBear]

Just call them barn guns. No more historically accurate a term, but it makes the competing gun makers happy.

 

[hanshi]

Don't be in denial until you've been attacked and mauled by an enraged canoe. If you're unlucky enough to draw one's attention, you'd better pray you've got your canoe gun primed and ready. :rotf:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Anyway, I just wanted to note that I have so far seen at least three photos of Northwest trade guns modified to "canoe gun" dimensions in the book so far. We'll never know if the guns were cut down as a result of burst barrels, or because the owners found the resulting firearm incredibly handy. But they were there back in the day.

Heck with the guns! You've moved the advent of photography back 50 years or more if you have photos, or daguerreotypes, of shortened guns in use "in the day"!


Couldn't resist.

 

[BillinOregon]

Stumpy: You've got me there of course. The Indian portraits are 1860s or later, and the illustrations of the guns in the MOFT collection are of course very recent.
Since this is all an exercise in semantics, your shots are fair!

:redface:

 

[Greenmtnboy]

All tho the term "canoe gun" can be traced back to the mid 1800s in Quebec and the North East you would be better off just calling it a running gun as that term is brought up many times in Historical literature of the fur trade and avoid the stupid canoe gun remarks.
:shake:

 

[BillinOregon]

GMB: Running gun is a great term, and very descriptive. Thanks for the thought.

 

[Shine]

check these out. We still call them canoe guns up here. But it means a gun you dont mind losing if it winds up in the lake. :grin:

 

[tg]

How can they use those in a canoe? They are to long!I still see the only issue is back in the 18th century re-enactinng and using a sub 30" barrel gun as a gun made that way for the market,and the place they are being represented as being avalable, excluding the typical coach guns, blunderbusses and such. Often the thing turns into an arguement with no date/place at all given to go by. My guess is the long barrled Nw guns are being used in many earlier personas that this type of gun was geopgraphicaly not used.Even the 19th century guns had limitations as to where you might find them, would a Buffaloe NW running gun be found in boat on a Kentucky creek?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Standing up and shooting a porpoise in the surf in a narrow peroge! That guy has the balance of a cat!

Or the artist took a BUNCH of liberties.

 

[Shine]

The Passamaquoddy still can take a couple a year. Im sure that was who was in the picture.

 

[Hawkwood]

So maybe they're General Porpoise guns? :rotf:

 

[Dave Marsh]

I like that one :rotf:

 

[hanshi]

HEY! Don't they know better than to stand up in a canoe?

 

[Grandpa Ron]

As already mentioned they are Canoe guns, Coach guns, Brush guns etc. because we have to call them something.

Until people became interested in them, they were just shortened gun. Why they were shortened was usually attributed to burst barrels or ease of handling.

I remember as a kid seeing sawed of double barrel shotguns depicted in rural and mobster settings. Who knows, someday they may be called Mobster guns.

It is just convenient nomenclature that has caught on in popular culture. Kind of like Muscle cars, Crotch rockets, Monster trucks etc.

 

[tg]

It really does not matter untill one steps into the realm of reenacting then one typicaly does the research to determine if a particular gun was even found in a place/time of the persons persona. Most often serious reenactors do bring attention to any non period useage of nomenclature just for informational purposes for the benifit of others. I now wonder why or even what the "debate" is about over the term/existance of short guns cut back or made that way in the various periods of the 18th/19th century, there is quite a bit of evidence for some time/places and virtualy none for others.I guess I am missing something.

 

[KHickam]

Use whatever floats your boat and don't worry about it :thumbsup: