holy cow what a gun

[joseph mcdonough]

while watching pirates of the carrabian the first one one pirate does the butler in with a big bore double barreled pistol first did they exist second why would you want one being a pirate slow and big as opposed to light and small

thanks

 

[Old Ironsights]

while watching pirates of the carrabian the first one one pirate does the butler in with a big bore double barreled pistol first did they exist second why would you want one being a pirate slow and big as opposed to light and small

thanks

'Cause it's full of Shot and can clear a deck quickly?

 

[Russianblood]

And 2 shots are always better than one in warfare. Most pirates/sailors carried multiple pistols on them when boarding another ship. He who stops and reloads, dies.

 

[Toomuch_36]

This fact is quite well represented in "Master and Commander" when they finally board the Acheron. :thumbsup:

Toomuch
..........
Shoot Flint

 

[paulvallandigham]

Its now called the "new york reload ".

 

[TN.Frank]

Yep, it's always easier to grab a second or third gun then try to reload under pressure. Even in the Cap n' Ball days you'd find guys with two or three revolvers just incase a cap jammed up one they'd have another to go to as a back up.

 

Double barrel flintlock pistols are authentic, if you look thru enough antique dealer sites, you can usually find one. For obvious reasons, large caliber specimens are rare.

 

[sequoia]

Captain Jack uses one in the opening scenes of POTCDMC to dispatch a raven and blow his way out of a floating casket. Pretty cool looking weapon. I wish I had the skills to build one myself. As far as reloading in combat, one of the reasons they had such a big handle was that when empty they could beturned around and used as a club.

 

[gof]

The fly in the ointment is that POTC is not really date specific and obviously a fantasy movie.

When you try to apply the Depp movie to history, you have to pick a period of history to compare it to.

If you are talking the "golden age of piracy" (GAoP 1680-1720), i wonder how many, if any, multi barrel pistols were in use.

The pistols that are documented for GAoP use are the dragoon style pistols and the shorter turn barrel Queen Annes.

GoF

 

[mashaffer]

Obviously for skeet. :grin:

mike

 

[Lone Carabiner]

From what I've read many of the trappers and mountain men carried a pistol of same caliber as their rifle with them, the advantage is obvious. If there was a party of them going out they liked to have one of 'em with a smoothie along for use as shotgun if need be. And better yet two or more of 'em with same calber guns. Some of them carried 2 pistols in holsters tied on the saddle horn. Didn't want to get caught in ***** territory without a shooter.

 

[HarborMaster]

 

[hawkeye1755]

WOW :bow:
:thumbsup:

 

[BlackNet]

all of this has led me to buy the 'reconstructing the double barrel shotgun' book. I found sources for the double breech plugs, double trigger, damascus pipe material for the barrels, Now just need to find a good stock to use (read cut my own) and the lock itself. The plug is setup for flint so I need a left and right hand flintlock.

The howdah pistol has seen quite alot of usage thru it's years.

Ed

 

Altho many find the idea incredable, Hollywood movies are not closely related to reality. Sorry if I have disallusioned anyone.

 

[HarborMaster]

Oh I wouldnt say Hollywood dreamed up the idea of multi-barreled firearms. I think history will show a small number of custom pieces were created tho not common..., they did in fact exist., creative people through-out the course of history often experimented with their ideas.

This bottom photo would indicate the gun shown here is probably an earlier gun than the upper images by the shape of its handle. I am sure there were many one ofs created..., pretty interesting stuff.

 

[TN.Frank]

I'd bet that you could take a modern 20ga. double barrel shotgun and with some work make it into a pretty decent double barrel smooth bore pistol. :hmm:

 

[sequoia]

If you're talking about a modern breechloader shotgun the BATF might have something to say about it. :nono:

 

[WRussell]

Appparently it's technically illegal to make a breechloading gun into a muzzleloader. Not sure about the reasoning behind that

 

[Story]

No, it's illegal to cut down a breechloading shotgun or rifle to pistol length - even if the pistol is muzzleloading - without proper registration and paying the tax.