Huge Rifle

[Gold Grizzly]

I seen an article the other day about a ''Punt Gun'' and it was wild. This huge rifle takes 2 people to shoot it and i don't know what type of ammo is used, but it can take out 50 ducks in one shot ! Sorry there is no link , but a Google search should have pics and info on it. Anyone know about this small cannon rifle ?

 

[Phil Coffins]

A punt gun was generally a shotgun that was mounted on a boat. You slip up on a flock and aim the boat for the shot. No follow up shot!

 

[earlwb]

Yup these are extra oversized shotguns. Sneak up on a flock in a boat and blast them. No need for a follow up shot. There was a time in history where ducks and geese were a big commercial opportunity. But it didn’t last long when the birds were over hunted and people didn’t want another passenger pigeon extinction event or similar.

 

[Urban Coyote]

Three cheers for Ducks Unlimited which has helped warefowl recovery after market hunters, wetland destruction and other factors. Punt guns, while interesting, are a grim reminder of market hunting.

 

[springfield art]

A punt gun was generally a shotgun that was mounted on a boat. You slip up on a flock and aim the boat for the shot. No follow up shot!
View attachment 210005

Not much in the way of game management back then!

 

[springfield art]

One heck of a ramrod!

 

[Rifleman1776]

It wasn't just do-gooders who ended market hunting. The invention of refrigeration, especially refrigerated trucks, ended the need for large quantities of fresh meat almost daily to taverns and restaurants. The punt gun and mass killing of game ended because it was no longer necessary.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

I've read that the punts were a small craft that sat very low in the water. The gun was mounted on the bow and the hunter paddled close to a flock sitting on the water and cut loose a blast. It was hard and dangerous work. Let's not forget that while the market hunters decimated the game they wouldn't have done it if there hadn't been a market. In other words, all those city folks who wanted game meat to eat were just as guilty, if not more so.

 

[TFoley]

I've read that the punts were a small craft that sat very low in the water. The gun was mounted on the bow and the hunter paddled close to a flock sitting on the water and cut loose a blast. It was hard and dangerous work. Let's not forget that while the market hunters decimated the game they wouldn't have done it if there hadn't been a market. In other words, all those city folks who wanted game meat to eat were just as guilty, if not more so.

They did not quite 'cut loose a blast'. 'Sitting ducks' were just that, and shooting them on the water was not only unsporting, but not successful from the numbers actually taken.

The shooter approached the ducks whilst lying on his stomach in the punt- more like a kayak here in UK, where it all started. He would be using short paddles, or sometimes even punters' paddles - like webbed gloves, to propel him in the water by hanging his arms down over the sides. Having got into position, he would slap the water, putting the ducks up in the air, and and that point fire the gun at the rising birds.

 

[DixieTexian]

It wasn't just meat that they were after. Much like the beaver trade was driven by the fashion of beaver hats, much of the market hunting trade was driven by demand for the plumage to decorate women's hats.

 

[1971fx]

There used to be a full display of boat and punt guns at the Pinelawn gun show on Long Island Ny

 

[Mrg5]

Everyone who has an interest in duck hunting and punt guns needs to read James Michener’s book “Chesapeake “. The story deals with several families living in the Chesapeake Bay area around Virginia and Maryland, from about 1580 to the 1970’s. It’s a big book, a long book, and in it he goes into quite a lot of detail on the use of punt guns for commercial duck hunting on the Chesapeake. I think this is one of his best books and one that most members of this forum will thoroughly enjoy.

 

[user 31257]

I think punt guns are still in use in the UK? There were also battery guns used here which were a bunch of barrels attached in a fan shape and set up along a trough of bp that was lit and would set them all off in rapid succession.

 

[user 31257]

Everyone who has an interest in duck hunting and punt guns needs to read James Michener’s book “Chesapeake “. The story deals with several families living in the Chesapeake Bay area around Virginia and Maryland, from about 1580 to the 1970’s. It’s a big book, a long book, and in it he goes into quite a lot of detail on the use of punt guns for commercial duck hunting on the Chesapeake. I think this is one of his best books and one that most members of this forum will thoroughly enjoy.

If I’m not mistaken the island which the fictional Steed family lived on was based on James island at the mouth of the Little Choptank which is now completely gone. There is a plan to begin rebuilding it soon with dredging spoils from somewhere.

 

[Mrg5]

If I’m not mistaken the island which the fictional Steed family lived on was based on James island at the mouth of the Little Choptank which is now completely gone. There is a plan to begin rebuilding it soon with dredging spoils from somewhere.

I believe you are correct both about the island in the book and about its degradation. In 2019 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, and the Maryland Port Administration signed a Design Agreement that allows for the next steps in restoring two severely degraded islands (James and Barren islands) in the Chesapeake Bay.
According to the plan it will restore 2,144 acres of remote island habitat (2,072 acres at James Island and 72 acres at Barren Island). The James Island restoration includes a habitat distribution of 45 percent upland and 55 percent wetland. Barren Island will be restored to 100 percent wetland habitat.
As of now it seems funding for Barren Island restoration is in place. And VA. Officials plan to start work by expanding Barren Island, 12 miles south by 72 acres. James Island will have to wait until at least 2030 for the rebuilding to begin.

 

[user 31257]

I fished around James island in the mid to late 80’s, at that time a channel had cut it in half but it was still there.
I thought it was going to be rebuilt sooner than that but it probably costs a small fortune.

 

[jimhallam]

Everyone who has an interest in duck hunting and punt guns needs to read James Michener’s book “Chesapeake “. The story deals with several families living in the Chesapeake Bay area around Virginia and Maryland, from about 1580 to the 1970’s. It’s a big book, a long book, and in it he goes into quite a lot of detail on the use of punt guns for commercial duck hunting on the Chesapeake. I think this is one of his best books and one that most members of this forum will thoroughly enjoy.

There were double-barrelled punt guns, arranged so that as the floating ducks which hadn't been slaughtered took off from the water and then they were caught on the wing.
Colonel Hawker refers to punt gunning in "Instructions to Young Sportsmen" (1833)- he has sections in various parts of this tome, from "canoe shooting" (p.324) to £stanchion guns" (p.376) and so on.
J.H. Walsh (1882 - nom de plume "Stonehenge") deals with the subject at great length - e.g., Volume I, Book II (pp. 408 - 428)
Some people will be HORRIFIED, because he mentioned the unmentionable -- but it is only part of the development of the topic ;-)
There are fine reprints available of both of these books, -- for anyone in the UK who is interested, I have them in my library (just outside the Bisley Ranges) and I would sell them.

Hawker - Richmond Press 1973) ; Walsh - Wolfe Publishing, Limited Edition of 1500, 1986.

(Postage to the USA would be too prohibitive, sadly). I am hanging on to the originals ;-)

 

[Freedom]

I've heard that fertilizer, not food, was a big driving force behind the slaughter of all those ducks with big punt guns. The Factory's actually were built right on the shores.

 

[exPAtriate]

Punt guns were quite common here in the upper Chesapeake Bay. The local museums in Cecil and Harford Counties, MD feature a lot of history from the market hunting days.

 

[Mrg5]

I've heard that fertilizer, not food, was a big driving force behind the slaughter of all those ducks with big punt guns. The Factory's actually were built right on the shores.

I had not heard that. Most of the historical sources I have seen indicate that commercial sales of ducks to high end restaurants in large cities along the East Coast were the primary economic drive behind large scale hunting with punt guns. I do know that Michener, who meticulous in his research for the novels he wrote, talks about this in his book Chesapeake.

I would be interested in hearing more about fertilizer, ducks, and punt guns if you have sources.