My canoe gun is not a canoe gun

[shortbow]

Hey Folks, as I wrote elsewhere a few days ago, I've been away from the forum for a couple or three years and just started lurking again.

Two reasons: Can't pull my longbow anymore so I've ordered a Jackie Brown Carolina Fowler to replace a couple ML guns I'd let go.

The other is that I recently finished a canoe gun.

I didn't know it was a canoe gun. I started out with an original 13 gauge percussion double that was really beat. Put a lot of work into it to get it shooting again. One of it's biggest drawbacks was that the barrels were really pitted, especially up front, so I cut them down to fourteen inches where the pitting was a bit lighter and the walls much heavier. I had sent the locks to a guy to have some work done and told him I was doing it up as an Indian or Mountain Man buffalo running gun, for which I've seen descriptions from the era, paintings by C. Russel and museum pieces. Those were mostly cut down Trade guns, but did read about short, heavy double percussions purpose built for running bison from horse back.

The guy told me in an email that it's not a buffalo runner, it's a canoe gun. I demurred. Then I came on here and read the controversy over the term.

So just sayin'. If you ever happen to see me out on the plains with my sawn-off it's a buffalo running gun, not a canoe gun. Buf Runner for short.

Now, can I go to rondy without getting lynched? :surrender: :rotf:

 

[Shine]

As long as you don't come in a canoe. A 1972 buick which is considered a boat is ok.

 

[F.G. Ford]

I have shot two canoes with my short barreled 20 ga. fowler, and justly call it a canoe gun!
No matter how hard I try, I still can't boil canoe long enough, to make it tender enough to eat!
Gotta get me a new gun!
Old Ford

 

[BrownBear]

Call it a barn gun and they'll think you're a really fine fellow. :rotf:

 

my guess is the early hunter did just what you did. Cut off a bent, crushed, messed up barrel to what length they wanted to. Broken stock, make it a pistol. Who cares enjoy your newly crafted bunny getter.

 

[caddo]

Amen...enjoy :thumbsup:

 

[Claude Mathis]

So just sayin'. If you ever happen to see me out on the plains with my sawn-off it's a buffalo running gun, not a canoe gun. Buf Runner for short.

Now, can I go to rondy without getting lynched? :surrender: :rotf:

If you wandered into my camp with what you describe, I would say, "Nice gun, want some coffee?". Why it's short, what you call it and what you use it for is your business. :hatsoff:

 

[dgold]

Well no wonder silly, you have been shooting those new kelvar canoes. Try shooting an older fiberglass one, they boil up fine, but for a real treat, cedar. :grin:

 

[matt denison]

[/quote]
If you wandered into my camp with what you describe, I would say, "Nice gun, want some coffee?". Why it's short, what you call it and what you use it for is your business. :hatsoff: [/quote]

Finally, someone who makes sense.

:bow:

 

[heck]

I passed up a really nice english percussion double recently because the end of the barrels were in bad shape, now why did I not think of cutting them off. My canoe is metal and don't believe it would taste good. I know that when my wife tips it over I lose a lot of stuff and get wet, so I only carry a gun that will fit in my pocket or in a holster. Heck

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Shortened guns are often referred to as Coach guns, Canoe guns, Brush guns etc. It is simply modern parlance. You have to call them something.

It is like calling it a trigger, instead of the "tickler" of old.

The Wells Fargo ordered short breach loading coach guns of about 26" to 28"; short for those times typical now.

Some early trade guns were shortened by 4" or so which would still make the barrel over three feet long.

Shortening barrels for use with buffalo hunting on horseback was the only practical reason I know of, unless you messed up the barrel and had to shorten it to use it. :wink:

 

[hanshi]

Cut the butt a little shorter, get an 1880s duster or serape and put a long sling on it. Remember Yancy Derringer and his Indian friend "wolf Who Walks on Water"? :thumbsup:

 

[shortbow]

Thanks very much to all of you. Very gracious replies and I appreciate the heck out of them. :hatsoff:

As soon as I manage to run down a fat cow, I'll jerk up a bunch and send you all some.

I'm not expecting great things from this gun, but tomorrow or the next day I will take it out and see if it throws any kind of reasonable patterns. I also plan to measure the bores and see if I can find a mold of close enough dimensions to throw usable balls.

BTW, this gun was made by Perkins in London with barrels marked "London Fine Twist."

Does that designation mean good damascus or a lesser stub twist or something, and have any of you heard of the maker before?

Thanks again and glad to be back.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Cut the butt a little shorter, get an 1880s duster or serape and put a long sling on it. Remember Yancy Derringer and his Indian friend "wolf Who Walks on Water"? :thumbsup:

"Pahoo kah-tay-wah" or something like that??

Or shortbow could leave the butt and fit a cavalry sling bar like the British double-barrelled constabulary carbines and maybe a swivel ramrod? Those sling bars sometimes were different from regular ones in that the front end would turn down and mount into the bottom, not the side, of the forend.

Or he could rig a back-quiver sort of "holster" for it, or a similar pouch on the side of his backpack.

And for carrying in a canoe, one can lash a long-gun to the thwart with a slip-knot, and/or attach a stout lanyard long enough to use it from your paddling position. Some modern waterfowlers use the lanyards in case of drops or dumps. I tend to be somewhat cautious (paranoid?) and to non-historically lash things when packing a canoe, but in a couple of "minor" dumps and one major one, we did not lose anything.

By the way, shortbow, this definitely sounds like a candidate for using moderate charges of 3Fg rather than 2F or 1F. I'd start the 3F at something like 1/4 or 1/3 less than the volume of the shot charge, but experiment both up and down.

Regards,
Joel

 

[shortbow]

Thanks Joel, leather shoulder case wip. Sorta like a bow quiver.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Thanks Joel, leather shoulder case wip. Sorta like a bow quiver.

Yup, but if it goes in deeper than the nipples (probably depends in part on balance), I'd investigate possibly using something to stiffen the "throat" of the case to facilitate re-holstering without catching the hammers and/or possibly snagging on drawing it out.

Regards,
Joel

 

[F.G. Ford]

Claude, you got that right!
One man's medicine is another man's poison!
Old Ford

 

[F.G. Ford]

Most scatter guns that had a plug of mud in them, shortened themselves!
With a bit of a flare??
Which later had to be fixed. With a saw.
Go figger?
Old Ford

 

[BillinOregon]

Shortbow, congratulations for turning a potentially dangerous wall hanger into a working tool again. Didn't Terry's Texas cavalry boys field 14-inch double shotties in the Civil War?

 

[poordevil]

Yes, and Navy Arms made them for awhile I would love to find one of those.
P