Oddly, even though I really like .410’s, on the other end of the spectrum punt guns have always intrigued me ever since I read a long ago article in Field & Stream. Even when I was a kid watching high altitude geese flying overhead, I often envisioned taking a shot at them with a punt gun roped off to a tree (so ya think your safe, well I’ll show ya…..). I was looking on the internet and saw a clip of a guy shooting one from a skiff and from a table stand, it looked like fun. The other thing that I’ve been interested in building for years is a large trebuchet, but that’s way OT for this forum.
Does anyone have any experience with punt guns; I understand they’re still legal for hunting in Britain. I wonder how hard it would be to make one, apparently most were muzzle loaders and were one of kind guns built for the market hunter (ie: function over form, the finish was often crude yet they were effective). It seems that if you could obtain a nice sized slab of utility grade walnut, a 6’ to 8’ length of stout 1.5” to 2” steel pipe, and a percussion lock and a trigger assembly from Dixie Gun Works, or maybe a used lock assembly on eBay, building such a gun should be pretty straight forwards. Imagine showing up at the next Vintagers shoot with one of those mutha’s… KABOOOM!
One can dream anyhow.
Steve
