Clearly not the atmosphere of the formal box pigeons that Hack just described, but I had a chance back in the 90's to shoot pigeons from what was termed a pigeon 'cannon'. Have any of you others heard of this, or shot from one?
This was being promoted here in western Montana by a fellow that owned the 'cannon'....in reality, the mother of all manual clay traps that looked much like one of the early Lincoln brand traps we would see on the SC courses - only much bigger. To the throwing arm was attached a 2-1/2 ft. length of PVC pipe with roughly a 3+" inside diameter. The live pigeon was dusted with talc and inserted in the cocked tube. This trap was well bunkered in just eight yards in front of the shooter, so the trap operator was out of harm's way. The trapper also had the ability to slightly alter the lateral angle of the bird's initial departure. The fenced field was a semi-circle at 40 yds. out from the trap bunker.
Upon the call of 'pull', the pigeon actually was ejected at such force that the bird's wings couldn't open until at least 15 yards from the trap, travelling like a bullet, and moving sooo fast that even the very quickest shooters could not kill them in that distance. In just about every case the bird would deploy its wings before the shot could be taken, and immediately break off on some crazy series of angles......maybe like the hand-thrown Columbaire shooting for all I know.
Being eight yards away from the launch point doesn't sound like much, but there were a number of experienced pigeon shooters asking if it couldn't be shortened up to six yards. It wasn't done. All-in-all, it made for some very tough shooting as the scores reflected, and I've never seen or heard of it again, once this fellow with the trap gave it up.
As for the small-bore guns, I came into possession last year of a DHE Parker 16 gauge, No. 1 frame, made in 1929 for the wife of an avid southern CA duck hunter; built with 32" tubes choked tight and tighter with 3" chambers. Sometime later, a set of 32" Parker 20 ga. barrels were added and numbered to the gun, those also being 32" full and full. This gun did originally come with the tang safety, Silvers pad, and a finished weight of 7-1/4 lbs. .......which one might expect for a 'fowler' being used by a woman. Like someone here pointed out, I could see this gun being configured just as easily with no top safety - relying instead on just good gun handling from the blind.
FWIW, the 20 ga. tubes both throw a very narrow 5" spread at a measured 30 ft. and well within the 30" circle at 40 yards, barring a 'flyer' or two. The 16 ga. set almost as snug. In short, not your ideal grouse gun unless you are a much better shot than I.
All Best,
Rob
