Punt gun

A punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations. These weapons are characteristically too large for an individual to fire from the shoulder or often carry alone, but unlike artillery pieces, punt guns are able to be aimed and fired by a single person from a mount. In this case, the mount is typically a small watercraft (e.g., a punt). Many early models appear similar to over-sized versions of shoulder weapons of the time with full-length wooden stocks with a normal-sized shoulder stock. Most later variations do away with the full-length stock – especially more modern models – and have mounting hardware fixed to the gun to allow them to be fitted to a pintle.

Operation and usage

Punt guns were usually custom-designed and varied widely, but could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches (51 mm) and fire over a pound (≈ 0.45 kg) of shot at a time. With an effective range of about 50 yards (46 meters) a single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water's surface. They were too big to hold and the recoil was so large that they had to be mounted directly on punts used for hunting, hence their name. Hunters would maneuver their punts quietly into line and range of the flock using poles or oars to avoid startling them. Generally, the gun was fixed to the punt; thus the hunter would manoeuvre the entire boat in order to aim the gun. The guns were sufficiently powerful, and the punts sufficiently small, that firing the gun often propelled the punt backwards several inches or more. The powerful recoil of punt guns frequently caused injury to the hunter who lay behind the gun to discharge the weapon; broken teeth and powder burns to the face were not uncommon. To improve efficiency, hunters could work in fleets of up to around ten punts.

Punt guns are usually muzzle-loaded with a lock similar to muskets or rifles of the day including flintlock, percussion, and more modern types. Holland & Holland offered models using breech loading and standardized shotgun shells in both brass and combined paper and brass base in the 1890s via custom order. Double-barrelled models also existed, typically in the smaller 8-gauge loadings. In most cases, these guns were work-guns with little additional adornment in surviving examples. Many appearing in modern auctions have signs of being repaired or upgraded in some fashion, such as upgrading a flintlock action to a more modern percussion system or refinishing by rebluing the piece.

In the United States, this practice depleted stocks of wild waterfowl and by the 1860s most states had banned the practice. The Lacey Act of 1900 banned the transport of wild game across state lines, and the practice of market hunting was outlawed by a series of federal laws in 1918. While use and possession of punt guns is still legal in the United States, Federal regulations prohibit their use in migratory waterfowl hunting. According to Eunan O'Halpin's book Defending Ireland, a Local Defence Force unit of the Irish Army in Co. Louth was equipped in 1941 with a number of flintlock weapons that had been given to them. Among these guns was a weapon described as being a "nine-foot (9 feet (2.7 m)) [long] blunderbuss", which could be more commonly understood to be a punt gun. In the United Kingdom, a 1995 survey showed fewer than 50 active punt guns still in use. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 limits punt guns in England and Wales, and in Scotland, to a bore diameter of 1.75 inches (44 mm) that fired a load of projectiles weighing 1.125 pounds (510 g). Since Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 there has been a punt gun salute every Coronation and Jubilee over Cowbit Wash in Cowbit, Lincolnshire, England. During the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, 21 punt gun rounds were fired separately, followed by the guns all being fired simultaneously.

Punt gun bans and enforcement on the Chesapeake Bay Not until the late 19th century were efforts made to restrict the use of punt guns and other market hunting devices on the Chesapeake Bay. State and county legislation was prompted by a decline in waterfowl stocks and the rise of shooting clubs that attracted wealthy recreational hunting enthusiasts. In 1872 Virginia banned punt guns, but enforcement by local sheriffs, game wardens, and judges was lax. In 1882, Maryland legislators, under pressure from the sport hunting lobby, passed a sweeping ban on night hunting and all forms of improvised subsistence or “pot hunting” devices: punt guns, swivel guns, and sinkboxes. The law imposed a $300 fine on violators, and authorities were empowered to take the accused to outside jurisdictions for prosecution.

Sting operation on Spesutie Island, 1882

Despite legal efforts to stop the practice, night hunting with punt and swivel guns continued largely unrestrained on the upper Chesapeake Bay south of Harve de Grace in the 1880s. Local sport hunting clubs and bayside property owners attributed the decline in waterfowl populations to these unregulated commercial hunting practices and determined to suppress them. Particularly offensive to exclusive gun clubs were the “Spesutie Island gang,” local hunters who reportedly cruised the ducking grounds during the day, infuriating sport hunters by scaring off flocks of waterfowl, then returning at night to poach the birds with punt guns. The suspected ringleader of the gang was George Washington “Uncle Wash” Barnes, a prosperous and politically well-connected commercial fisherman who moonlighted in marketing the poached ducks. Members of the Carroll’s Island Ducking Club and the wealthy business establishment engaged the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to target Barnes and the illegal night hunting activity around Spesutie Island. In 1882, a male and female duo of Pinkerton detectives arrived in Harve de Grace and proceeded to infiltrate the community of commercial hunters, posing as a married couple. Appearing to be an eccentric waterfowling enthusiast, Lindsay and his “wife” purchased an expensive ducking platform and established friendly relationships with the locals, as well as Barnes and his spouse. The detectives discovered that the gang members were highly effective in concealing their activities from game wardens. Despite Lindsay’s risky nighttime surveillance, his early efforts failed to detect any poaching.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.