Punt Guns

[art_collector]

Recently I happened to see a punt gun. The sport was stopped ages back ...mercifully .
The long punt gun which is about 9-10 feet long was fixed on a punt boat and fired . The bore diametre is about 2.5" and used to bring down a whole flock of waterfowls at one go .......

AC

[Pran]

AC,
Where'd you see the punt gun? There's a museum in South Canara district, Karnataka which houses punt guns,blunderbus and other fire arms used in the days of the British raj.

Pran

[shahid]

Results with Punt Guns were not so dramatic as thought. In a whole days of work hardly a shot or two could be fired. It was never a very effective wildfowling method.

A punt gun works up to 100 yards at most, 80 better.

Ducks are a naturally wary species, do not imagine that punt boats could easily approach them to this distance.

There was no who;esome murder.

We did have a punt gun of 1 and 1/2 bore in Baktiarpore. Its major use was to fire a blank round of black powder ammo during the month of Ramadan to announce the end of fasting. As for ducks in the Ganges, they had learned fast to laugh at the punt boat.

This is why stealth, skill, camoflage and patience is required in wildfowling on the wings. An extremely skilled sport.

[Vikram]

Shahid,

The punt guns were invented for a purpose.To blast a great deal of birds at one go.In US, they were used by the commercial hunters to devastating effect in the 19th century.If I am right,punt gunning is banned in US.Will check again. There were times when there were such large flocks when the punt guns were justified.


BTW,in UK, punt gunning is still legal and there are shooters who still hunt with them.As you visit UK often,fancy trying it once to see if it is as easy as it sounds?

For info on punt gunning

http://www.wildfowling.com/puntgun.htm

Check what a punt gun does.



Best-
Vikram

[Grumpy]

As Vikram says, punt gunning is still legal in the UK - Smooth-bore guns with up to 2" diameter barrels are allowed.
Punt gunning requires considerable skill in order to get close enough to a flock of birds. The huge bags per shot recorded in the 19th Century were not exaggerated ...... hardly surprising when shot loads of half a pound and more were used. Only one or two shots a day might be possible but well worth the effort.
Vikram, the largest bore legal in the US is the 10-Bore so punt guns are not legal.

[mehulkamdar]

Grumpy,

Several states now allow 10 bores only for hunting Canada geese. They are not allowed for any other kind of hunting and this has been the reason for the increasing popularity of the 3 1/2 inch 12. Most clubs on the Chicago outskirts do not allow members to even practice with 10 bores and there is often little point in having a 10 unless you have a private range like Mark has as you cannot shoot at any public range with it.

Cheers!

[Yaj]

AC,
Where'd you see the punt gun? There's a museum in South Canara district, Karnataka which houses punt guns,blunderbus and other fire arms used in the days of the British raj.

Pran

Where is this museum Pran? I will try and visit it the next time I go down there.
Yaj.

[danish21]

The punt guns were invented for a purpose.To blast a great deal of birds at one go.In US, they were used by the commercial hunters to devastating effect in the 19th century.If I am right,punt gunning is banned in US.Will check again.There were times when there were such large flocks when the punt guns were justified.


BTW,in UK, punt gunning is still legal and there are shooters who still hunt with them.As you visit UK often,fancy trying it once to see if it is as easy as it sounds?

For info on punt gunning

http://www.wildfowling.com/puntgun.htm

Nice info vikram... this is the first time i saw a punt gun... I don't think that a punt gun would be accurate when fired on the ducks...

Danish

[Pran]

Where is this museum Pran? I will try and visit it the next time I go down there.
Yaj.

There's a popular pilgrimage place here called 'Dharmastala'.The museum's very close to the temple.And make sure you don't miss out the vintage car museum.

Pran

[shahid]

I saw two punt guns lying on the ground during my last visit to H & H showroom last year. Ugly, ungainly things, coloured blue with paint.

One of their sales managers, Chris Ball showed me a loaded cartridge as well. Each cartridge load costs GBP 25 these days.

I would like to know more about these 3 1/2 inch Bismuth Magnum wildfowling loads of Federal, Win, Remington.

A lot of authors say a very large shot column balls up and spoils the pattern. How is the 3 1/2 inch performing in 12 bores in actual wildfowling ?

[Grumpy]

Yeah, a lot of punt guns are horrible, crude old things. The vast majority are muzzle loaded although some have cannon breeches - screw or hinged. All use black powder.
None of the three manufacturers you mention offer Bismuth shot cartridges. They offer `Steel` shot cartridges and variations on Tungsten Iron/ `HeviShot` which are very different from Bismuth.
Fundamentally the longer the shot column the poorer the pattern AND the longer the shot string. For this reason the 12-Bore 2" cartridge is renowned as producing the best patterns because of its` very short shot column - the advantage that it also has over the 16 and 20-Bore with the same weight of shot also. Logically the 12-bore 3 1/2" magnum cartridges with their very long shot columns will pattern less well and this is borne out in fact although balling isn`t a particular problem, the patterns just tend to `blow` somewhat.

[eljefe]

Bit OT-
Lead is becoming such a no no, even fishing weights in UK are non lead and terribly expensive to boot...

[shahid]

It is correct. Lead shots cause poisoning and env. damage. Bismuth is very close to lead. Good bismuth shots are reinforced with a bit of tin and tungsten. Expensive but worth it. My club Ducks Unlimited recommends only Bismuth for Wildfowling.

I wonder if anyone has purchased Bismuth shots and used them in Punt guns.

This whole business of punt gunning doesn't sound very sporting to start with.

As of date is there any maker in England / Europe who still makes punt guns ?

[Grumpy]

There is no commercial maker of punt guns but there are a few people who could make one.
I have a 2" steel pipe that I`ve been threatening to turn into a punt gun for years........I`ll probably never get around to doing so.
Punt gunning never was sporting and wasn`t intended to be. It was commercial wildfowling.
There isn`t any Tungsten in Bismuth.
Ducks Unlimited were probably more responsible for the ban on lead shot over wetlands in the USA than anyone else. Their `recommendation` used to be for non-toxic shot but that is now law.
Tungsten shot and Hevishot ( also tungsten based ) are superior to both lead and Bismuth in many ways. Can`t be used in British made guns though. Hevishot is supposed to be safe for use in British guns but more than one gunmaker has noted that it scores the barrels. Steel shot ( which is actually iron ) is also a no-no. Bismuth is fine.

[shahid]

The 2 inch steel pipe will burst on firing a punt load.