Firearms make hunting a lot easier than it used to
be on our spear and sling-wielding ancestors. But in the early 1800s,
some people thought hunting still wasn't easy enough- so they made a 12 foot shotgun.
It's the only gun ever banned for being too good at its job. In the early 1800s,
fashionable humans everywhere decided that they needed more feathers for hats,
and extra meat wasn't bad either. Luckily for humans, ducks could provide both-
but there was just one problem. A shotgun could only down a few birds at once, if the shooter
was extremely lucky that is. There had to be a better way to mass murder ducks and geese.
Then, some enterprising hunter thought to himself- if shotguns are good for
killing several birds at once, then why not just make the shotgun bigger?
And by god, this stroke of genius worked. Essentially nothing more than a massively
upscaled shotgun, the punt gun was soon born. Featuring barrels that were over eight feet in
length, sometimes as long as 12 feet, the punt gun had a bore 2 inches in diameter.
The weapon was loaded with a pound of shot and three quarters of a pound of gunpowder,
which really began to beg the question if this was even a gun anymore or an artillery piece.
The idea was simple. With one trigger pull, a single hunter would spray several hundred
pellets over a wide area- not at all unlike a modern day claymore in gun form.
The concept had already been proven to work for hundreds of years, with warships during the
age of sail being loaded with three different kind of shot- cannon balls for sinking ships,
smaller balls attached with chains to destroy rigging, and grapeshot to kill crew on the deck.
Much like a warship, the punt gun could only be fired from a boat. Its size made
it impossible for a man to shoulder and fire- if he valued retaining said shoulder.
The incredible recoil would also make it perilous to fire from a fixed position.
Instead, the gun was fastened to a small boat, and the hunter would then silently row himself
into position so as not to scare the waterfowl away. Once in position, it was a simple matter
of lining up his shot, and then blasting dozens of birds on a one way trip to meet their bird god.
The recoil from firing the gun would actually push the boat back several feet. If you're a
hunter today you've probably given yourself scope eye at least once- try that with a punt gun and
you won't have an eye left to damage. Or probably even a face for that matter. The punt gun actually
got its name from the small boats it was loaded on to, known as punts, and not as we originally
assumed, because it was singlehandedly punting entire species of waterfowl into extinction.
The gun was good, but commercial hunters were pretty sure that there was a way to kill even
more birds faster. That's when double-barreled punt guns came into being, because if one barrel
is good, then two can only be better. It likely only took one attempt to immediately reduce the
gunpowder load of a double-barreled punt gun versus its single barreled cousins, as that
much recoil was as likely to kill the hunter as it was a dozen birds. With a reduced powder load,
the double-barreled punt gun actually proved to be less effective than the single-barreled punt gun,
leading to a preference for the traditional single-barreled punt gun.
Two barrels didn't work out, but if you couldn't add more firepower directly to the gun,
so as to kill more birds faster, then maybe it was just a matter of
adding more guns. And that's exactly what commercial hunters began to do,
eventually setting up whole fleets of punt guns that would cooperate in a single bird hunt.
Well, at this point, the term hunt is being used quite loosely.
Bird holocaust would be more like it.
To maximize carnage and profits, hunters would simply attempt to kill an entire flock at once.
With fleets of up to 10 punt guns, each boat would silently move into position until the entire fleet
effectively surrounded the flock of birds resting on the water. Because there was no radio or walkie
talkies back then, the men would carefully coordinate their firing with a pre-agreed
upon signal, so that the guns fired all at once and thus give the birds no chance for escape.
First though, the birds would be encouraged to fly, otherwise each punt gun would fire across
the lake and at the boat opposite it. Once the birds were in the air though, the carnage lasted
just a few seconds as the guns all fired in rapid succession. Up to 500 ducks or geese could be
eradicated at once with this tactic- an entire flock of birds and their bird wifes, their bird
children, their bird grandmas and grandpas. All dead. Perforated by thousands of lead pellets.
Punt guns were only used by commercial hunters, which severely limited any potential market for
weapons manufacturers. Thus, they were never officially supported by the weapons industry,
which made repairing or finding spare parts for punt guns incredibly difficult. Fixes would often
have to be jerryrigged, with the hunters often being their own punt gun mechanics and engineers.
However, the weapon was ultimately doomed for a reason no other weapon
has ever been banned for in history- it was simply too good at its job.
Ladies got their hat feathers, and hungry people got their duck and goose meat,
but within decades bird populations began to plummet in the United States.
Punt guns were driving entire species of birds to extinction,
with the hunters irrevocably destroying their own livelihoods. And yet, commercial hunters
fiercely resisted any attempt to make the use of punt guns illegal, because of course they did.
The United States however eventually passed legislation to outlaw the punt gun.
The transportation of game across state lines was made illegal in a
bid to crack down on commercial hunting, and slowly but surely
legislation targeting the use of punt guns themselves for hunting was passed.
Shortly after the complete banning of punt guns, bird populations began to rebound.
Today punt guns are not technically illegal in the United States, but it isn't legal to hunt
anything with them. One may keep a punt gun as a collector's item, with 100 surviving punt guns
around the world today. In the United Kingdom, punt guns are used in various ceremonies, thanks
to a tradition started in 1897 by Queen Victoria. On her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen requested a punt
gun salute, rather than the traditional rifle salute. Pleased with the thunderous cacophony
of a dozen punt guns firing at once, the tradition got picked up and spread amongst England's royals.
Had the Nazis invaded the British isles, they may have come face to face with the punt gun
themselves. In 1941, an Irish local defense force unit was outfitted with various flintlock weapons,
including a massive nine foot long punt gun. While the first shot would've likely been terrifying
for the Nazis, the incredibly long and difficult reload would've likely spelled doom for the Irish
defenders. That and the fact that they were facing off against automatic weapons with flintlocks.
As for the birds, they remember the punt gun and the genocide it caused.
They remember as they watch. They remember as they silently wait...
Now go watch weirdest weapons in the world, or click this other video instead!