BLUNDERBUSSES WERE JUST SOCIAL SHOTGUNS.

                           ENGLISH FLINTLOCK BLUNDERBUSS – Lovely Eh.

I was browsing through an old (1972) Guns & Ammo Annual today and found a great piece on Blunderbusses . Lovely things - "If I were a richman (- dubba-dubba-dubba-dooo)" I'd certainly have a few of these in my secure, large and comfortable Gun Room.

- Said to have been around from the 1650s, and called 'Donnerbussen' (Thunder Gun) we English speakers being too lazy to bother with 'foreign' words soon changed it to “Blunderbuss”.

- Made with both brass and iron barrels, Blunderbusses seem to have been most widely used in England between 1600s to say 1830(ish).

It is popularly believed that the wide bell mouth was there to help spread the shot, and that they were loaded with an assortment of stones, old horseshoe nails and broken glass etc – but unless you really fancy that story – think of the bell mouth as an aid to charging the powder and shot – and the charge as being regular ball shot of various sizes chosen for the “social purpose” of the day.

INDIAN SULTANS FLINTLOCK FROM The British Raj -1794 

( I'll take one of those please – beautiful work!)

Their bores were mostly round but some oval bores are known. Certainly nobody would load jagged metal junk into a brass barreled gun as as this would damage the soft metal tube and might well risk the bent worn nails becoming interlocked & blocking the bore on discharge with unfortunate effect on both the shooter and his valuable tool.

Blunderbusses were basically short black-powder smooth bore guns of overall length around 30 to 35 inches that can fire both a single ball or multiple shot (similar to 00 Buck) at the whim of the user. 

- If you bear in mind the difficulty of using a handgun accurately (unless well practiced and trained) -  the same choice of a short, handy long-arm still remains logical – especially for those nations where the law abiding citizen is allowed to keep their choice of gear for home defense.

Short Double-Barreled 12 Gauge Sporting Shotgun (just over the minimum NZ legal length)

 A similar length and a versatile modern version of a  'Blunderbuss'

- Being breach loaded with cartridges there's no need to bell-mouth the muzzles eh. - It works well with solids too. - Not a naughty free-standing pistol grip in sight - not needed either!

- The Italians refer to a short sawn-off shotgun as a "Lupara" meaning  'for the wolf'  - quiet a good name for my legal shorty.. NZ Maori used the word "Tupara" (from 'two barrels').

Way back when - the Blunderbuss was kept in many a farmhouse kitchen or coaching inn hanging above the fireplace - where the heat from the fire kept the powder charge dry and ready for action if needed. Common Blunderbuss 'calibers' found are 20ga, 16ga, 12ga and up to as big as .950 of an inch in diameter.

 - Both the pistol version and 'long-arm' were customarily used as carriage or 'coach -guns' - British Mail Coaches of the period being guarded by a single Post employee armed with blunderbusses, some fitted with a hinged spike bayonet.

Pistol Blunderbusses were commonly issued to cavalry, and were called  'Dragons'. - From this name apparently came "Dragoon" meaning mounted infantry.

The Blunderbuss went out of fashion around mid 19th century, being mostly replaced with carbines - but plenty of the old style big bores were retained for civilian 'social purposes'.

Marty K.