10 foot long shotgun barrel

[Dfence]

I was at a local shop a few weeks ago to get an appraisal on a coin I had just bought at an auction (the store sells both guns and coins). While there, someone else had brought in a shotgun that had a barrel on it that was 10 feet long. You read that right!

The stock and general design of it looked old. It appeared to be a single shot and had an exposed hammer like a revolver has. I didn't have time to ask much about it since I was there for other business and had to leave in a hurry so I couldn't get any info on it. Googling it hasn't gotten me anywhere either, so now I'm left with asking here.

Has anyone ever heard of such a shotgun? What would something like this be used for. Most importantly, HOW could it be used? I can't imagine being able to use it unless it was mounted to something.

 

[rcmodel]

Sounds like an old Punt Gun, used many years ago to slaughter ducks during the market hunting era. They were fixed mounted on punt boats, the hunter paddeled to within range of a flock of setting ducks, and let fly.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/003537.asp
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...Hc61tgfA4Pj_BA&sqi=2&ved=0CEQQ9QEwBg&dur=4836

Or, a "Metro Gun" barrel extension used as sort of a silencer to make a shotgun quit enough for pest control in populated areas. Although these are much more modern, and much less likely what you saw.

http://www.metrogun.com/

rc

 

[Dfence]

Thanks for that! It's funny that the first link leads to how it was used in Wisconsin since I'm from there. The photo at the bottom of the second link of the multi barrel punt gun makes that rowboat look like a battleship!

 

[PapaG]

Hastings, in recent years, made a extension barrel of aluminum which screwed into the choke threads in a conventional barrel. The intent was to make a barrel somewhere around 70" long which could be used in "urban" settings to take geese and so on off golf courses without disturbing neighbors.

I used a Remington 34" trap barrel recently with much reduced loads of #9 shot to cut off limbs in my chokecherry tree which were infested with bagworms. Neighbors less than fifty yards away didn't notice any noise.

What a 10' barrel was used for was probably poaching, punt gunning or kiln clinker knocking.

 

[Sam1911]

Ten... FEET? Seriously? Like 2 feet taller than he could have stood up inside your average room? Like 4 feet longer than you could put in your car?

Are you SURE?

And, wait...add another foot to that for the stock, so really, the gun was eleven feet long?

Yeah, I'd have to wonder how in the world that would be usable. To say it would swing s.....l.....o....w.... would be a gross understatement.

I've heard tell of "turkey shoot" guns that were single-shot 12 gas. with extremely long barrels and super tight chokes designed to win those "competitions" back when folks did that kind of thing. I guess, somewhere along the line, someone could have made such a thing to win a pile of hams or sides of beef or whatever down at the local rod & gun club. Until they kicked him out, at least.

 

[RNB65]

I've seen a couple of Punt guns and they are indeed massively large shotguns 10-12 feet in length. I pity any flock of ducks are geese that ever wandered in front of one.

 

[CYANIDEGENOCIDE]

I can't think of it right now but I remember seeing a 12 gauge with a 4-6 foot barrel I don't remember what it was for. I seem to remember it was a custom prospect and the image of a fellow standing in a pond shooting ducks. I want to say it was for reducing noise.

 

[Dan in NC]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7FeeamC4qk

 

[DWFan]

This metrogun barrel is pretty close to 10 feet

 

[chhodge69]

does that come in black?

 

[Sam1911]

This metrogun barrel is pretty close to 10 feet

Darned if it doesn't! Color me impressed!

 

[Dfence]

I actually don't understand the mechanics of how such a gun would work like this. I don't see how a 10' barrel makes the gun more powerful or spreads out the shot more, as seen in that video. I would think that a longer barrel (at least an excessively long one) would make it quieter, but not do anything beyond that. Also, I would think that the shot pattern would actually be tighter too.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

The longer barrel is meant for making the gun quieter.

 

[rcmodel]

Punt guns were most often muzzle loading black-powder guns.

As such, the long barrel promotes more complete BP powder burn.
And the length helps tie it down to keep the tremendous recoil from kicking it out of the boat.

Punt guns had no choke, but were true cylinder bore, so the length of the barrel had no bearing at all on the pattern tightness.

The degree of choke constriction determines the tightness of the pattern, regardless of barrel length.

As an example, an 14" Full choke barrel would shoot tighter patterns then a 32" cylinder bore barrel.

rc

 

[Sam1911]

I have a problem with the idea of this as a punt gun. Punt guns, as rcmodel says, were generally muzzleloaders (though I've been told there were a few breechloaders -- never seen one) and were L-A-R-G-E bore. Often like fist-sized bore. Yes, they were 10' long or more, but they were pretty much more of a cannon than anything like what most folks would recognize as a "shotgun." In fact, I'd be surprised if only one man was able to easily even carry one.

At the risk of overstepping my own knowledge of the subject, I'll go ahead and say, if it was a 10 or 12 ga. shotgun, it wasn't a "punt gun."

 

[Dave McCracken]

Punt guns were like 3 gauge and BIGGER. Looked more like artillery than shoulder arms.

Many lacked stocks. They weren't ever fired from the shoulder. Secured to the punt, the thing was aimed by moving the boat. Oft the gunner used something like a 10 gauge SxS or a Model 11 for cripples.

Typical load for a puntgun was 4 oz of shot and 200 gr of Fg.

As I recall the specs for L P Brezny's Metrogun, the extension was a ported 32" piece that threaded into the choke tube threads and had choke tube threads at the muzzle end. If your 30" barreled 870 had a Metro extension, there'd be 62" of barrel.

That's more than I'm used to. I've shot a couple trap 870s with 34" barrels, and they swing like wrecking balls. Betcha the Metrogun was even more so. I bet it's more used to groundswat nuisance geese than wingshooting.

 

[Sam1911]

I bet it's more used to groundswat nuisance geese than wingshooting.

Er, quite. Rather like used to shoot them at point-blank range, from the other side of the golf course!

 

[W.E.G.]

Oh great.

One MORE thing I gotta have.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

I would like to get one aswell, be fun to show up at the trap range with, despite sucking at hitting clays I could probably club them with my barrel.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Local gunsmith I used to deal with took all the pieces of 12 gauge barrel that various people wanted cut off their shotguns, and welded them all together. Then he took an old single shot shotgun and welded the assemblage of barrel bits onto the existing gun barrel, and refinished everything on the outside pretty nicely. That sucker was hanging on the wall and had a barrel the length of the room, literally, however long the room was. The buttplate was in one corner and the muzzle was in another.

Obviously it was a "gag gun" and not meant to be shot - he had plugged the chamber as well - but it was a hoot to see.

lpl

 

[dagger dog]

I've seen single shot shotguns threaded for choke tubes but instead of a choke tube a barrel extention is screwed into place. The one I had a chance to examine was an old Winchester 12 gauge single with a 30" barrel, it had a 48" extension.

They are used in turkey shoots where you shoot at a card with ammo furnished by the shoot, the most shot within a circle or square of certain dimension wins the prize.

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

Local gunsmith I used to deal with took all the pieces of 12 gauge barrel that various people wanted cut off their shotguns, and welded them all together. Then he took an old single shot shotgun and welded the assemblage of barrel bits onto the existing gun barrel, and refinished everything on the outside pretty nicely. That sucker was hanging on the wall and had a barrel the length of the room, literally, however long the room was. The buttplate was in one corner and the muzzle was in another.

Obviously it was a "gag gun" and not meant to be shot - he had plugged the chamber as well - but it was a hoot to see.

lpl

I bet all you could hear was the click of the action with that.

 

[Messenger Guard]

In these parts we have turkey shoots. You don't actually shoot turkeys but you can win for example ten pounds of pork chops or a turkey. These shoots benefit local groups like in my case the Ruritan. They decided a number of years ago that people would be people and try to cheat so they said no restrictions on guns. They would just monitor ammunition which is what you have to buy when you get your ticket. Over the years i have seen some very long shotgun barrels. One local fellow will even build you a barrel based on the distance you shoot, ammo type, and target. Just send him the above with several hundred dollars and he will send you back said barrel with a target with heavy coverage. For those who haven't seen a turkey shoot, the goal is to have one pellet nail the dead center x. Sometimes it takes calipers to tell winner from loser. Sometimes things get heated. Just because a gun can throw a high pellet count is not a guarantee. My favorite shoot of all time was when a small boy shot a snake charmer. Only four pellets hit but one was dead center. The guys with 500 dollar barrels just shook their heads and smiled.

 

[KodiakBeer]

There were a number of those old punt guns around my little town in Michigan in the 60's. People would hang them in their garage as a conversation piece. One old fellow had the original punt that went with his. It was a specially built boat with a carriage running down the center that held the gun.

Even in those days people still used 12 (or sometimes 10) gauge "goose guns" with extremely long barrels that must have been up in the 36 or 40 inch range. These were usually cheap Belgian single shots that you laid in the back of the blind to take shots at any high flying geese that passed over your set. You'd load those with BB or #2, while your regular shotgun was stoked with lead #4 for ducks.

I understand now that those long barrels didn't keep the patterns tighter, but everyone thought they did and used them.

 

[medalguy]

A buddy of mine about 50 years ago had one of those. As I recall it was a 4 gauge. He had a few shells for it, and I think they were about 2 inches arround and about 4-5 inches long. Quite an impressive round.