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Further Thoughts on "Canoe Guns"
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Booshway
Picture of Notchy Bob
posted
Here's an old timer for you: Blanket Gun.

Sorry, but I don't know how to post pictures directly to the forum.

Regarding hunting with short "long guns," here is this from Samuel Hearne: "The moose are so tender-footed and short-winded, that a good runner will generally tire them in less than a day, and very frequently in six or eight hours... On those occasions, the Indians, in general, only take with them a knife or bayonet, and a little bag containing a set of fire-tackle, and are as lightly clothed as possible; some of them will carry a bow and two or three arrows, but I never knew any of them take a gun unless such as had been blown or bursted, and the barrels cut quite short..." (from A Journey to the Northern Ocean, pages 182-183).

This book is an account of Hearne's travels with various Athabaskan people across Canada in the years 1769 - 1772.

In the early travel literature I have read, trade guns with burst barrels are mentioned several times. If the Indians did not have lead balls, they would use whatever fit in the barrel for projectiles, including cut-up bits of iron tools (see Hearne, page 36). Blown barrels were evidently not uncommon. If the burst section of barrel was not too close to the breech, it could be cut off to salvage the gun.

It is my understanding this was done by cutting a groove around and around the barrel with a three-cornered file (available from the traders) until the barrel was cut through.

Just some random thoughts for the campfire discussion.

Notchy Bob


"Should have kept the old ways just as much as I could, and the tradition that guarded us. Should have rode horses. Kept dogs."

from The Antelope Wife
 
Posts: 333 | Location: Florida | Registered: 24 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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That's very informative, Notchy Bob. I like short guns but draw the limit at 20". a 20" barrel will give velocities not that much lower than a 30" barrel and is still very compact. An even shorter gun can, of course, have a lot of uses as you mentioned.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Yes that's a pretty neat reference..."Blanket" guns to be uber correct, were made for an engagement during (iirc) Pontiac's Rebellion to be smuggled into forts and then used to take the fort from the inside.... and folks often poo-poo the "canoe gun" because the term was coined by a modern gunmaker. YET here you have both a reference to Indians having a cut down gun, AND why they had the cut down gun.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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