Irish Bird Dog sent me this Via e-mail. Maybe Ed needs to look at a really big gauge shotgun from hell. (Just kidding Ed a bit, I really do admire his work)RD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7Vt0mr2sjE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7Vt0mr2sjE

You hold it -- I'll pull the trigger!

This old 2-gauge percussion muzzle-loading shotgun was mounted in a boat
called a punt. It was used to shoot ducks in the days of market hunting.

You would float up to a raft of ducks, and when you were in range you would
shoot. This demonstration proves that they were very effective.

Gauge is used to measure the amount shotgun shot that would be required to
make up a pound of leadý: So a 2 gauge shotgun nominally should have an
inside diameter equal to that of a sphere made from one-half of a pound of
lead.

As you saw in the size of the gun, they were so big that you had to lash it
to the front of a small low freeboard boat which they paddled up to the
range to shoot the ducks using small hand paddles.  The ducks shot were then
sold butcher/grocery stores.

Rocky

The intro is Tom Knapp, I've seen him shoot in person, great entertainer.  He is about 70 years old and still throws his own targets by hand and can hit 9 of them on the way down.  Hits 8 thrown and shot with a PUMP.

Those Punt Guns were popular on the Chesapeake Bay by the market hunters.  They still pop out in that area as relics of a by-gone day.  Good story about one in Michner's Chesapeake.  Especially how the guy hide them from the game wardens  (even illegal then).