Quote:
|
Blunder Busters... They were shotguns that shot EVERY Projectile you can imagine... Knives and Forks, rocks, gravel, feces, wood, glass! You name it they shot it.
|
I have a 14 ga. (.69cal) blunderbuss. It's a pretty faithful copy of the American blunderbuss pictured on page 22 of James Forman's "The Blunderbuss:1500-1900.
Forman dismisses as a myth that the blunderbuss was used to fire anything other than "normal" shot loads, despite what we see in the movies. Most BBusses were 12/14 gauge (military versions had a "full musket bore" as did the civilian derivations) and there isn't much that will fit efficiently down a 3/4" wide barrel - of course the muzzle is wider than that but that just made it easier to load in the heat of battle.
Just a note - the fork, etc. thing is a common misconception.
Unless, of course, the reference was to some other firearm entirely and not a blunderbuss.
A blunderbuss loaded with "10-12 pea sized shot" and three drams of BP would be a formidable HD weapon or for use against highwaymen; another load mentioned by Forman is 120 grains of BP and "twenty pellets of buckshot" .
The BB is highly manueuverable - a 14 inch barrel and a short stock - but you only get that one shot (and it's flintlock - though mine has always worked). Oh..with that short barrel, the muzzle blast is right
there in front of your nose.
Pete