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The History Of Firearms

Although American history records few heroic deeds involving the shotgun as we know it today, the colonial settler's fowling piece and blunderbuss (the shotgun of that era) played an important if not dramatic part in the development of this Country. America's reputation as a "Nation of Riflemen" was born in the throes of its fight for Independence from British rule. During this period, however, true "rifles" were being produced in small numbers and the "Minute Men" of Lexington and Concord had to depend on the smoothbore musket to rout the Red Coats.

Less violent legends speak of the Kentucky Long Rifle and its ability in proper hands to put a squirrel's eye out at ninety feet. In fact, so numerous are such legends in the pages of history that if one were to judge only by this evidence, America would be solely a nation of riflemen.

But history has a way of skipping over the ordinary and legend records few failures. The settlers who could barely hit the proverbial barn door with a rifle ball passed through history without mention, but still actually existed. In the hands of these misfits in history the rifle had little practical value when it came to keeping the family larder filled with game, while the clumsy but effective shotguns of the day were almost a necessity.

That the development of shotguns lagged far behind improvements to pistols and rifles was due largely to the character of America in its unsettled condition. Just as raw and unsettled as the country itself were the pioneers, the men who roamed America's wilderness fighting with equal vigor the Indians and the elements. The lives of such men depended more often than not upon their skill with the rifle and pistol and upon the reaching powers of those weapons.

In that regard the shotguns then available were totally outclassed even by the bows and arrows of the Indians, and were considered wholly impractical except for bagging moving eame such as birds and rabbits. It was not until after the Civil War, when railroads began stretching into the rich cattle lands of the west, bringing with them civilization and its latest trappings, that the Shotgun gained any degree of prominence.

Those double barreled shotguns came into the pages of history with violence in the hands of highwaymen, murderers and hard pressed lawmen. But. law soon came to the west and with it came an interest in the more peaceful uses for which the shotgun had been originally designed.

Unlike rifles and pistols, which were created by violence and perfected in warfare the shotgun was brought to its present state of perfection solely because of its sporting uses. Today, wing shooting ranks as one of the Nation's most popular shooting sports.

The great-grandfather of the shotgun was the same matchlock which was brought to this country by the earliest scttlers. While these arms were not designed as shotguns, as we understand the term, they were the common shoulder arms of their day and were used for both ball and shot loads.

The first guns which were used in the same way we now use shotguns were essentially the same as other shoulder arms of the time. They were called "fowling pieces" because they were used for bird and small game hunting. These came into being in the 1600's with the advent of the flint lock. The same general type of gun was made in the Mediterranean Region but was called the Miquelet Lock. In Great Britain and America the flint lock fowling piece was made with an extra long barrel and was called a "long fowler". These guns were still in use until about 1850.

While the tube lock was the immediate successor to the flint lock it did not assume great importance. The important percussion lock was introduced in Great Britain about 1820. While the fowling piece stiil was muzzle loaded its performance was much more dependable with this comparatively weatherproof ignition system. It was in wide use for over fifty years.

Breechloading hinge action shotguns came into wide use between 1850 and 1860. The forerunner of the type was the Lefaucheux breechloader made in 1836. The first of these guns to achieve wide popularity used a pinfire cartridge - the hammer strikes a pin which is an integral part of the cartridge. The pin explodes an internal primer. Some of these pinfire shotguns are still in occasional use in Europe. The centerfire breechloader, using a cartridge comparable to the one in use today was first introduced about 1860 in England. These early guns, for the most part, had external hammers and bottom bolting levers. Wide experimentation was taking place continually, however, and by the early 1900's most gun makers were making the "hammerless" internal hammer and placing the lever on top.

During this period of development, around 1880, the slide or pump action was invented. It has since become one of the most popular of all shotgun actions, The semi-automatic action, which is also widely used, is largely the brainchild of John Browning who also did much work on rifle and pistol actions. It came into use early in the 1900's.

Other developments in shotguns may be of interest. The earliest multiple barrel guns were seen in Germany in the 1600's. Choke boring, although in use earlier, was perfected to a dependable degree by Greener, an English gun maker in the 1870's. Ejectors first appeared on shotguns during the same period.

The modern shotgun, regardless of type or model, is designed to perform one function - enable the shooter to hit moving targets. Sometimes those targets are quail bursting like a hand grenade out of a sedge field, or grouse rocketing through a stand of pine timber, or pheasants, ducks and geese with all the tricks they can pull out of their flight-bag.

Rabbit hunters and squirrel hunters add to the group which daily is growing so rapidly that the game seasons are far too short to absorb the demand. During past years of abundant game, shotgunners used live pigeons which were released by a number of different mechanical devices set up to provide skill demanding, practice. Then the law stepped in and stopped the slaughter of pigeons. Today live pigeon shoots are illegal.

To keep the game interesting, manufacturers produced next to the nearest thing to a live pigeon - glass balls filled with feathers. These could be catapulted into the air and burst with a shower of feathers when hit. Other hand-held devices were invented which allowed the shooter to practice wing shooting at thrown targets.

Inevitably the demand for shooting practice led to the competitive shooting sports which we know today - skeet and trap shooting. The clay targets used in skeet and trap shooting have been standardized and rules governing the two sports are firmly established.

Following the pattern of public demand, shotgun manufaturers began producing guns with improvements specifically designed for the various phases of wing shooting. Most well made shotguns fall into one of four classifications: side-by-side double barreled, over-and-under double barreled, pump action repeating and autoloading repeating.

The side-by-side double barreled shotgun reaches far back into the history of firearms. Yet so stable was the original design of this gun that only a very few minor improvements have ever been made to the basic double-gun concept. First, the balance and handling qualities of each of the four gun types varies slightly, and, of the four types, the pump repeating gun seems to suit more people. Secondly, cost enters the picture. Generally speaking the pump action guns cost less than other types of the same quality. The novice would do well to try the various actions, if possible, and settle on that one which, all factors considered, suits him best.

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