This Massive 4-Bore Beast is Sort of a Punt Gun For Beginners (VIDEO)

Ian with Forgotten Weapons takes a break from exotic military gear to check out an unusual rolling block waterfowling gun with a commanding 48-inch barrel.

The 14-pound big bore, a Darne Canardière Portatif, is a shoulder-fired punt gun with an impressive .853-caliber bore that hails from around 1900’s France.

Punt guns date back to the bad old days of market hunting and were used to annihilate resting flocks of waterfowl. They got their name from the fact the professional hunters of the day pushed them out across the ponds and marsh on flat-bottomed “punt” boats.

The above gun is set to go on sale through James Julia later this Spring with an expected bid value in the $4-$6K range and includes some very neat four-bore paper hulls by Gevelot of Paris, which Ian dutifully shows off.

And to see what a full-sized example looks like when it is set off, competition shooter Robert “Bob” Vogel gets behind a 47-pound model that packs in 11-ounces of shot and 650-grains of FFG black powder, or about ten 12-gauge birdshot loads– and it looks like a time warp when it goes loud.

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