Washington DC, USA
(Library of Congress)
Punt guns were designed for punts β small boats β used to hunt waterbirds. With a bore often above two inches, and firing in excess of one pound of shot into a flock, punt guns are recorded as having killed almost 100 birds with a single blast.
The recoil of the gun, fixed to the punt, was sufficiently strong to propel the boat backwards across the water. Such was the level of destruction wreaked by punt guns that most American states banned their use by the mid 1800s. Punt guns continue to be used in the British Isles.
βThe pursuers of the strange sport of punt-gunning have had remarkable experiences. Slipping along in their punts at dawn, they have come upon flocks so great that a single shot from the great swivel gun, which is almost a cannon, has bagged more than a longshore sportsman could get in a week.β
Washington Evening Star, March 4, 1911
