Bismuth is approx £50 a kg so for a 1 pounder £20 odd quid just for the shot, add the powder & it will be £25 to £30 a pop, Good pop though!
Saw a punter returning from a foray on Cromarty firth last week, started me wondering how much a load (It looked like a 1lb gun) cost, A cup of blackie & a pound of bismuth anyone?
Bismuth is approx £50 a kg so for a 1 pounder £20 odd quid just for the shot, add the powder & it will be £25 to £30 a pop, Good pop though!
I didn't know they were still legal in this country.
Google punt guns and there is a lot of information about them.
I found this snippet:-
Some big guns gained almost cult status.’Irish Tom’ was made as a muzzle loading punt gun. It was bought from an Irish market gunner in the early 1930s by WAGBI founder Stanley Duncan. He had it converted to breech-loader by Greener and started using it in 1936. When Duncan had finished with the gun he sold it to the actor James Robertson Justice. It was rediscovered and restored in the 1980s and given to BASC to display at their HQ. Irish Tom has a barrel made from Whitworth steel, weighs 300 lbs and fires 50 oz of shot propelled by 10oz of black powder. The gun is 14 feet in length.
Punt gunning fascinates me after visiting a museum somewhere on the Essex coast. I bought a dvd from there telling it's story.
A couple of years later I visited an old lady customers house to hang some pictures for her, both walls of her substantial hall were taken up with two very substantial punt guns. Apparently her husband was a serious practitioner in the day.
I'd love to have a go.
Dave
Smell my cheese
A cartridge for a breech loading punt gun in my collection.
photograph here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fronte...7718084462298/
heres mine in action,load was 12oz of shot,cant remember the powder charge.target is a caravan cooker.the land "punt" i made from one of those diddy halfords trailers,apologies to all those who have seen this before.it hangs on the wall of my mancave now.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsT3j1E8tmE
Last edited by greasemonkey; 19-11-2021 at 12:19 PM.
more guns than you can shake a stick at!
When I die don't let my wife sell my guns for what she thinks I gave for them!!!
Punt gunning was also practiced on the Venetian lagoon, there they used a type of boat called a Sciopon, a low punt style boat. Some of the guns were huge up to 3" bore. It was banned there in the 1980's.