# I don't think they had shotguns in Colonial days...



## Guest (Jan 29, 2007)

From this page:

http://theswannery.org/index.html

_When Christopher Columbus arrived to North America, it marked the beginning of the end for our Atlantic Trumpeter swans. Upon arrival, the Europeans found a large population of these captivating birds along the Atlantic Coast. *Armed with the shotgun*, these highly visible and highly vocal swans were an easy and valuable target *in colonists times*. Because of the sheer number of birds, no one could imaging them being over-hunted._

Hey gun experts, when was the shotgun invented? I think they only had muskets in 1500's to 1600's. Correct me if I'm wrong.


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## poorboy (Apr 15, 2006)

Were about the same ah thing as shotguns large caliber and smooth bore. Maybe a slightly thicker bll. wall, then maybe not. Trade guns and shot guns wern't a nickles worth of difference in em..


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## bgak47 (Sep 4, 2003)

All firearms were originally smoothbore weapons.The Musket was a smoothbore weapon that could be loaded with multiple shot or a single lead ball. The Rifle was an innovation that incorporated groves in the barrel that caused that single ball to spin...giving it more accuracy. So, the shotgun came first.


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## Bear (Jan 25, 2005)

They did have blunderbusts, but the range was very limited, maybe 30 to 40 feet at the most for any effect on the intended target.


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## Haggis (Mar 11, 2004)

There are still plenty of original flintlock "fowlers" floating around, and no doubt a few matchlock "fowlers" in museums, but as mentioned above, a smoothbore, matchlock or flintlock, would shoot both a ball or "buck", and they were all smoothbores in the beginning.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Here is a fowling peice from 1680.

http://www.artfund.org/artwork/3443/silver-barrelled-flint-lock-fowling-piece


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## beowoulf90 (Jan 13, 2004)

Muskets and Blunderbusts were "shotguns", they just weren't called that at that time. The muskets could be loaded with what we would call a round ball bullet or loaded with shot. If I remember correctly, it wasn't till the rifle came about that they started to call the smooth bores "shotguns"


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## Haggis (Mar 11, 2004)

beowoulf90 said:


> If I remember correctly, it wasn't till the rifle came about that they started to call the smooth bores "shotguns"


:angel: 
I can't help but ask, "How old are to be trying to remember this?" :hobbyhors 

My history students used to say I talked about the past as if I had lived back then, and they used to say, "'Mr. H' is the only teacher who can remember the day dinosaurs crawled onto dry land."


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2007)

Haggis said:


> My history students used to say I talked about the past as if I had lived back then,


 LOL I do that too. :baby04:


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## beowoulf90 (Jan 13, 2004)

Haggis said:


> :angel:
> I can't help but ask, "How old are to be trying to remember this?" :hobbyhors
> 
> My history students used to say I talked about the past as if I had lived back then, and they used to say, "'Mr. H' is the only teacher who can remember the day dinosaurs crawled onto dry land."



I wasn't refering to being that old...LOL, I was refering to something I read somewhere along the line. I'm a history nut and am always reading something on history. With military and weaponry history being one of my main interests, along with Civil War (I am a re-enactor) :hobbyhors being another interest. Also as a reloader and also before I quit hunting about 10 years ago I only hunted with muzzleloaders and black powder. 

I am old enough to remember the original Star Trek and the Rat Patrol...hehehe


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2007)

beowoulf90 said:


> I am old enough to remember the original Star Trek and the Rat Patrol...hehehe


 I remember Rat Patrol, but since my mother wasn't interested in Star Trek, I didn't get to watch the originals. Back in those days, kids didn't have a TV in their bedrooms. The only TV was the one in the den. Almost everyone I knew had only one TV, and some people had none at all.


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Well, it is pretty bad when you watch the "History Channel" and can remember what you were doing at the time the event happened.


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## Haggis (Mar 11, 2004)

I'm old enough to remember being the only kid in the neighborhood whose family had a TV, and "Uncle Miltie" had a ghost twin. Daddy loved television, and later we became the first family in our neighborhhod to have a "color" TV, of course, the only regular shows in color were _Disneyland _ and _Bonanza_, but once in a while there was _The Wizard of Oz_. This later development was a big deal to everyone in the family except me, I'm color blind.


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2007)

Haggis said:


> I'm old enough to remember being the only kid in the neighborhood whose family had a TV, and "Uncle Miltie" had a ghost twin. Daddy loved television, and later we became the first family in our neighborhhod to have a "color" TV, of course, the only regular shows in color were _Disneyland _ and _Bonanza_, but once in a while there was _The Wizard of Oz_. This later development was a big deal to everyone in the family except me, I'm color blind.


 LOL the first time I saw a color TV was at an aunt/uncle's house. We got one ourselves when I was about 13 yo. I'm not sure if we were the first in our neighborhood to have one, but we were at least one of the first.


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## tn_junk (Nov 28, 2006)

Though I am only fifty years old, we did not have a tv of any kind until I was well into elementary school (third grade I think). The first indoor plumbing I ever used was when I went to the first grade, kids all laughed at me 'cause I didn't know how to use it. When my grandparents (who raised me) passed away a few years ago, their house still did not have running hot water, only cold.

galump

p.s. sorry about hijacking the thread.


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2007)

THREAD DRIFT ALERT!! 

My mother says she remembers the first time she saw a TV. It was in a store and had a crowd around it gawking.

She got a TV shortly thereafter, which was before I was born, so I was never without one.

We did have indoor plumbing. I can only remember one time growing up when we didn't have it. That was in one house we lived in in the country. The rest of the time we had it. But I do remember the light bulbs hanging down from the ceiling with a string attached to turn them off and on.


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## Nyx (May 13, 2006)

I remember using the outhouse and sawdust bucket because there wasn't running water anywhere in the house (living room, bedroom, kitchen, and little unheated back hallway - no doors except on the front door) except for the kitchen sink. And that was unheated. Newspaper was used to cover the windows in winter, and stuffed in gaps as chinking. Baths were something else...heating a washtub of water a pot at a time on the woodstove in the center of the living room.  No tv, no books (seed catalogs were nice, though), little electric washing machine on the front porch with a hand-wringer on the back...very good memories from there.

...now, the kicker:

I haven't even reached thirty years old yet.  Gotta love living out in the *waaay* rural areas.  Just waiting until I can move back to a place similar...but..insulated. And with *some* luxeries at least.


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