Brief History of the Shotgun

The shotgun has been called by many different names and had many uses over
the years both in military and civilian roles, heres a brief history tour

As far back as 13th Century a hand cannon was used in China which was a metal
pipe closed at one end and a hole in the side. It was loaded with gunpowder
and ammunition from one end and lit with a piece of string through the hole

Over time a musket evolved into a matchlock musket with a trigger to move
the match over to the hole and a wooden stock was added

In the 17th century the Germans invented a Blunderbuss a short musket loaded
from the muzzle and fired from shoulder with a flint suspended on a hammer,
called a flintlock. By 1700 these were standard issue for European infantrymen

In the 18th century this evolved and became known as a fowling piece which
was used by the British to hunt large birds used ammunition called birdshot

In 1776 the term shotgun was created to differentiate between a smoothbore

shotgun and a rifled musket

In the USA the Cavalry heavily used the shotgun in the civil wars and during the
Indian Wars the Americans began movement to the large open west areas now
known as the infamous Wild West where virtually everyone had a shotgun. In
1875 a significant advancement was made and the double-barrel shotgun was
invented, this was breach loaded using a purpose built cartridge containing
shot or pellets and had side by side barrels

This became very popular in the Wild West in America and the term Riding
Shotgun and Coach Gun was used to reference the coach riders who provided
security for the strongboxes transported by stagecoaches. The coach riders
favoured the double barrel shotgun as it was easy to use and devastating at
close range. At the time it earned the nickname of the scattergun
From 1887 to 1900 the history of shotguns progressed and John Moses
Browning refined the over and under shotgun using a lever action. Around the
same time the pump action and auto loading shotgun were invented

Many other variants have evolved, the trench gun during World War 1 with a
short length, heat shield and bayonet. Pump action was used a lot in World
War 2 by the marines. A duck bill shotgun was the choice of US Navy SEALS
for patrolling in the thick jungles of Vietnam. This had a side cut choke
producing a horizontal pattern that had devastating effects

The shotgun developed into the 1980s and become more than just a weapon
with many variants designed such as for door breaching (still in use today by
Special Forces) and combination rifles / shotguns for anti-terrorist activity.

The ammunition has also advanced greatly with cleaner more powerful
powder, plastic and fibre wad, Taser rounds, competition polished lead etc.

In 1812 the first live pigeon shooting club opened in a London suburb called
the Old Hats Tavern and the sport continued to evolve

In 1850 a glass ball thrown by hand was used as a target and in 1877 An
American, Adam Bogardu invented the first catapult trap that launched glass
balls at shooting shows and the term Ball Trap was adopted

As a sport, pheasant and grouse shooting evolved in the late 1880s and the
first flat clay disc appeared sometime between 1883 and 1887 the start of
sporting clays

In 1921 live pigeon shooting was made illegal and clay shooting gained in
popularity with the 1st hand trap being invented in 1927

Today 90% of shooters enjoy the sporting clay format and various other
disciplines have become very popular in the last 10 years such as Skeet and
DTL. Most large shooting grounds these days use auto traps but many private
clubs use manual traps or as we do at F&F a combination of both

Many of the guns in use today have changed very little since the Browning
designs created more than 100 years ago. Sights, optics and cartridges have
changed but the basic designed has remained the same