Gunsmithing: Shotguns. Patrick Sweeney

French Military Museum houses a fine collection of black-powder martial weapons and the Tomb of Napoleon. The tomb is even gaudier than some of the weapons on display.

      The British shotgun grew out of the double-barreled muzzle-loader. When shotguns were still muzzle-loaders, the easiest way to have a second shot readily available was to have a second, loaded shotgun. To build two barrels on one gun took skill, or the result was so heavy as to be unusable. British hunting was (and is) primarily driven-game hunting. The Gentlemen hunters wait by their shooting stands as the game is driven towards them, and then shoot it as it attempts to flee past. The shooting is fast, and the game is almost always going straight overhead, or past on the sides. With each development in firearms technology, the British gun-makers made the “double” lighter, handier, more responsive, more reliable and more decorated. They finally created a 12-gauge shotgun that weighs less than 6 pounds, is utterly reliable, hits where you look (provided it has been fitted to you) and costs more than a car. If you can afford the tens of thousands of dollars such a shotgun costs, then you have your choice of engraving style, amount of coverage, wood selection and chokes. You can have an extra set of barrels fitted, starting at several thousand dollars and going up. But you have to be patient, as the gunsmiths who build such wonders are booked solid for years in advance.

      These spectacular shotguns are notable not only for the gold inlay in the barrel and ribs, but the number of shots. Each is a four-barreled gun, with two locks top and bottom.

      The American path was and still is different. Right in the middle of the cartridge conversion process for shotguns, in the 1890s, John Browning kept insisting on a different idea: The repeating shotgun. At first Winchester insisted on a lever-action shotgun. I'm sure John wasn't too keen on the idea, but they were offering him money for a lever shotgun, so he did his best. Awkward, fragile, clumsy to use and borderline homely, the Winchester lever shotguns didn't catch on. It didn't help that Browning designed the Model 1893, and then updated it with the 1897. The '97 is a pump. Without the need for the linkages and elbow room a lever needs, the receiver of the '97 was sleek and compact. No shotgun is truly durable. The wall thicknesses of the barrel and magazine are not enough to stand up to abuse, but the '97 was much more durable than was a doublegun. For someone depending on a shotgun to feed his family, the '97 was much more attractive than any double. For a Sheriff on the Western frontier, dealing with dangerous men was a thankless task. When faced with more than one, a double might not be enough extra insurance. Faced with a resolute sheriff holding a Winchester pump and its seven rounds of buckshot, even the most hardened desperado might think twice.

      Once American hunters took to the pump, every manufacturer had to make at least one, and within a couple of decades doubles were on the wane. One place doubles hung on for a long time was at the gun club. Early competitions (mid to late 19th century) were live-bird contests. Each bird was released from a trap in the middle of a circle. Each contestant had to shoot the bird and drop it within the circle. Even if killed, if the bird fell outside of the circle the competitor was said to have “lost” it. (What can I say, times were different then.) The competitor was only allowed two shots at each bird, so doubles worked just fine. And, no gentleman would be caught on the club grounds with a repeater. It was the hunting gun of the working classes! (Of course, the fact that early live-pigeon shoots were deemed to be diversions for the lower classes, and occasions for vigorous gambling, were quickly overlooked when gentlemen decided to take up the sport.) The difficulty of obtaining birds and the irregularity with which they flew led competitors to other targets. An early target was glass balls. The throwing mechanism was a spring arm that threw the balls straight up. A later and less expensive target is the “clay pigon” that we all know. Its disk shape required a different throwing mechanism, and threw the bird out rather than up. By angling the throwing arm, the bird could be thrown up and away from the shooter. The game of trap shooting had been invented. Later, skeet was invented as a target game that more closely simulated the various angles with which hunters were faced. After all, if you spent the whole summer practicing on trap with its upwards and going-away targets, how does that help you when in the fall a flight of ducks is attempting to land on the pond in front of you, coming straight at you and going down?

      Some military requirements haven't changed since the time of Caesar. When the United States went to fight in France in World War I, the shotguns had to have a bayonet adapter.

      If the pressure for quality and reliable guns wasn't enough, the interest in the sporting applications of shotguns put more pressure on gunmakers. In short order, the best makers were turning out beautifully balanced shotguns of unparalleled reliability. And for those who could afford them, great beauty.

      Just when it seemed that the shotgun would disappear from the military equipment lists, America entered The War to End All Wars. General Pershing quickly determined that shotguns would be of great use in the trenches of World War I, and the U.S. Army has had shotguns of various types in service ever since.

      By the end of the 20th century, some would say that shotguns had gotten back to being bayonet levers. Faced with the requirement to use steel shot, longer shooting distances, and harder-to-get-to hunting locations, hunters have upgraded. Back when Eisenhower was President, a duck hunter might have a double or a pump that weighed 8 pounds. It would be loaded with an ounce and a quarter of No. 4 lead shot, and choked improved cylinder or modified. The shells probably weren't magnums, and he would be well-armed for the task.

      Now, a hunter who doesn't go out with a shotgun chambered for a 3-½-inch 12-gauge shell, or even a 10-gauge, that weighs almost 10 pounds (to deal with the recoil on those magnums, oh, brother) throwing a payload of 1-½ ounces of BB's, feels undergunned. And he will be camouflaged to the gills, with a pocket full of screw-in choke tubes to deal with any potential problem. The modern duck and goose gun can be as long and heavy as the old Brown Bess musket. But without the bayonet. Even the newest duck hunter doesn't think he will have to repel web-footed boarders.

      For night raids and trench clearing, there wasn't much better in 1917 than a Winchester pump. This shotgun must have been great comfort to a Doughboy in No Man's Land.

CHAPTER 2 Black Powder to Breechloaders And the Transition to Smokeless

      The origins of black powder are somewhat hazy. We know the Chinese had black powder or similar compounds, but used them only for fireworks, firecrackers and noise-makers. Using the force of the powder to propel a projectile just didn't occur to the Imperial Chinese military establishment. Either that, or having the many thousands of trained warriors and potentially millions of peasant conscripts already on hand, who needs noisemakers to scare the enemy? It took the dedication to war of the Europeans to develop this new technology.

      Faced by a charge from these fellows, what infantry commander wouldn't want more firepower? Repeating firearms irrevocably altered the balance between mounted and foot soldiers.

      In the centuries from the first use of black powder to the middle of the 19th century, experimenters had tried to come up with some sort of repeating mechanism. After all, in the military context, if some is good, more is better. If you could rain bullets down on your enemy, they couldn't cross the battlefield to meet you. (It can be positively depressing how many technical advances came from the need to gain an advantage in battle.) The problem wasn't the black powder, but the manufacturing methods. Getting a portable cartridge, and even a mechanism to feed it wasn't the problem. The problem was keeping the combustion process sealed away from the shooter. Doing so took two things, each precisely manufactured. First was the barrel, and second the repeating mechanism.