Had an inquiry about these, so....
In the 1800s, many Europeans spent time in wild places from the Punjab to Australia to South America to Africa. Ofen times, these places called for a variety of firearms missions, from sport to food to defense to "sorting out" some maneating or killing critter who was taking locals off the count.
One approach to a utility firearm back then consisted of a doubled bbled SXS gun with shallow rifling in one bbl near the muzzle, and one bbl with none but often choked a bit.Often these were called Paradox or Cape guns. A slug or round ball was used in the rifled bbl and varied shot loads, including buckshot, in the other. Often flip up, Express style sights,sling swivels, and other accessories were installed to aid performance. The fact that this was a good idea can be observed in that most of the surviving Paradoxes show lots of wear. A number of them also have the rifling bored out, meaning that the shotgun segment of their use became more important when smokeless powder and magazine rifles had widespread distribution. But, until that day, a weapon that was as versatile and powerful as a modern day pumpgun was a popular choice.
Since this weapon was meant to deal with large, bellicose critters at close range, bores were on the large side, with 12, 10 and 8 gauges being popular. One 8 bore load, IIRC, was a 2 1/4 oz lead slug similar to the Minie ball of Civil War fame pushed by 110 gr of coarse black powder.Yes, they were real men then(G)...
The weapons themselves ran a bit heavier than pure shotguns of the time, partly because they needed to be rugged and partly because the extra weight soaked up the kick from heavy loads. Firms up to H&H and Sauer made them, with a lot of midgrade makers like Army and Navy, W and C Scott, etc, making these for civil servants and explorers rather than the gentry.
Here in the US, the idea never caught on like it did overseas, tho I've seen a Parker 10 used for deer hunting in the South set up with sights and used for buck and ball. And a slightly demented gun smith of my acquaintance long ago used a cut down 10 ga Greener with BP loads as his do all gun. And I've seen a few others here and there, but neither seen them shot or shot them.I've even seen one that had the choke portion near the muzzle rifled with shallow,slow twist rifling to imitate the old Paradox style bore.The owner used a round ball handload and claimed good performance on whitetails.
So what pertinence does this have in this age of repeaters and dedicated slug shooters?
Many of us have older doubles of no great collector value,maybe a Savage 311, a Stevens or Iver Johnson, that could see a new day as a buck and ball gun. Most States in the South allow both slugs and buck for deer, and we all want the most versatility out of at least one shotgun, right?
Few old doubles shoot slugs to the same place from both bbls. One bbl will oft do well grouping slugs where they should be at moderate range, and often also to POA. A little benchtesting and R&D should come up with a bucknball combination that'll be a pure D buttkicker in their shotgun.
And, this could be a nice use for those CAS style doubles,or maybe a Lupara style, as someone wrote recently about.
A caution, get a good smith's opinion on using slugs in any old shotgun, and he/she should go over the gun also.
With the smith's blessing, you may have a good project for getting through this too late to hunt, too early to fish season and an antidote for cabin fever...
In the 1800s, many Europeans spent time in wild places from the Punjab to Australia to South America to Africa. Ofen times, these places called for a variety of firearms missions, from sport to food to defense to "sorting out" some maneating or killing critter who was taking locals off the count.
One approach to a utility firearm back then consisted of a doubled bbled SXS gun with shallow rifling in one bbl near the muzzle, and one bbl with none but often choked a bit.Often these were called Paradox or Cape guns. A slug or round ball was used in the rifled bbl and varied shot loads, including buckshot, in the other. Often flip up, Express style sights,sling swivels, and other accessories were installed to aid performance. The fact that this was a good idea can be observed in that most of the surviving Paradoxes show lots of wear. A number of them also have the rifling bored out, meaning that the shotgun segment of their use became more important when smokeless powder and magazine rifles had widespread distribution. But, until that day, a weapon that was as versatile and powerful as a modern day pumpgun was a popular choice.
Since this weapon was meant to deal with large, bellicose critters at close range, bores were on the large side, with 12, 10 and 8 gauges being popular. One 8 bore load, IIRC, was a 2 1/4 oz lead slug similar to the Minie ball of Civil War fame pushed by 110 gr of coarse black powder.Yes, they were real men then(G)...
The weapons themselves ran a bit heavier than pure shotguns of the time, partly because they needed to be rugged and partly because the extra weight soaked up the kick from heavy loads. Firms up to H&H and Sauer made them, with a lot of midgrade makers like Army and Navy, W and C Scott, etc, making these for civil servants and explorers rather than the gentry.
Here in the US, the idea never caught on like it did overseas, tho I've seen a Parker 10 used for deer hunting in the South set up with sights and used for buck and ball. And a slightly demented gun smith of my acquaintance long ago used a cut down 10 ga Greener with BP loads as his do all gun. And I've seen a few others here and there, but neither seen them shot or shot them.I've even seen one that had the choke portion near the muzzle rifled with shallow,slow twist rifling to imitate the old Paradox style bore.The owner used a round ball handload and claimed good performance on whitetails.
So what pertinence does this have in this age of repeaters and dedicated slug shooters?
Many of us have older doubles of no great collector value,maybe a Savage 311, a Stevens or Iver Johnson, that could see a new day as a buck and ball gun. Most States in the South allow both slugs and buck for deer, and we all want the most versatility out of at least one shotgun, right?
Few old doubles shoot slugs to the same place from both bbls. One bbl will oft do well grouping slugs where they should be at moderate range, and often also to POA. A little benchtesting and R&D should come up with a bucknball combination that'll be a pure D buttkicker in their shotgun.
And, this could be a nice use for those CAS style doubles,or maybe a Lupara style, as someone wrote recently about.
A caution, get a good smith's opinion on using slugs in any old shotgun, and he/she should go over the gun also.
With the smith's blessing, you may have a good project for getting through this too late to hunt, too early to fish season and an antidote for cabin fever...
