POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Double barrelled Italian percussion shotgun

Object No. H5710

The shotgun is a firearm designed originally for use as a bird hunting piece. Like early weapons such as the blunderbuss and arquebus the shotgun is smoothbored and discharges a load of multiple projectiles, or shot, rather than a single projectile. This causes the shot to scatter in a widening pattern rather than travel straight. This type of discharge is ideal for winging birds; and early shotguns were called fowling pieces. The name shotgun came from the colloquial language of the American Western frontier in the late 1700s. Shotguns have been, and are also currently used by the military and law enforcement. The spreading pattern of the shot makes the shotgun ideal for close quarters combat and control situations. However, the more common employment of the shotgun now is as a sporting gun - both hunting and skeet shooting. Damian McDonald Curator 2013