Un Punt Gun, utilizado para la caza de patos pero prohibido porque agotó las existencias de aves silvestres, 1910-1920. A Punt Gun, used for duck hunting but were banned because they depleted stocks of wild fowl, 1910-1920. Rare Historical Photos.

Origen 

Una pistola de batea es un tipo de escopeta extremadamente grande que se usó en el siglo XIX y principios del XX para disparar a un gran número de aves acuáticas para operaciones comerciales de recolección y deportes privados. Un solo disparo podría matar a más de 50 aves acuáticas que descansan sobre la superficie del agua. Eran demasiado grandes para sostenerlos y el retroceso era tan grande que estaban montados directamente en los botes (un pequeño bote) que se usaban para la caza, de ahí su nombre. "Usado para la caza de patos" no es la expresión correcta para apuntar esta pieza de artillería en la dirección general de una bandada de patos, disparar y pasar el resto del día recogiendo los cadáveres.

A principios del siglo XIX, la caza masiva de aves acuáticas para abastecer de carne a los mercados comerciales se convirtió en una práctica ampliamente aceptada. Además del mercado de alimentos, la moda femenina de mediados del siglo XIX agregó una gran demanda de plumas para adornar sombreros. Para satisfacer la demanda, los cazadores profesionales fabricaron escopetas extremadamente grandes (diámetros de orificio de hasta 2 ″) para esta tarea. Estas armas eran tan engorrosas que la mayoría de las veces se montaban en botes largos y cuadrados de casco plano (botes).

Los cazadores maniobrarían silenciosamente sus botes en línea y alcance de la bandada usando palos o remos para evitar sobresaltarlos. Generalmente, el arma estaba fijada a la batea; así, el cazador maniobraría todo el barco para apuntar el arma. Los cañones eran lo suficientemente potentes y los batea lo suficientemente pequeños, que disparar el cañón a menudo empujaba la batea hacia atrás varios centímetros o más.

En los Estados Unidos, esta práctica agotó las poblaciones de aves acuáticas silvestres y, en la década de 1860, la mayoría de los estados habían prohibido la práctica. La Ley Lacey de 1900 prohibió el transporte de animales de caza a través de las fronteras estatales, y la práctica de la caza en el mercado fue prohibida por una serie de leyes federales en 1918.

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A Punt Gun, used for duck hunting but were banned because they depleted stocks of wild fowl, 1910-1920

A punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations and private sport. A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water’s surface.

They were too big to hold and the recoil so large that they were mounted directly on the punts (a small skiff boat) used for hunting, hence their name. “Used for duck hunting” isn’t the right expression for aiming this piece of artillery in the general direction of a flock of ducks, firing, and spending the rest of the day picking up the carcasses.

In the early 1800s, the mass hunting of waterfowl to supply commercial markets with meat became a widely accepted practice. In addition to the market for food, women’s fashion in the mid-1800s added a major demand for feathers to adorn hats.

To meet the demand, professional hunters custom-built extremely large shotguns (bore diameters up to 2″) for the task. These weapons were so cumbersome that they were most often mounted on long square-ended flat-hulled boats (punts).

Hunters would maneuver their punts quietly into line and range of the flock using poles or oars to avoid startling them. Generally, the gun was fixed to the punt; thus the hunter would maneuver the entire boat in order to aim the gun. The guns were sufficiently powerful, and the punts themselves sufficiently small, that firing the gun often propelled the punt backward several inches or more.

To increase efficiency even further, punt hunters would often work in groups of 8-10 boats. By lining up their boats and coordinating the firing of their single-shot weapons, entire flocks of birds could be “harvested” with a single volley.

It was not unusual for such a band of hunters to acquire as many as 500 birds in a single day. Because of the custom nature of these weapons and the lack of support by the weapons industry, they were often rather crude in design.

In the United States, this practice depleted stocks of wild waterfowl and by the 1860s most states had banned the practice. The Lacey Act of 1900 banned the transport of wild games across state lines, and the practice of market hunting was outlawed by a series of federal laws in 1918.