Can anyone tell me what gun this is?

**Prince of Judah** · July 09, 2009, 08:32 PM

What type of gun is this? I took this screenshot from Last of the Mohicans. He appeared to fire it arced upward rather than straight, but that may have just been a mistake. Is it a shotgun or some kind of 18th century grenade launcher?

**Watchman** · July 09, 2009, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by Imperiumiv

...some kind of 18th century grenade launcher?

That's what it is. Can be found mentioned in passing in Teh Wiki.

**Manco** · July 09, 2009, 08:36 PM

A blunderbuss perhaps? A predecessor of the shotgun in some respects.
Edit: Damn, Watchman was faster. Didn't know they had (proto-) grenade launchers then

**Watchman** · July 09, 2009, 08:41 PM

A means of getting those "iron ball packed with gunpowder with slowmatch sticking out of it" hand grenades further away than a good throwing arm allowed. Blunderbusses look like this, and AFAIK weren't normally used by line infantry.

**Prince of Judah** · July 09, 2009, 09:09 PM

what confuses me is the big nozzle. If it weren't for that I'd assume it was a blunderbuss.

**Tiberius Tosi** · July 10, 2009, 02:10 PM

It looks like a blunderbuss but that is a little strange since regular infantry didn't really use them that often as far as I know. Cavalry mostly used them (the word Dragoon is derived from the handgun blunderbuss [dragon]) until the carbine replaced it later, but perhaps that soldier is supposed to be a loner dragoon (?), I wouldn't be able to tell from the uniform (someone else probably could however).

When I watched the clip on youtube, i definitely looks like the soldier fires it at too high of an arc.

**Selifator** · July 10, 2009, 03:17 PM

Might be that they took the idea of a grenade launcher and Hollydised it.

**Watchman** · July 10, 2009, 03:27 PM

...did you people not read anything after the OP or something...?

It is a grenade launcer. Those were common enough support weapons from a long ways back already, used to deliver grenades to longer ranges than even the most formidable grenadier could throw.

**My Favorite Martian** · July 10, 2009, 06:08 PM

It is a weapon that has been used under different names. I have seen some during a parade of a city militia in uniforms of about 1710. It is possible that these were weapons that were introduced in about 1750 and that the team that organized the equipment of the reenactors was mistaken when they mixed them with uniforms from half a century earlier. When I remember correctely the weapon was introduced during this event as hand-mortars or the like. I believe it belongs in the context of siege and combat from fixed positions. It's not really practical for infantry combat when you command the battalion to form pelotons. It may make some sense for indirect fire into infantry trenches or over flat field bulwarks however.