Considered to be little more than a historical
curio today, the early 18th century Puckle
Gun was nonetheless one of the most advanced
firearms of its age, capable of firing one
shot every 6 seconds in an era when even the
most highly skilled soldier equipped with
a musket typically topped out at a rate of
only about one shot every 20 seconds.
Invented by one James Puckle Esq, an English
lawyer and essayist, the Puckle Gun was a
flintlock weapon capable of turning a man’s
insides into a cloud of viscera.
Its most unique feature was a rotating cylinder
that allowed it to overcome the inherent issue
that plagued all flintlock weapons of the
era- a glacial rate of fire.
More akin to a modern revolver, the gun is
nonetheless often described (inaccurately)
as the first machine gun.
In fact, it was amongst the first, if not
the first gun, to ever be called that when,
in a 1722 shipping manifest, it was noted
that the ship had on board “2 Machine Guns
of Puckles.”
Curiously modern looking in its design, the
Puckle Gun boasted a 3 foot long barrel and
was designed to sit atop a tripod.
It could also swivel and be aimed in any direction
extremely rapidly with little effort by the
operator due to how well balanced it was.
Once the prototype was completed in 1717,
Puckle approached the British Navy who, at
the time, were having a lot of trouble with
Ottoman pirates.
You see, the large, broadside cannons their
ships were equipped with were a poor weapon
of choice to use against tiny, fast moving
vessels that could quite literally run circles
around the bigger craft.
Puckle felt his gun was perfect for this use-case.
Ships could quite easily have several of the
Puckle guns mounted all around the perimeter
of the deck and fire at approaching pirates
with incredible speed for the age.
Intrigued, officials from the English Board
of Ordnance were sent to observe a demonstration
of the gun in 1717 in Woolwich.
Unfortunately for Puckle, while they were
reportedly impressed with the speed at which
it could launch projectiles of death, and
how quickly it could be reloaded, they decided
to pass.
Their objections to it were primarily that
it featured an unreliable flintlock system
and it was too complex to be easily manufactured,
including requiring many custom made components
that gunsmiths at that point didn't have,
all combined making it difficult to mass produce.
On top of that, it didn't exactly lend itself
to a variety of tactical situations due to
its size.
Unperturbed at the initial rejection, Puckle
continued to refine the design, patenting
a better version of the gun a year later in
1718.
Said patent, No. 418, describes the gun as
being primarily for defensive purposes and
notes that it is ideal for defending "bridges,
breaches, lines and passes, ships, boats,
houses and other places” from pesky foreigners.
A natural salesman, Puckle went as far as
putting advertising of sorts right in his
patent, with the second line of said patent
reading: “Defending KING GEORGE your COUNTRY
and LAWES - Is Defending YOUR SELVES and PROTESTANT
CAUSE”
This is an idea Puckle would double down on
by including engravings on the gun itself
featuring things like King George, imagery
of Britain and random bible verses.
To doubly sell potential investors on the
value of the gun as a stalwart defender of
Christian ideology, Puckle’s patent also
describes how the gun could, in a pinch, fire
square bullets.
What does this have to do with religion?
Puckle thought that square bullets would cause
significantly more damage to the human body
and believed that if they were shot at Muslim
Turks (who the British were fighting at the
time), it would, to quote the patent, “convince
[them] of the benefits of Christian civilisation”.
The gun could also fire regular, round projectiles
too (which Puckle earmarked as being for use
against Christians only).
On top of that, it also fired “grenados”,
shot, essentially comprising of many tiny
bullets- you know, for when you really wanted
to ruin someone’s day.
Puckle began selling shares of his company
to the public in 1720 for about 8 pounds a
piece (about £1,100 pounds or $1,600 today)
to finance construction of more advanced Puckle
Guns, one of which was demonstrated to the
public on March 31, 1722.
During said demonstration, as described in
the London Journal: "[O]ne man discharged
it 63 times in seven Minutes, though all while
Raining, and it throws off either one large
or sixteen Musquet Balls at every discharge
with great force..."
Despite the impressive and reliable display,
the British military on the whole was still
uninterested in the newfangled technology.
That said, there was at least one order, placed
by then Master-General of Ordnance for Britain,
Duke John Montagu, for two of the guns to
bring along in an attempt to capture St. Vincent
and St. Lucia in the Caribbean.
Whether these ever ended up being used or
not isn't clear.
Whatever the case, the two Puckle guns in
question are still around today and can presently
be seen at the Boughton House and Beaulieu
Palace, homes once owned by Montagu.
As for Puckle, he died in 1724, never seeing
his gun leveled against the enemies of King
George- much to the relief of 18th century
Turks everywhere we're sure.
Summing up his failed invention and company,
one sarcastic reporter for the London Journal
quipped that the gun had “only wounded [those]
who have shares therein.”
Burn.
Bonus Fact:
If you happen to think killing two birds with
one stone is a bit inefficient, you might
want to look into the "punt gun," capable
of killing upwards of 50-100 birds in a single
shot.
First put in use in the 1800s, the punt guns
were never manufactured on a large scale,
with each being custom made by a gunsmith
to fit a buyer's specifications.
But, in general, the barrels had openings
upwards of 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter and
weighed over 100-pounds (45 kg).
They generally could fire more than a pound
of shot at a time and usually measured over
10 feet (3 m) long.
As you might imagine from this, they were
too heavy and the recoil too strong for a
hunter to fire them by hand.
Instead, they were (usually) mounted to small,
often flat bottomed, boats known as "punts."
Hunters aimed the gun by maneuvering the boat
into position one or two dozen meters from
their targets, and then fired.
As an example of how effective this was, a
market hunter in the eastern United States,
Ray Todd, claimed he and three other hunters
with punt guns managed to kill 419 ducks one
night in a single volley after encountering
a huge flock "over a half-mile long and nearly
as wide."
After the first volley, he stated, “The
birds flew off a short distance and began
to feed again.
We made three more shots that night.
By morning we had killed over 1,000 ducks.
They brought $3.50 a pair in Baltimore, and
it was the best night’s work we had ever
done.”
Not surprisingly, in the years after market
hunters began using punt guns, the population
of wild waterfowl began to decline in the
United States dramatically.
Sportsmen who hunted for personal use of the
killed waterfowl, rather than for profit like
the market hunters, began advocating for hunting
regulations and limits.
In response, many states in the U.S. outlawed
the use of punt guns by the 1860s, while the
Lacey Act of 1900 and the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act of 1918 effectively ended their use in
the country.
That said, punt guns are still legal in the
United Kingdom, though their barrels are restricted
to a diameter less than 1.75-inches.
Hunters must also have a permit from the government
for the gun and black powder, and they must
adhere to strict hunting seasons.
All this hasn't proved much of a problem as
there are only a few dozen currently used
punt guns left in the U.K. today.
