Punt gunning, Peter Hawker. Shooting. rescuingthepast.co.uk

Punt gunning

Punt gunning is the art of wildfowling within and around the estuaries. The punt is a small canoe-like boat, designed for shallow waters. Even in the early nineteenth century, variations of punt design was an important consideration depending upon the waters the punt would be taken into. Various individuals, professional and amateur wildfowlers, designed or adapted their punt for the particular water they would be working on.
Some of the best description of wildfowling can be learned from the writings of Lt. Colonel Peter Hawker and some of the following has been taken from his writings:
“Instructions to Young Sportsmen in all that relates to GUNS AND SHOOTING” 1826.

Hampshire launching punt.

“A Hampshire punt, though very long, is made so light and narrow, as just to hold one person, with a gun of about seventy pounds weight, and six feet in the barrel, fixed on a swivel. This gun is so arranged, that it rests on the bow, and may be raised, or turned a
few inches, by a mere stump, which some of the gunners here now have, instead of a but, (butt) in order to take up less room in the punt”. Also, the stock or butt was shortened, enabling the gun to fire higher than otherwise, when the wildfowl took flight. “They row with there backs to the gun till they see the fowl, and then turn round on their faces, lie down, and either work along, with a leaded stick, or, if the water be too deep for this, with two paddles.“The Hampshire punts are now built rounder at the stern, and the recoil of the gun is received entirely by a knee fixed only to the bottom plank (instead of a cross piece), which is far safer, and decidedly less likely to tear away the sides of the punt. The bottom is now made of one elm plank, an inch and a quarter thick, to which this knee is fixed by bolts and screws; and consequently, as there is no recoil on the sides of the punt, every part but this plank, is made as light as possible”.

Peter Hawker, previous to writing the above, argued that the Hampshire punt was very unstable and dangerous. He stated that , three men, Vincent, Jones and Tanner were drowned, and another, Harnet, was killed by his gun. “These regular western channel gunners are now, therefore, becoming very shy of shooting afloat, for which by having punts that are so crank, and draw so much water, and guns proportionally so short in the barrel, they have always been the worst equipped of any “big gunners” as they call themselves, on the British coast”. Owing to the unsafe methods and recent deaths, the local gunners became more knowledgeable of the dangerous mud-flats and estuaries and adopted new methods to approach the wildfowl. “They start off, generally in the afternoon, provided the tide serves, so as to be low enough at the proper time, keeping as close as possible to the shore, and going before the wind, till they arrive at the leeward end of their beat; the whole track of which, for one night's work, may be about five or six miles. They then go ashore, and either get into a pot-house, if they have a sixpence to spend, which is not always the case, or lounge about the shore, till day-light disappears, and the birds begin to fly; having first put all “in order”, that is, to draw out their mould shot, which they generally have in, for the chance of a goose “going down along”; put in smaller shot; and regulate their gun so that it will bear about eighty yards, when the punt is on the dry mud. No sooner are the wigeon pitched than off they set, in tarpaulin dresses; and looking more like chimney-sweepers than gunners, crawling on their knees, and shoving this punt before them on the mud. No matter whether light or dark, few birds or many, bang! goes the gun;- and no sooner have they picked up what few birds are readily to be found, or missed the fowl, which they very frequently do, as the punt , by even a few periwinkles, might be thrown off the line of aim, they proceed again; thus travelling all night by launching over the mud,and rowing across the creeks in a direct line, similar to the march of an army of coots. I should not to omit to mention, that, as birds will seldom allow them to get into the punt to fire, some of them draw the trigger with a string at the end of the ramrod, and others creep up on one side, and pull it off with the finger. This is perhaps the most laborious, and the most filthy work in all the department of wildfowl shooting; and not only that, but it so ruins the country, that in a very short time it entirely “breaks the haunt of the birds” , without having yielded any material advantage to those who adopt the system. As some corroboration of this, I need only observe, that a family, who were leaders in this way, and who are by far the best launchers in Hampshire, have of late been reduced to absolute distress for a livelihood”.

Peter Hawker, an enthusiastic inventer, equally at home with original concepts and methods, would often take the original, and turn it around for the better. This he did with warfare gunnery, pianoforte and, most of all, sporting guns and all to do with shooting, especially wildfowling. The launching sledge described below would certainly have interested him, simply because it was a method of shooting wildfowl with a good chance of making it home alive.

New launching sledge

“For a man who goes such distances on the mud, of course, it would be dangerous not to have a boat that would carry both himself and his gun, in case he should be overtaken by a quick flood-tide before he could escape. But to one who was content with merely having that, in which, with high land behind him, he could just shove off, and catch the birds under the moon (in such a place, for instance, as the edge of the Southampton river, if the mud was pretty level and clear of holes), I shall prescribe one much lighter, and in which he can never be tempted to endanger his life afloat. The drawing will at once explain it sufficently, and the only caution that can be required against accident is, that, as his gun must be cocked before he advances, he had better have a bit of cork to intercept the flint or detonater, which can be drawn away with a string ( as the noise of cocking a gun might spring the birds), and which must not be removed till he has crawled sufficiently on one side of his punt to be quite clear, in case the gun should go off.

The Sussex mud boat

The Sussex coast punters used a sort of skid boat. Hawker describes it as “ like the fore end of the Hampshire punt, sawed off, and a tail board, or bench put across it”. This mud boat was useful in areas of smooth traversing, “In places where there are but very few creeks to interrupt its progress”.

Poole canoe (Or shooting from the creeks, with a large shoulder gun)

The Poole canoe

The Poole canoe is built sharp at both ends, on the plan of the Greenland whale-boat, exept being so flat at the bottom as to draw only two or three inches of water, and so light as to weigh only from sixty to two hundred pounds. For this canoe, &c, see the plates and instructions, with the assistance of which a carpenter ought not to mistake in building one of these boats. In making all canoes for gunning, the builder should be careful to have the bottoms of them a little rounded (say about half an inch if convex, “amidships”, for a bottom three feet broad); and, what is still more consequence, a little “kammelled”, or sprung; that is, gradually rising “fore and aft”, in order to “give them life”. They will, otherwise, row miserably heavy and, when they get aground, suck the mud or sand so much, that, in order to get them off again, you might be forced to stand up; and this would frighten away the fowl. If, however, the bottom of a conoe is too much kammelled, she will never keep steady in going to birds. Some peaple, for this reason, leave hollow grooves between the bottom planks. I should say, that to every five feet of plank I would give about one inch of “kammell”, so that the bottom of the canoe here engraved, being ten feet, would, by holding a string along the centre of the bottom (outside) prove convex about two inches. If a little more, she would be none the worse; perhaps better; provided that she drew water enough to give a bearing to every part; otherwise the ends that were sprung would, by being out of the water, “cluck” so much as to make birds swim away in the night. In short, let your draught of water be the chief guide to regulate the kammelling, or springing, of your punts and canoes. If not required for rough work, or a fixed swivel gun, I should recommend all the planks to be not more than three quarters of the thickness specified in the plate; as nothing, provided it be perfectly safe, can be too light for getting wild birds. It is the large size of a boat, not the substance of the wood, that makes her safe in the sea. If the builder puts some oakum and tar round the heads of the principle nails, before he drives them in, so much the better. Not withstanding all that the boat-builders have said, I now find that copper nails are the best. For dressing and painting, vide directions hereafter given.
This kind of canoe, although built for other purposes, is on the western coast, generally prefered, for shooting, to one of any other kind. It answers best, when used (no matter whether by day or night), from low water to half, and sometimes to full, flood. You manage it thus:-
Sit down, on some straw or rushes, with your gun by your side, and take with you a small Newfoundland dog, Row about, till you can see or hear a flock of wildfowl on the mud. To find them sitting, if by night, look at the first very low, so as to bring the surface of the mud in contrast with the horizon, by which means you will overlook the black edges of the creeks and holes, instead of seeing, and perhaps mistaking them for, birds.
When you have rowed within three or four gunshots of the fowl, take in your oars, and reconnoitre the creeks. Having ascertained which is likely to be the best, lie down, and push along with a stick (called a set or gunning-spread), and, while the mudbanks stand above the little channels, you are so completely hid, that you will seldom fail to get a shot, provided there is a creek within reach of the birds, and you do not go directly to windward of them*.
* The decoymen can go to windward of the birds, by means of the smoke from a piece of dutch turf, or common peat, which, after having it well dried, they are able to carry lighted in the hand for the short time that is required to drive the wildfowl into the pipes. Another recipe, of which some pretend to make a great secret, is a paste of cowdung and chopped straw; but, before this will ignite properly, it must be baked in an oven for about thrice as long as the time required for making bread.
All these things may answer very well behind the screen of a decoy; but in a canoe, or punt, the fire could not so easily be concealed, and there would be some danger in lighting it where one, without a retreat was sitting on straw with gunpowder in his pocket. The burnt turf, &c, may be used with success by a person walking behind the high banks of a pond, or river, who may light it, when required, by carrying on a match a little hyperoxymuriate of potash, and dipping it into a small phial of vitriolic acid.
On arriving sufficiently near, should the water be so low that you cannot present your gun at the birds without kneeling or standing up, you must get aground at the side of the creek, or steady your canoe by means of forcing each oar from between the thowls into the mud, otherwise the recoil of the gun will set her rocking, and thus you might possibly be tipped out. Having made all fast, rise up and fire. Take care, however, to rise high enough to be well clear of the mud, or not a feather will you touch; and present as follows:- By day, or moonlight, if the birds are close, directly at them : or if beyond fourty yards, shoot at their heads; unless they are feeding in a concave place, where the tide has made a concave place, where the tide has left a kind of plash, in which case you must level rather under them, or you will only graze their back feathers. In starlight take your aim just on top of the NARROW BLACK LINE, IN WHICH THE BIRDS ALWAYS APPEAR, TO ONE WHO IS LOW DOWN; and when so dark that you cannot see your gun, present, as you think, about a foot over, or you will most likely shoot about a foot under them.

Should you have been successful, you will, if at night, generaly hear your cripples beating on the mud, before you can sufficiently recover your eyes, from being dazzled by the fire, to see them. Your man then puts on his mud boards, taking the setting pole to support him, and assist the dog in collecting the killed and wounded; taking care to secure first the outside birds, lest they should escape to a creek.

During this time you are left in charge of the punt; and should, if possible, keep a look out, in order to see if any more birds fall, dead, or wounded, from the company, before they have flown out of site.
The gunner generally calculates on bringing home the half only of what he shoots, from the difficulty of catching the whole of his winged birds, which he calls cripples, and those that ( to use the pigeon phrase ) fall out of bounds, which he calls droppers. If birds fly up he generally declines firing, knowing that the moment they are on the wing they become so much more spread, that he could seldom get more than three or four, for which it would be hardly worth while to disturb the mud; particularly as wigeon, by night, if not fired at, will probably settle again at no great distance.
The poole men sometimes goes partners, by which means they can, with a very light punt, use two poles at a time, and shove up a creek that is nearly dry, and then fire two guns to a whispered word of command. This they call a “double gun”, and by such means, they, some years ago, could frequently secure fourty or fifty wigeon at a time.
But, within these very few yards, Poole harbour, as well as almost every other part of the English coast, has been ruined for all the poor hand-gunners, by the introduction of punt-guns, that carry from one to nearly two pounds of shot; which, as the sovereign remedy in the present time, I shall hereafter explain to the very latest improvements.
The gunner's principle enemy is the curlew, which often springs up from the edges of the creeks, alarms the whole place, and sometimes spoils them an exellent shot.”

One of the first to write on the subject of coastal wildfowling, Peter Hawker, said, “It is very rare to meet a gentleman, that can, or a good professional gunner that will, give any information on the subject. The art is, therefore, the least understood of any sport in existence. No man, who had a large gun, and could earn five pounds in a day, or night, would be bored with a gentleman for the sake of his five shillings; and therefore the only man likely to be hired, at a good time for this sport, is some boatman, who has little to recommend him beyond a local knowledge of the harbour; and who therefore requires some one to direct him how to manoeuvre the birds.
In following wildfowl, it is easier to get within twenty yards of them by going to leeward, than a hundred and fifty if directly to windward, so very acute is their sense of smelling. The best time, therefore, to have sport with a canoe and a shoulder gun (provided it be low water, or half ebb, while you are hid in the creeks) is in a clear, frosty, moonlight nights, when the wind happens to blow towards you as you face the moon. It is then impossible for the wildfowl to smell you.
It does not follow, however, that nothing can be done without a bright moon. So far from it, that the old Poole men, among whom there were, formerly, some of the best shoulder gunners in the kingdom, prefer but little moon, even for the mud...I should not to omit to mention, that there still remains one particularly good "hand," who has attended me for some years, during the winter-James Read, of Greenland, in the Isle of Purbeck, who, take him for everything, is one of the most extraordinary performers that ever put an oar in salt water.”