Have you seen an Animal Trap Gun c1850 like this one?

[dana_w]

This is a double barrel percussion fired black powder trap gun. It dates from the mid 19th century and was likely designed to kill black bears. There is an anchor ring on one end and a barbed meat hook on the other. The barb acts as a trigger to fire the trap when it is pulled.

Animal Trap Guns were horrid devices, but being attacked by a large black bear couldn't have been much fun either. Trap guns like this one were outlawed in the United States along time ago and they are rarely seen today.

Many commercially made trap guns date from same era and can be identified, but this one seems unique and handmade, has anyone seen one like it?

Weight: 5 lb, 6 oz
Approximate Overall Dimensions: 19" x 5" x 5"
The barrels are .68 inches in diameter at the muzzle

All images are copyright (c) 2016 Dana K. Williams. All rights are reserved.

[Shakethetrees]

When I was a kid my grandfather told me about this kind of trap. As he would have had to be a teenager or thereabouts, this would have been sometime in the first decade of the 20th century that he saw it being used.

The torch weld visible in the photos tells it is from no earlier than about the third quarter of the 19th.

[dana_w]

The torch weld visible in the photos tells it is from no earlier than about the third quarter of the 19th.

That is a good point Shakethetrees. Perhaps I should change my description to c1880.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Here, Another.

[Rick]

I would think ones like Dana's example would have been popular with Cattle Ranchers back in the day.
Bait, chain to tree about 3-4 feet off the ground; one less threat to the herd.

[dana_w]

Here, Another.

Thanks for your comments Ibrahiim al Balooshi and Rick.


The F. REUTH cast-iron model and a few other mass-produced Antique Trap Guns are listed in section VII-C of Flayderman's Guide, but the guide hasn't been updated in many years.

https://books.google.com/books?id=7pyVTm2PibUC&lpg=PA399&dq=flayderman's%20guide%20animal%20trap&pg=PA399#v=onepage&q=flayderman's%20guide%20animal%20trap&f=false

It seems likely the one that begun this post is unique, but I'd love to find another one.

There are marks on each barrel which could be proof or maker marks, but they are undecipherable to me.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

And...

[dana_w]

And...

If I had a Colt like that one, that is not how I would be using it. :)

[Kmaddock]

Making a mountain out of a molehill comes to mind liking at t he colt revolver mouse trap
Thanks for sharing
Ken

[kronckew]

kinda like swatting flies with a sledge hammer.

[Jim McDougall]

RAT TRAP:

A cemetery or graverobbers gun c. 1710.
Big surprise to the grave robbers with the body snatcher trade.
Eventually they caught on and sent disguised mourners to scope out graves with these 'surprises'.

[dana_w]

RAT TRAP:

A cemetery or graverobbers gun c. 1710.
Big surprise to the grave robbers with the body snatcher trade.
Eventually they caught on and sent disguised mourners to scope out graves with these 'surprises'.

Thanks Jim.
Can you give us any background on where the image came from?

[Jim McDougall]

I wish I could Dana! It was something I came across online some time ago, and was so esoteric I just saved it. As mentioned in other posts here, it seems a bit 'over kill' (no pun intended) and not especially effective.
This thing was so rustic, and in a word 'spooky' it just caught my attention

As you noted on that Navy Colt.......I sure wouldn't have it in some trap, needs to be in a 'buscadero' on my hip!!

[dana_w]

I wish I could Dana! It was something I came across online some time ago, and was so esoteric I just saved it. As mentioned in other posts here, it seems a bit 'over kill' (no pun intended) and not especially effective.
This thing was so rustic, and in a word 'spooky' it just caught my attention

As you noted on that Navy Colt.......I sure wouldn't have it in some trap, needs to be in a 'buscadero' on my hip!!


I think I found it Jim.

"One of the only known surviving examples of cemetery guns is on display at The Museum of Mourning Art at the Arlington Cemetery of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. Museum curators date the gun to 1710, making it one of the earliest models of cemetery guns. Part of its original rotating pedestal and three rings for tripwire attachment are visible in the photo."

http://www.guns.com/2013/01/29/got-grave-robber-problems-get-a-cemetery-gun/


http://www.guns.com/2013/08/06/cemetery-guns-and-coffin-torpedoes/


And here is another example of the same style:

[Jim McDougall]

Thanks Dana!
Nicely done and much appreciated. Now I can note my notes :)
Interesting topic here with these unusual items, I recall years ago a favorite book was "Firearms Curiosa", I think by Winant.

[Richard G]

Guns of the type posted by Jim and Dana_w are fairly rare but not unusual in the UK where they are known as spring guns. They normally have a mechanism whereby three wires are spread out which when tripped spin the gun in that direction and fire it. They, together with man traps, were legal in the 18th and early 19 centuries as protection against poaching. Remember there is virtually no public land in the UK and game belongs to the landowner whose land it is on.
Land set with spring guns and man traps had to be signed as such, and if not the landowner could be accused of murder.
I believe both remained legal, but I imagine practically only man-traps, if used within a house at night as protection against burglary until the mid 19th Century.
Regards
Richard
PS. Have found this http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/Outing/Volume_41/outLXI06/outLXI06n.pdf