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Old 15th September 2016, 09:20 PM   #16
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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Fernando, thank you for the clarification and especially the listed descriptions of these fantastic examples!

As you note, to determine which of these blunderbuss type guns were more adaptable or preferred for use on coaches is a good topic, but hard to place exactly as weapons were often diffused into service in many capacities as required. There do not seem to have been rigid standards or guidelines as to what the character or features of such 'specialized' arms might have had.

With the propensity for brass barrels it is unclear what purpose. Would such barrels better withstand the powerful effect of the blast of these guns? It is noted that walnut was always used as it had less chance of splinter or cracking, again, force of blast? These apparently had significant recoil, which in the case of naval types, the reason for the pinter swivel mount.

It would seem that for coach use (that is in the quasi official type such as with the mail coaches) that they were apparently produced by special order, and makers (Mortimer most predominant) vied for the favor of such orders.
Therefore their guns were highly finished as this was a prestigious business, and guards were highly paid relative to other occupations.

By the end of the coaches having the mail routes and giving way to rails and other delivery means about mid 19th c, these specialized guns of course were pretty much ended.
In America however, the Wild West began its own form of transport aside from the fledgling railways with Wells Fargo and other stage lines. As these carried not only passengers but mail and payrolls, the need for the 'shotgun' guards was clear.
As noted, the 'coach gun' was a double barrel shotgun, made specifically with shorter barrel and usually 12 guage.
In the famed 'Gunfight at the OK Corral' in 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona, Doc Holiday carried one of these 'coach guns' under his duster coat. This was apparently a 12 guage (some say 10 guage Moore &Co.) which Virgil Earp had grabbed from the Wells Fargo office as the group walked toward the site of the fabled event . Both he and Wyatt Earp had worked for Wells Fargo so he had easy access to the gun . With its shorter barrel it was easier to conceal.

Contrary to the British versions of 'coach' guns, most of these were not typically marked although many Wells Fargo guns were so marked. None had the hubris or status oriented phrases as the British ones.

Apparantly in Great Britain, the coach blunderbusses were usually accompanied by a brace of pistols, which also often had the muzzle end engraved with these phrases .

The use of blunderbusses or other weapons against the ever present problem of highwaymen in other countries is not as far as I have known as well documented or described as in Great Britain. It seems of course that any easily carried or concealed weapon would be pressed into service for such purposes, and the variation indeterminable.
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