History's First Shotgun

LOADING AND SHOOTING A FLINTLOCK FOWLER

- Darryl Quidort

THE LONG-BARRELED, SMOOTHBORED—no rifling grooves in the barrel— flintlock gun played a major role in early American firearms. Extremely versatile, the gun could fire a single round lead ball with decent accuracy, or be loaded with loose lead pellets and used as a shotgun. In this article, we’ll discuss the latter.

The Early Shotgun

When used as a shotgun, it allowed pioneer hunters to cleanly take fast-moving small game, even knocking flying game birds out of the air, earning it the name “fowler.” The long-barreled fowler eventually evolved into today’s short-barreled shotguns. Early fowlers were usually .62 caliber, which is equivalent to a 20-gauge shotgun. Later, other gauges became available. The double-barreled fowler, or shotgun, was developed for a quick second shot before it was necessary to reload.

Loading the Fowler

The load used in a muzzleloading shotgun is very similar to a modern shotgun load, except that the components are loaded directly down the barrel of a muzzleloader instead of into a modern shot shell casing. Most loadings available in modern shot shells can be duplicated by a muzzleloading shotgun. In a muzzleloader, every shot is basically a custom load. This allows the flexibility to tailor each load for a specific purpose.

Various combinations of powder charge, shot size and wad spacing allow loading the gun to match the game. A smoothbore can be loaded “down” for trap shooting or loaded “up” for turkey hunting. Some pioneers preferred a smoothbore fowler over a rifle because of this versatility. Many meals were provided for pioneer families, thanks to the flintlock fowler that hung over the fireplace mantel.