The grandest danger

Punt-gunning was a business in the 19th century but there were also very fine vessels made for gentleman fowlers, says Diggory Hadoke

- Diggory Hadoke

The number of punt-gunners in the British Isles is steadily diminishing but the number of enthusiasts who use a boat for shooting is growing,” wrote Richard Arnold in 1954.

His observation of trends in postwar Britain, the DIY nature of make-do-and-mend and his enthusiasm for old guns and old ways is beautifully captured in The Shooter’s Handbook. His words reflect the move away from a punt-mounted cannon to more conventional sporting guns in pursuit of waterfowl.

Punt-gunning today is a curiosity. Once it was a business. To some Victorian sportsmen, it was an art to be learned and practised. The punt, the punt-gun and the punt-gunner are characters from a fading chapter in the history of old British shooting sports. Younger readers may have no idea what it was all about. Perhaps a brief retrospective is in order.

Wild duck

The motivation to go to sea in order to harvest wildfowl probably stems from the historical legal status of land and water. The foreshore and the land beyond it was usually the property of a landowner. Permission to stand on it and shoot was unlikely to be granted. Those without property or connections had to abandon the land and venture on to the water, which belonged to no man, to hunt the wild duck that flew between the two.

To do that you need a boat. If you shoot a bird from a boat and it falls on land, it belongs to the landowner; if it lands in the sea, it is yours.