December, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
697 
THAT HUN-KILLING MILITARY SHOTGUN 
THE FIRST TRYOUT AT THE FOREST AND STREAM RIFLE RANGE SHOWS IT 
TO BE THE DEADLIEST SHORT-RANGE WEAPON EVER HELD IN TWO HANDS 
By CAPTAIN ROY S. TINNEY 
Illustrated with photographs by the Author 
T HE German press is horror-stricken 
at the report that American troops 
have been supplied with sawed-off 
shotguns. To the sensitive Teutonic con¬ 
science nothing could be more revolting. 
The Cologne Gazette indignantly exclaims 
that the American soldiers are barbarians, 
not “honorable warriors,” and shudders at 
the thought that tomahawks and scalping- 
knives will soon appear on the American 
front. The noble art of war which the 
Kaiser’s master geniuses have raised to 
such sublime heights of chivalry has been 
shockingly degraded at the hands of the 
Western savages. The Weser Zeitung 
adds that those terrible shotguns have been 
issued because the ill-trained Americans 
cannot use rifles and are not supplied with 
a sufficient number of machine guns. It 
makes a world of difference whose bull is 
gored. How “perfectly horrid” of Persh¬ 
ing to crumple up a German attack with 
so crude and homely an instrument as a 
modern blunderbuss! The 
Potsdam gang state positively 
they will “cut him dead” after 
the war—“he ain’t no gentle¬ 
man.” 
When we still had a western 
frontier the “bad men” and 
“road agents” raised the same 
plaintive wail; in the hands of 
an American sportsman with a 
well-developed sense of range 
and direction, the sawed-off 
shotgun has long stood for law 
and order and its days of use¬ 
fulness are not yet passed. 
Yet while we all know it is a 
“right handy” weapon with 
which to eliminate the lawless 
element in any community 
where such element refuses to 
be reasonable, there is very 
little concrete information con¬ 
cerning that type of gun in 
general, and even less is known 
about the arm now being used 
with such deadly effect by our 
boys on the Western front. It 
did the work and will keep on 
doing it, at home and abroad, 
whenever and wherever neces¬ 
sary, but just how and why 
this particular gun is so deadly 
and what can be reasonably 
expected of it, is what the gun 
cranks want to know. That is 
how Lieutenant Whitten and I 
felt about the matter, so we 
went out on a still hunt for 
one of those military shotguns and camped 
on the animal’s trail until we could lay our 
hands on the little brute, then we toted 
it out to the Essex School of Musketry 
and proceeded to get some first hand dope 
on this most interesting of shooting irons. 
The Gun Itself 
I WILL freely and frankly admit it was 
a case of love at first sight. The mo¬ 
ment I picked up that little snub-nosed, 
sharp-pointed implement of destruction I 
felt sure that I’d found the deadliest short- 
range weapon ever placed in the hands of 
man and further acquaintance simply con¬ 
firmed and amplified my first impression. 
Fully equipped with sling and bayonet the 
piece weighs exactly g pounds 6 ounces. 
Trim and well-balanced it handles like a 
field gun, in fact everyone guesses its 
weight a pound to two pounds short, and 
best of all the adding of the bayonet is an 
improvement and not an encumbrance. 
From toe to muzzle the musket measures 
exactly 40 inches, which is 3 inches shorter 
than the Springfield and 5 inches shorter 
than the Lee-Enfield rifle, and to compen¬ 
sate for this, the blade of the bayonet is 
17 inches long. The complete bayonet 
measures 22 inches and when free of the 
piece makes a very handy and sizable side- 
arm, as it has a 5-inch handle which is 
large enough to accommodate the palm. 
In the hands of a competent swordsman 
this bayonet is capable of deadly execution, 
an excellent trench knife or poignard, and 
when fixed to the gun it is one of the best 
pikes I ever handled. But the use of the 
gun in a hand-to-hand encounter is an¬ 
other story and does not cortie within the 
scope of a comment upon its shooting 
qualities. 
The barrel measures 20 inches and is 
partially covered with a perforated hand 
guard a foot long to save the fingers of 
the left hand from getting blistered during 
heavy firing. The stock has a 
full pistol grip that is small 
enough to permit the use of a 
glove in the right h<ind, a little 
detail of vital importance when 
on guard duty in cold weather. 
The drop is 2^4 inches at the 
heel and J4 at the comb, and 
from the center of the butt- 
plate to 'the trigger the dis¬ 
tance is 14 inches. The butt- 
plate itself is 1^4 by 5/4 inches 
and made of hard rubber, 
which is a mistake, as such 
material would soon be broken 
in active service. The equip¬ 
ping of the piece with a steel 
butt-plate and a field cleaner 
and oil can in the stock is an 
improvement that should be 
made before more of these 
guns are manufactured. 
With bayonet fixed the piece 
measures 56% inches from toe 
to point, and right here I want 
to make one very forcible 
statement. When on duty the 
gun should always be carried 
with the bayonet fixed. The 
barrel is so short that without 
the bayonet the piece ib muz- 
zle 7 light and unhandy, also it 
does not shoot well, the “jump” 
being sufficient to throw the 
charge far above the aiming 
point. With the bayonet on 
the gun shoots exactly where 
it is held. Also I had occasion 
The Tactical Hun and my two faithful assistants 
Courtesy of National Service Magazine. 
