I participated in a live-fire display put on by Montreat College in Black Mountain, NC. They had military weapons from the Rev War through modern guns including cannons. (You've not lived until you' ve pulled the lanyard to live-fire a black powder cannon. It was a 3 pounder mountain howitzer that I shot.) I saw a guy using a Civil War era Whitworth sniper rifle with iron sights and using 2 sticks held together with a leather strap for a bipod in the prone position outshoot a guy using a 50 cal Barrett m107a1 with scope and seated in a chair with the gun stabilized on a table with a built-in bipod at 1,000 yards. They were shooting plywood silhouettes hanging from trees up the mountain. It was impressive. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitworth_rifle
My old reenactment group is aging. And not aging very gracefully at that. We used to do infantry. Still do sometimes, but we thought it prudent to begin the transition to artillery. One of our members bought a 3 pounder mountain howitzer. It goes, BOOM!
don't know. There are a lot of really sweet shooting shotguns out there. I have several and my default, even for dove at this point, is my SBE.
It may not be the prettiest or most fancy shotgun, but for my money, it's hard to beat a Remington 870 when you just want a shotgun to work.
Speaking of a canon, I had the chances to buy an operational canon once. My wife wouldn't let me buy it, said she was saving me from myself.
Thats what I deer hunt with. Have a rifled barrel with a scope. They don't run far when you hit them with a 12g a. slug.
An 870 is hard to beat. I've got an old benelli nova. That thing has been a boat paddle, a dove, a turkey and a duck gun. I've dropped it twice in knee deep water too. It's still ticking.
I duck hunt with a browning maxus, turkey hunt with an old 10 gauge browning pump and have a Remington 700 30-06 to snipe deer.
