The Home Machinist!

does anybody have pictures or drawings of a walking cane shotgun ? I seen one recently at a gunshop i frequent but the owner wouldn't sell it or let me inspect it properly.
The caliber was .410 i believe , you twisted the handle and then pulled it to open the breech and make the trigger pop up.
who made them and has anybody ever used one ?
any help would be gratefully received.

after WWII i saw 2 diffrent cane guns both of which were about 44 cal they were brought back from japan by returning service men.they were brought into the gunshop in which i worked. they were made in japan apparently prior to the war. the right angle handle was twisted about a 1/4 turn and pulled to the rear to load and extract. the trigger was under a silverband that was rotated to allow the trigger to spring out. Paul

thanks for taking the time paulj .
i had heard about these guns from an oldtimer who told me that a lot of "gentlemen" poachers used these small bore shotguns to knock off pheasants and other game birds from large estates ,a way of getting one over on his lordship
I had never seen one until recently when a gundealer let me into his office and amongst everything he had in stock, i spotted an old walking stick and picked it up , he took it from me and showed me how it worked.
But it's not for sale and he was in a hurry so i couldn't inspect it further, I would like to buy one or even build one if they are simple enough so any help would be gratefully received.

You need to be careful with these. I think they are prohibited in some states.

They are considered an AOW
"Any Other Weapon" and are required to be registered the same as a pen gun or Short Barreled Rifle or Shotgun with a barrel less than 18" or less than 26 OAL.

Any gun that doesn't look like a firearm is considered an AOW at the Federal level.

thanks guys ,but i live in ireland so your concerns while welcome don't really apply .
i work with a man who i only recently discovered is a registered gun dealer so any legal worries can be allayed by simply handing over the gun every night after work .
and anyway i am more intrigued by the design than by actually building one ,in my experience of the .410 cartridge ,it is not a very potent round especially in it's shorter variants .

Many years ago, I had a student in one of my woodshop classes at the university. He was good with wood and with guns. He was starting into gunsmithing as a serious hobby and wanted to build a cane gun.

I informed him that such a project was against the rules but he could build the wooden cane as a shop project. What he did with his beautiful cane I never did find out. He did share with me some sketches of what he wanted to do inside the hollow handle and it looked very interesting.

He was planning on using a .22 barrel or a .38 if the design would work.

Not quite a shotgun, but a very intersting display can be seen at a museum site for airguns.

Check it out ... if nothing else, for fun.

http://www.beemans.net/collection.htm