Salute guns in general

[zimmerstutzen]

I have been studying some European web forums and customs and discovered a whole world of salute guns that most Americans just can't imagine.  Salute guns are used in Denmark, Germany, Austria and Italy.  Originally, in mountainous areas, a method of alerting valley folk to approaching danger, or approaching dignitaries. traditions of firing salutes go back to about 1600.   In modern times, such salutes are fired to open festivals, Octoberfests, and on holidays.   In Germany there are four classes of salute guns, Cannons, thundermugs (called Standboeller), rifle stocked guns called Schaftboeller and beefy huge barreled pistols called Handboeller. Clubs get together for meets and festivals.  The Club in Bergtesgaden has over 1200 members and climbs the peaks around the valley every year on Christmas eve at sunset and fires three salutes to signal the coming Christ child to thhe valley folk.  After which they march back to town and gather in their own beer hall.   There is also a tradition of shooting on New Years day, at one time thought to scare away the witches.    the pistol models have very large diameter barrels with bores from 10 mm to 3omm.  Some rifle models go up to 40 mm bores and thundermugs in the 100mm size are encountered.  However, northern Italians of Germanic ancestry have the largest of the hand held guns.  Things with stocks so massive, that the guns actually stand up on their butt plates for loading.  Called Trombino, they some times weight over 100 pounds annd still knock the shooter backwards with the recoil.  The club, the Trombini de San Bartolo, have their own face book page and several Youtube videos.    In Germany a coarse black powder called Boeller pulver is used.  The Italian  trombini use a black powder that looks like driveway gravel.  Powder charges are rather large by American statndards, with 240 grains of powder used in a 20 ga salute pistol.  A 100 mm thunder mug may use 400 grams of black powder.  That is over 6000 grains of powder.  In italy, the trombini measure their powder in drinking glasses.
Germans and Austrians use oversized corks for wads on top the powder.  So over sized in fact that the shooters use a heavy stick and mallet to ram the cork down the barrel. Others use wadded newspaper for wadding.   

Here are some web sites of boeller for sale:
http://www.boellerkaiser.com/
http://www.boeller-pfnuer.de/

Some videos about salute guns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwzwiJj_9u8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fam6YLkzwMI

Christmas eve shooting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a2XqNM14Vg

The trombini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDnMmHs8-xE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N8wMg82Jzk (skip forward to 1:16 to see loading techniques)

[Red Badger]

WOW!  Mommy may I ..... 

[pilgrim]

      WOW    I sure could use a Trombini to get rid of  groundhogs