Cape gun, noun phrase

Origin:
EnglishShow more Cape + English gun.
historical
A type of double-barrelled firearm, usually with one barrel smooth-bored and the other rifled; Cape rifle. Also occasionally Cape gun-and-rifle.
[1843 Cape of G.H. Almanac & Annual RegisterAll the necessary Gun apparatus, Guns, Cape Pattern, with hair Triggers.]
1877 Field 13 Oct. (Jeffreys)The ‘Cape Gun,’ a rifle and shot gun combined. The right barrel, being for shot, is a 12-cylinder bore; the left is 577.450 with Henry rifling, using the government Boxer cartridge.
1893 Harley in Cape Illust. Mag. June 379The approved sporting Cape weapon of offence or defence, being one barrel smooth bore and the other rifled, the favourite weapon with the colonist even in war, the smooth bore being found handy when loaded with buck shot at close quarters...The best of all weapons — the Cape gun-and-rifle, as it is called.
1971 F.V. Lategan in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. IV. 525The ‘Cape gun’, a double-barrelled smooth-bored weapon of .75-inch calibre, made for the Cape Mounted Riflemen in 1845 and for the Cape Volunteer Corps in 1857.
1990 Caption, 1820 Settlers’ Memorial Museum, GrahamstownIt is thought that Weakley designed the original...Double-barrelled ‘Cape’ gun, percussion cap 12 bore/.577".
A type of double-barrelled firearm, usually with one barrel smooth-bored and the other rifled; Cape rifle. Also occasionally Cape gun-and-rifle.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18431990