Mystery Gun

The Mystery Gun

I was over visiting Mrs. Kinch's great uncle the other day when this caught my eye. It's a firearm of somesort, percussion cap, no makers mark that I can find, though it's missing some of it's brass fittings. However, it's been hanging on the wall for so long that it's become part of the furniture and it was only when I actually took it down that something odd struck me.

While it looks like a musketoon or something similar, the flared end would suggest that it is a blunderbuss type weapon. However, on closer inspection the flaring doesn't extend any further down the barrel, which differs from other blunderbusses I have seen. It offers the appearance of a carbine with a flared barrel for no easily discernible reason.

Why make a flared barrel if the firer can't stuff shot, rusty nails and the like down it?