Cane gun

These are usually a more portable and more easily concealed version of conventional sporting guns, commonly a single- or double-barreled shotgun, based on the relatively inexpensive Belgian Leclercq action.

An alternative form is in effect a very long-barrelled pistol fitted with a detachable, sometimes called "take-down", or folding skeleton stock, though any sporting weapon that requires assembly has obvious drawbacks in the field.

In purely practical terms, the distinction is that cane guns, far more costly to produce and, generally speaking, an affectation, ostensibly carried by gentlemen who wished, at all times, to be able to take "targets of opportunity",[2] were a curio, a talking point, or a concealed offensive weapon, one that might easily escape detection unless closely examined.

Cane guns are now very rare and difficult to find, since most contravene legislation prohibiting carrying concealed weapons,[3] and period examples, where permitted, are, generally speaking, in the hands of private collectors and museums.

[6] Cane guns have an abiding place in spy culture; a famous example appeared in Ian Fleming's 1953 novel Casino Royale, in which James Bond is threatened with one during his contest at the gaming table with Le Chiffre.