One of the truths of close quarter combat is that a rifle, shotgun or musket can be an improvised club in the absence of suitable ammunition or a bayonet. It's also true that an 8-10 lb. rifle, grasped by its long barrel and swung with both hands hits like a freight train and, if it doesn't break, will crush bones like dry twigs and pulp flesh into jelly. American Indians in the early sixteenth century observed these facts and wasted no time in fashioning their own gunstock war clubs. These were made of specially chosen straight grain hard woods like Maple, Ash, Oak, Hickory or Hornbeam and weighed from two to three pounds. They hit with remarkable force and proved to be extremely lethal weapons as their hitting power was often enhanced by the addition of a short lance point or one or more knife blades. In fact, the Gunstock war club became so popular it soon migrated West to the Great Plains and even the Pacific coast where it endured as a weapon clear into the 1880's and as a cere...