The blunderbuss's a muzzle-loading firearm with a short, large caliber barrel, which's flared at the muzzle, and used with shot. The blunderbuss's an early form of shotgun adapted to military and defensive use. The term dragon was used to describe a blunderbuss in handgun form, and it's from this that the term dragoon evolved. Etymology The term blunderbuss's of Dutch origin, from the Dutch word donderbus, which's a combination of donder, meaning "thunder", and bus, meaning "Pipe" (Middle Dut… (More on Blunderbuss)