40's. They didn't have running water until the late thirties, and didn't have a bathroom or septic tank until long after my father had moved out and did a hitch in the Air Force and while in college (and working full time) he bought his mom a bathroom added on to her house in the 50's.So when he was a kid, times were tough. The family double barreled external hammer 12 gauge was used to harvest lots of food for the family table, and shells were not to be wasted. As a kid, they often carried buckshot in one and bird shot in the other, prepared for hog, turkey, deer or various bird like quail, geese or ducks. They sometimes had slugs when it was deer hunting time,although I suspect back then it was always deer season when you're hungry.In any event, that's a tradition that carried onto me, first using a double barreled .410 then onto a 12 and then later in life, back to a double barreled .20. Usually there's bird shot in both barrels, but sometimes I revert to my youth and load a slug in one and some shot in another.Great for turkey hunting and lots of folks hunt deer with 12 gauge slug guns here in Texas. I'm not sure if it's legal in Texas, but again, in the days of the depression, it was not unknown for folks to "set up" on watering holes or feed spots with 12 gauge double barreled guns loaded with buckshot for close range