Popularity????

[felix]

Folks in Southeast Mo are slowly switching to #9 shot for doves. Don't think the 28 gage has hit there as of yet. ... felix

[jimb16]

I shoot a lot of skeet and 12s are king. But I also see a lot of 20s, 28s and 67s (.410 is the caliber, 67 is the actual guage.) I occasionally see a 10 or 16, but have seen only one 32.

[Loc n Load]

On the clay ranges around here, the 12 is predominant as it is for deer hunting.....I have hunted birds for decades and the 12 & 20 are the most common I see in the field, 40-50 years ago the 16 ga. was THE gauge everybody hunted with in this area.....but only us diehards and 16 ga. cult followers still hunt and shoot the 16, same with the 28, although I have seen an increase in it during the past several years....the 410 is still here....my late bird hunting partner shot nothing but a .410 OU.....we hunted together for years and he bagged a lot of birds with his .410....I prefer the 16 in a SxS myself. I know several guy's who hunt turkey's with 10 ga.'s.....you see the big 10 in the field here quite a bit during goose season also.

[Fishman]

I have to agree, the 28 has gotten a lot more popular. For example, around here walmart carries 28 but not 16 or 10. Lots more new guns for the 28 the the 16 or 10. It makes a great youth gun.

[ksfowler166]

My list would be:
12ga
20ga
410ga
28ga
16ga
10ga
odd bore black powder 10ga or smaller
rim fire shotguns
24ga and 36ga
odd bore black powder 9ga or larger
cartridge 14ga

I think that just about covers everything. Though some of the categories are very close in not being popular.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

There was an article on the 8ga industrial guns in "Gun Digest" quite a few years back. I gather they were used to knock loose accumulations of clinker in the rotary kilns used for making cement. They probably still are, but may well be out of production, as one cement works doesn't need many, and they are unlikely to wear out.

One problem with 8ga smoothbores is that if you buy an old one, it may not be a shotgun. They (and the 10ga) were built as smoothbore ball guns for African and Indian use, and they varied from light-charge ones which were very much like an 8ga shotguns, up to much heavier ones which took a very heavy charge of black powder, and were extremely punishing to fire. They could be very accurate up to 50 yards or so, as the diameters of bullet, bore and the inside of a paper or brass case (for a gun in either of those chamberings) matched up better than they usually did in a birdshot gun with choke. One or two users claimed they developed a lifelong flinch, but if you are twenty yards from your elephant, you can afford to flinch a little.

It took a few years getting used to smokeless powder and jacketed bullets for gunmakers to realise that the Express rifles, previously considered deer, antelope and even lion rifles, could be given heavier brass and loaded up to much higher velocities. Until then many of the most experienced Africa men considered that an 8ga rifle or even smoothbore gave you a better chance.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I think anything with the gauge in an odd number, although cartridges were made, was a very great rarity, as was the 6ga. I don't believe many people ever used the 4ga in the USA. In the UK we mustn't forget punt-guns, intended for use in something not unlike larger modern canoe. Most of those in use, even between the wars, were muzzle-loading, for you would rarely want to fire one of those twice in a day. But cartridges were made in 1¼, 1½ and 2inch bore. Everybody should have one.

The US tendency has always been to go for longer cartridges than the standards developed in the UK (i.e. 2⅞in for the 12ga and 2½in. for the smaller ones), and use them in preference for a larger bore. This has, historically, been a mistake, for you can't make the gun lighter or the cartridges cheaper. It generally produced poorer shot patterns, due to the higher pressure and greater proportion of the shot deformed by contact with the bore, and particularly on contacting the choke. It has been largely un-mistaked, though, by a couple of developments. Plastic sleeve wads both keep powder gases out of the shot better, and prevent the shot contacting the bore. Steel shot, required for waterfowl, doesn't deform.

I haven't used my 24ga yet, but I think it might be perfect for walking-up rabbits. It was made by the Ancient Etablissements Pieper in Belgium, with the 1923 year letter, and I was surprised to find that it was chopper-lumped (i.e. half of the barrel lumps being forged integrally with each tube, which at the time was an innovation anywhere, and possibly the only significant post-19th century one in the side-by-side double. More than that, the barrels are joined together by an almost invisible dovetail joint, down to the bottom of the lump, which let them us soft or silver soldering to avoid the risk of harming or distorting the steel by brazing. BSA later used that, although it adds width and weight to the barrel assembly, which matters more in a 12ga. It has the Greener top extension crossbolt, and I think longingly of the small-deer rifle as which it could be sleeved.

I can get Magtech brass cases, but cases of this type were normally used in guns specially bored for them, which mine isn't. They are wider inside than plastic, even, and any wad which seals in the case will be undesirably tight in the bore. I think thin card and soft carpet-underlay felt should be resilient enough, and possibly their tightness will let me out of a tight crimp or turnover, with which I don't want to reduce my case life, to produce efficient burning.

It is in rare condition for a hammer gun, and as it came from an Australian auction. The inlaid silver "24" is inconspicuous when tarnished. So I imagine an Australian, possibly military, taking his new purchase home, finding that 20ga cartridges wouldn't fit, and barely handling it again.


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