a boy asked, and I didn't know

[atr]

gauge is the unit of measurement of the diameter of the shotgun bore. The gauge is the number of round lead balls, of the same diameter as the gun bore, required to make one pound. example: a 12-gauge or 12-bore gun has a bore of such diameter that 12 pure lead balls of the diameter the size of the bore would weigh one pound. The 410 is the exception and is called 410-bore because it is .410 inches in diameter...

10 gauge 0.775 inch
12 gauge 0.730 inch
16 gauge 0.670 inch
20 gauge 0.615 inch
410 bore... 0.410 inch

and yes my single shot 410 bore is one of my favorites......has accounted for many racoon

[Shawlerbrook]

Trying to make sense out of caliber/guage designations will drive you crazy. Remember an article, forgot where, about the inconsistencies on cartridge names. Interesting though.

[Mike_M]

I only have one, but it's got two barrels.

[W.R.Buchanan]

.410 is 36 ga. then there's 32ga. 28 ga. 24ga. and so on.

the problem with all this is that guns were invented in many countries and everybody had their own ideas on what to call them. There still isn't one all powerful sanctioning body for this word. SAMMI is close. but there are others in Europe.

If you look solely at Shotguns, Beretta should be the one outfit to define everything "shot gun" since they've been making them since the early 1500's and have made more than anyone else.

Randy

[LeontP]

.38 Special is a .36, 38-40 is a .40, .44 magnum is a .43, 38-55 IS a .38…..where’s the confusion?
I have a pre 1968 H&R Topper with “410 Gauge” stamped on the chamber……
410 “Gauge”-What diameter of ball would it take for 410 of them to weigh a pound????
Even old guys have questions!


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It would be approximately .23 caliber and weigh ~17 grains. Roughly FF shot.

It would make one heck of a pellet gun though.

[Texas by God]

It would be approximately .23 caliber and weigh ~17 grains. Roughly FF shot.

It would make one heck of a pellet gun though.

Thanks!
Imagine those little bitty skinny shells


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[LeontP]

I used to call it a .410 gauge also when I was young because that's how it was marked on the barrel above the chamber right under the manufacturers name.

As for 38 (.357) and 44 (.429) and others, let's not forget some of those earlier cartridges were made with 'heeled' bullets.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heeled_bullet

[MakeMineA10mm]

Caliber names make no sense. 30 caliber, 30 grains of black powder for 30-30. 30 caliber adopted in 1906 for 30-06. 38 is the same bore as a 357.

But you knew that.

.38 Special is a .36, 38-40 is a .40, .44 magnum is a .43, 38-55 IS a .38…..where’s the confusion?
I have a pre 1968 H&R Topper with “410 Gauge” stamped on the chamber……
410 “Gauge”-What diameter of ball would it take for 410 of them to weigh a pound????
Even old guys have questions!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A lot of calibers evolved, and got new 'catchy' names for advertising them.

The .38s came from .36 cal. cap & ball revolvers. When brass cartridges came along, the arms makers could
produce guns for them with minimal re-tooling. You could pretty much just change the .36 cylinder to take the new cartridges.
But calling it a .38 sounded better than just saying it was still a .36---- that always had had a .357" bore for the barrel.

Then, .38 Special sounded good for advertising rather than something like 'modern and improved'.
With 'improvements' on that-- .357Magnum made for good sales & advertising.

As the modern guns came along on the line from .36 Navy to .357 Magnum,
the cost of production didn't have any really big, huge and expensive leaps for needing new factory tooling as it evolved.

I used to call it a .410 gauge also when I was young because that's how it was marked on the barrel above the chamber right under the manufacturers name.

As for 38 (.357) and 44 (.429) and others, let's not forget some of those earlier cartridges were made with 'heeled' bullets.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heeled_bullet

Things that don’t make sense, start to make sense when you put history in chronological order. The 36 cap and ball revolvers used .375” balls (roughly 38-caliber) in barrels of roughly the same groove diameter. The 38 S&W (Short) came along in 1877 with a .385” heel bullet, establishing the “38 caliber.” Not long after, building on their experience and seeing the benefits with 44 S&W American (44- cal heel bullet) developing into the 44 Russian (43-cal inside lubed bullet), S&W made the same changes to 38S&W, and the .358” inside-lubed bullet became “38-caliber.”. When the Special came out, they kept the .358” bullets and kept calling it “38.” It was only after a bunch of other superlatives were applied (Super, 38-44) to more cartridges called “38” (and because they wanted to dissuade people from putting a magnum in a special), they decided to discontinue down the 38 path and end the madness!

I’ll dig into the 410s history and see what I can find.

[Tracy]

.38 Special is a .36, 38-40 is a .40, .44 magnum is a .43, 38-55 IS a .38…..where’s the confusion?
I have a pre 1968 H&R Topper with “410 Gauge” stamped on the chamber……
410 “Gauge”-What diameter of ball would it take for 410 of them to weigh a pound????
Even old guys have questions!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

"410 Gauge" would be about .25 caliber. I've also seen it expressed as ".410 Gauge" which would have about a 2.54 inch bore.

[Tracy]

A lot of calibers evolved, and got new 'catchy' names for advertising them.

The .38s came from .36 cal. cap & ball revolvers. When brass cartridges came along, the arms makers could
produce guns for them with minimal re-tooling. You could pretty much just change the .36 cylinder to take the new cartridges.
But calling it a .38 sounded better than just saying it was still a .36---- that always had had a .357" bore for the barrel.

Then, .38 Special sounded good for advertising rather than something like 'modern and improved'.
With 'improvements' on that-- .357Magnum made for good sales & advertising.

As the modern guns came along on the line from .36 Navy to .357 Magnum,
the cost of production didn't have any really big, huge and expensive leaps for needing new factory tooling as it evolved.

.36 cap and ball revolver were ~.36" land to land, but more like .375" - .380" groove diameter. You can get .38 Special conversion cylinders for modern repros but they don't shoot very well because a .358" bullet is severely undersized.

As for where .410 shotguns came from, I think they were originally garden guns in England.