Does anyone know, without looking it up, how shotguns came to be measured in gauges and what a gauge is? I just want to see if what I heard years ago is common knowledge.

Well WITHOUT looking it up it isnt a very factual response lol

Aren't the gauges of shotguns just how much shot it can hold, or the amount of powder the shell can have?? As for the name gauge YOU GOT ME.

interesting question

Originally Posted by SMPRfidlis

Well WITHOUT looking it up it isnt a very factual response lol

Aren't the gauges of shotguns just how much shot it can hold, or the amount of powder the shell can have?? As for the name gauge YOU GOT ME.

interesting question

Close but as you know, that's only good in horseshoes and hand grenades.
But on to the gauge thing. It was a British method that stuck. Let me simplify, if you melted one pound of lead and made an equal number of balls using an arbitrary size of ball mold, then however many of those balls or shot you counted would be the "gauge" of that shotgun. 12 balls of lead such size that one ball will fit the bore of your barrel and equals a pound is a 12 gauge. 8 balls of equal size= an 8 gauge. The gauge was a diameter measurement used for making lead molds.

The only gauge that differs is not a gauge at all but a caliber. The .410 is an actual caliber size but gauge stuck with it too. I read this junk in a gun magazine years before there was an internet and thought it was so weird that I remembered it.

Cool, i didn't know that.

Rich.

Well now we know don't we!!!

What is the biggest (lowest?) gauge there is???? i think the biggest i have heard of is 12 but you say there is at least an 8??? lol those must pack a little punch

i can just see a one gauge.... maybe a tank gun????

There is the 10 gauge which is still used today in the US for some hunting. Most folks use it to hunt Geese. But now that is becoming a thing of the past. A 10 gauge shotgun weighs a ton and kicks like a mule. But there are now a couple of companyies making a 3 1/2 inch 12 gauge. It's the same power as a ten without all that weight. I have a Benelli Nova and it's great. It'll knock ducks out of the sky as if they were right in front of me. To my knowledge the largest gauge was a 4 gauge shotgun. Or what was called a punt gun. It was used to harvest large amounts of ducks in one shot. And the thing was mounted on a boat. It wasn't a shoulder fired gun. THe 10 gauge is about the largest legal gauge you can use to hunt in the Great State of Florida.

A friend of mine has some a semi-auto 10 guage. Talk about a sore shoulder.

Originally Posted by 5.56X45mm

There is the 10 gauge which is still used today in the US for some hunting. Most folks use it to hunt Geese. But now that is becoming a thing of the past. A 10 gauge shotgun weighs a ton and kicks like a mule. But there are now a couple of companyies making a 3 1/2 inch 12 gauge. It's the same power as a ten without all that weight. I have a Benelli Nova and it's great. It'll knock ducks out of the sky as if they were right in front of me. To my knowledge the largest gauge was a 4 gauge shotgun. Or what was called a punt gun. It was used to harvest large amounts of ducks in one shot. And the thing was mounted on a boat. It wasn't a shoulder fired gun. THe 10 gauge is about the largest legal gauge you can use to hunt in the Great State of Florida.

8ga. here in Kentucky.

Originally Posted by 5.56X45mm

Or what was called a punt gun. It was used to harvest large amounts of ducks in one shot. And the thing was mounted on a boat. It wasn't a shoulder fired gun.

THIS is the punt gun (also the NZ navy lol)

Hunters who used the huge bores were professional hunters and supplied large amounts of ducks and geese to the markets. They also wiped out the passenger pigeon. I think that came to a halt in the 1920s or so. 5.56 can tell you more of the history end of the pro hunters.