Tominator Posted December 23, 2005 Report Share Posted December 23, 2005 Oh, someone knows, and I'm sure AJ will get to this soon. Seems to me the shotgun has been around since someone figured out gunpowder went BANG! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted December 23, 2005 Report Share Posted December 23, 2005 Re: History of the skatter gun... Since this should be a very long answer, I will get lazy and just suggest you read this article. As to why there are different gauges, just like with rifles someone always thinks they have the best idea if its a little smaller or bigger. The big gauges were just miniature cannons. The 4 and 8 gauge guns were often big guns that were fixed in the bows of boats that were used by market hunters. They would paddle within range of a flock and fire off the big guns and grab smaller 10 ga guns to shoot more birds as the survivors took off. The popular sizes of shotguns today obviously are the 10, 12, 20, 28 ga, and .410 bore. Gauge was determined by how many lead balls that were the diameter of the barrel would add up to one pound. For a 12 ga it took 12 balls to equal one pound. For a 20 ga it took 20 balls. As modern technology came up with the one piece plastic wad, the engineers found out that we don't need as tight of a bore to get a good seal. Barrel diameters are getting more and more open. The big bore Mossberg 835 and 935 prove this as they have a bore that is .050" larger in diameter than a standard 12 ga. Here is another good article on the different gauges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oo_buck Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 Re: History of the skatter gun... [ QUOTE ] Since this should be a very long answer, I will get lazy and just suggest you read this article. As to why there are different gauges, just like with rifles someone always thinks they have the best idea if its a little smaller or bigger. The big gauges were just miniature cannons. The 4 and 8 gauge guns were often big guns that were fixed in the bows of boats that were used by market hunters. They would paddle within range of a flock and fire off the big guns and grab smaller 10 ga guns to shoot more birds as the survivors took off. The popular sizes of shotguns today obviously are the 10, 12, 20, 28 ga, and .410 bore. Gauge was determined by how many lead balls that were the diameter of the barrel would add up to one pound. For a 12 ga it took 12 balls to equal one pound. For a 20 ga it took 20 balls. As modern technology came up with the one piece plastic wad, the engineers found out that we don't need as tight of a bore to get a good seal. Barrel diameters are getting more and more open. The big bore Mossberg 835 and 935 prove this as they have a bore that is .050" larger in diameter than a standard 12 ga. Here is another good article on the different gauges. [/ QUOTE ] 4 ga....... Yeah Baby, that's what I'm talking about.... Aren't the 4ga guns sometimes referred to as Punt Guns?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 Re: History of the skatter gun... [ QUOTE ] 4 ga....... Yeah Baby, that's what I'm talking about.... Aren't the 4ga guns sometimes referred to as Punt Guns?? [/ QUOTE ] Yes they were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oo_buck Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 Re: History of the skatter gun... Hey, how 'bout that, what do I win AJ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted December 29, 2005 Report Share Posted December 29, 2005 Re: History of the skatter gun... A cookie, or you get the gold star for today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fourtrax_300 Posted December 29, 2005 Report Share Posted December 29, 2005 Re: History of the skatter gun... arnt the punt guns what they used to just load anything in to shoot at the flcoks of birds. i was told they used nails,rocks and what ever they could find that would kill the birds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted December 29, 2005 Report Share Posted December 29, 2005 Re: History of the skatter gun... I would bet that's just a myth. Would you put junk in a high dollar gun that you use to make a living? I know I would not. War time I could possibly see it but not for sporting or market hunting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oo_buck Posted December 29, 2005 Report Share Posted December 29, 2005 Re: History of the skatter gun... Kind of like a cannister load in a smoothbore cannon....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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