Quote:
Originally posted by oldE
I could certainly stand to be corrected, but I always thought it referred to the bore diameter in fractions of a foot. 12 gauge- approx. 1 inch in diameter, 1/12 ft. 20 gauge = 1/20 th ft. Can someone correct me on this?
Les
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Nope that is incorrect.
Here us a full explanation:
Shotgun gauges are determined by the number of lead balls of a given diameter required to make one pound of that size ball. Thus 10 balls of 10 gauge diameter are required to make one pound of such balls, or 20 balls of 20 gauge diameter are required to make one pound, and so forth. This is the traditional, and very old, system. The actual (nominal) bore diameters of the various gauges are as follows: 10 gauge = .775 inch, 12 gauge = .729 inch, 16 gauge = .662 inch, 20 gauge = .615 inch, 28 gauge = .550 inch. The .410 is named for its nominal bore size, and is not a gauge at all.