Shooting Traditional Firearms and Weapons > General Interest

Size of bores

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oomcurt:
I am kinda curious about something. Seems like for some reason there were only 20 gauge smoothbores back then...and some smaller. In other words....I am guessing there weren't any or maybe very few 12 gauge or such. Now, there was a site, I foget the name that had period smoothbores for sale on it...and on that site they had some 11 gauge guns as well as others. So...my question is.....were smoothbores larger than 20 gauge that rare? Or....was it more of a thing where for some reason folks back then just thought that was "enough" gun? The reason I am asking this...what about geese..didn't anyone ever have occasion to take a shot at them..I mean..a 20 on geese???? Just seems odd to me that given the opportunity to take waterfowl back then sure would be something that I think most folks looking to put food on the table would have jumped on.

Two Steps:
Curt...I'm no expert by any stretch...however...I have seen a Holiday Inn commercial   ;)
Al

Mitch:
larger bores were available, but use more powder and lead..and I've taken geese with a 20ga...

Capt. Jas.:
There were all sizes of bores.  I prefer a larger bore than a 20 to get more shot away from the barrel walls but not too heavy. The 16-12 suits my purpose for that.  From 11-8 you have a nice duck or goose gun.

The 20 seems in my opinion to be the most popular ML bore for smooth guns now because most people want to shoot round balls thru them but it still can be of use for shot. I do think it's acompromise of both abilities.

Gambia:
Here on this side of the pond the most popular  percussion gage for game  was the 12 with a close second the 14 and 16.If we go back to the flintlock then 16 18 and 20 gage  were popular.
For wildfowling then the large gage such as for percussion 4,6,8,10, in both singles and sxs doubles.The big 4,6,8 were mostly for flighting geese these would kill geese up to 50 to 70 yards  and the 10 was mainly for flighting duck.
I have use all the gages mentioned and most are still used today by muzzle loading shooters for both fowling and game shooting
Feltwad
A Flint Lock will not secure a chiken house door

A stand of game guns in 12 14 16 gage
[albumimg:37xl767f]3370[/albumimg:37xl767f]
A stand of big gage fowlers 2,4,6,8,10
[albumimg:37xl767f]3371[/albumimg:37xl767f]

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