What is the lowestand highest caliber on a shotgun?

[kingbigluke]

I am wondering what the lowest and highest caliber on a shotgun would be?

[banditt007]

smallest and highest gauge?

commonly today 10 gauge is the largest and .410 is the lowest. (.410 is actually a caliber not a gauge)

used for non sporting purposes there is an 8 gauge slug load, but that is used in industry out of something that doesn't really look like a gun, and is used to shoot chunks of build up off of the inside walls of a container. i think something to do with molten iron or something like that.

[ebutler462]

Shotguns are made in gauges, not calibers. Gauge is the number of round lead balls the size of the bore diameter that will make a pound. Caliber is the bore diameter in inches.

Normally, the 10 gauge is the largest gauge you will find ammo for in the US. The 28 gauge is the smallest that ammo is normally found for. The .410 is sometimes referred to as a 410 gauge. However it has a .41 bore size.

As far as normally found and used hereabouts, the 10 gauge is the largest and the .410 bore is the smallest.

If you have further questions, there are lots of good members on this site that will be glad to answer you. I hope this helps.

Happy hunting!!

[ebutler462]

Banditt, you beat me to it.

Glad you could help.

[kingbigluke]

Oh. I thought it was caliber.
Thanks!

[hogdogs]

There once was an 8 gauge but I was thinking I had heard of a 4 gauge...
http://www.break.com/index/biggest_s...the_world.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punt_gun
What gauge would the punt gun be?
Brent

[daveydoo]

4 gauge is the highest I know never seen one though. Smallest is 28. The .410 is caliber size not a gauge size.

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/shotguns.html

I stand corrected A gauge is the largest and 32 is the smallest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_(shotgun)

[b.thomas]

A 2 gauge was made.........saw one many years ago and it was a front stuffer (muzzle loader), about 7 feet long with a shoulder stock of all things. Usually anything bigger then 8 gauge was tied down to the front end of a boat (punt gun) and were more like small cannons and probably were.

[kozak6]

.22 lr shotguns have been produced.

There's also a .177 caliber air shotgun...

[hogdogs]

There is an air powered shot shell but it is larger than .177 IIRC...
.22lr shot shell yess but it is not a shot gun nor was the fire arm designed to primarily fire the shot shell... again IIRC...
Brent

[rantingredneck]

And if I'm not mistaken a .410, if it were measured in the traditional gauge method would be 67 gauge .

[darkgael]

There was/is a video, on YouTube, I believe, of one of the British manufacturers testing a recently made 4ga. breech loading shotgun. I cannot find the link right now.
There were rimfire shotshells made in sizes as small as 6mm.
The is a current thread on another forum, complete with pics discussing small gauges. Try: http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=48985.
Pete

[johnbt]

You can buy 32 ga. from Midway and elsewhere.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpag...901&t=11082005

[pesta2]

Smallest 6mm up to O ga. and Punt Hulls




L.to R. 6mm rimfire-.410- 12 ga.



L.to R. Punt, O ga., 4 ga., 8 ga. 10 ga. (practice bomb insert), 10 ga., 12 ga.

[bclark1]

I'm waiting on somebody here to get the 4-guage out and post up a video of a dozen hunters holding a dowell on the trigger, pulling together, and filling all their duck limits with one shell.


Kidding, of course.

[New_Pollution1086]

I read about either a 4 or 2 gauge rusky (russian) shotgun, it said it was designed for taking out car engine blocks. i'll fin out for sure when I get home.

T

edit: its called the km-23 special carbine according to Janes Recognition Guide

[darkgael]

I misremembered about the video that I referred to earlier - not YouTube and not a four bore. Not a shotgun. I was a two bore rifle. If you are curious, here's the link: http://www.shootingtimes.co.uk/featu...ore_rifle.html
The Russian gun was a four gauge pump gun. Not available in this country. I tried.
Pete

[.45 COLT]

.22lr shot shell yess but it is not a shot gun nor was the fire arm designed to primarily fire the shot shell... again IIRC...
Brent

Since 1932, Remington has produced 8 different bolt guns, 2 pumps and an autoloader in smoothbore .22, specifically to shoot the .22 shotshell. They are all variations of rifles of the time, but were/are essentially shotguns.

DC

[darkgael]

"Since 1932, Remington has produced 8 different bolt guns, 2 pumps and an autoloader in smoothbore .22, specifically to shoot the .22 shotshell. They are all variations of rifles of the time, but were/are essentially shotguns."

I remember shooting one at Boy Scout camp almost 50 years ago. I know that I didn't hit anything that I could see.
Pete

[M14fan]

Just curiosity, wasn't the 4bore originally a smoothbore Elephant gun that later began being loaded with shot? I know there used to be one on display in Opryland theme park and it was HUGE but I do not remember the history well.