[hurricaine5]

Has anyone ever shot one? An do they make a 6 gauge?

[zimm]

8- and 4-bore rifles were the dangerous game weapons of choice in the early days of African exploration, before the development of smokeless powder. I've never heard of a 6-bore.

[CourtJester]

Damn that would kick hard

[c3shooter]

Yes, I have shot an 8 bore shotgun. Bit of an anticlimax. Oh, it is definitely not a .410, but kicked less than a modern 10 g goose gun. BIG, heavy gun, and 8s were black powder shells.

Yes, there were 6 bore shotguns, but they were muzzle loaders. There WAS a 4 bore catridge shotgun- I have an Eley 4 g shell in my collection. WHY they made a 4 g is the real question......

PS- 10 g is the legal max for hunting in the US.

[Hawg]

My links dont work.

[JonM]

Originally Posted by c3shooter

WHY they made a 4 g is the real question......

before modern husbandry techniques fowl for market were harvested by people going out with guns and shooting wild game for retail sale. the bigger the bore the more pellets could be fired in order to harvest huge portions of a flock in one blast. it got to the point of mounting what was called "punt" guns on flat bottom marsh boats to harvest entire flocks of duck at once.

the 4 bore was just an intermidiary step to this:

YouTube

YouTube

theodore roosevelt put an end to most wild game harvest techniques for conservation reasons.

[gimpster]

My grand dad had a couple 8 gauges hanging on the wall when I was a kid,wonder where they went.Gonna see if dad has any pics of them and I'll post them.

[triggerman770]

they have made them to 2 bore. can't find my links but had a vid of a brave or stupid guy shooting one...