Just from looking at this photograph, can you tell me what gauge the shotgun is?
Answer below the jump.
It's a 20-gauge.
In the 1960's shotshell manufacturers started standardizing the color of shells. Most shotshell manufacturers color-code 20-gauge ammunition to help prevent accidents. Almost all 20-gauge shotshells are now yellow in color to help shooters quickly identify 20-gauge ammunition. However, this is just a helpful tool, it's not a universal mandate.
Don't rely on color alone to identify shotshells! Putting a 20-gauge shell into your 12-gauge shotgun is going to ruin your whole day.
"Putting a 20-gauge shell into your 12-gauge shotgun is going to run your whole day."
ReplyDeleteJust to expand on that a bit, 20 gauge shells will drop ahead of a 12 gauge chamber and stick. This unfortunately allows you to then chamber a 12 gauge cartridge in the chamber. When fired, the 20 gauge shell will spike the pressures to the point that the barrel does a nifty imitation of a hand grenade about where your forward hand grasps the fore-arm. This is sub-optimal and often gets lots of (you the shooter) blood all over things. Blood is hard to remove. :)