Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Shotgun Pop Quiz

Pop quiz, hot shot.

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.


1 comment:

  1. "Putting a 20-gauge shell into your 12-gauge shotgun is going to run your whole day."

    Just 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. :)

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