GRAINS - What is this referring to? EDIT WITH PICS

blasted_saber

blasted_saber

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
17   0   0
Location
A blue part of Ontario
So I picked up some vintage french manufactured 20g shells. The only shell description besides 20g that the box or shell gives is "12 Grains". Any idea what that means?

Oddly, they are also described as "chilled lead shot". Any guesses? Maybe a translation error?

EDIT - Heres a pic of the box

kgCbMmD - Imgur.jpg

oY89foc - Imgur.jpg
 

Attachments

  • kgCbMmD - Imgur.jpg
    kgCbMmD - Imgur.jpg
    89.4 KB · Views: 212
  • oY89foc - Imgur.jpg
    oY89foc - Imgur.jpg
    46.6 KB · Views: 213
Last edited:
Who is the manufacturer?

Chilled lead shot refers to the manufacturing process where the hot lead from the dripper is plunged quickly into a coolant resulting is a harder (arguably denser) lead shot. Compared to air dropped or coolant at a much higher temperature resulting in a softer lead from a slower cooling process.
 
Ah, Canvasback beat me to it.

It is normal for the powder amount in French cartridges to be expressed in grains. We more commonly see it for .22 rounds.
 
Pics aren't working. Will have to wait til I get home.

Thanks for the info. Brand is "Super XL Magnum Effect".

Very curious as to the shot size. There's literally no other numbers printed on them. Odd that they would just have the weight, no?
 
Ah yes, French ammo. Look at a few French guns like the Manufrance Unique and the Darne and you’ll begin to understand. Further research on vehicles like the Citroen DS 19 and Renault CV will help explain French guns and ammo.
 
I don't see how a shotshell can be sold without listing the shot size, surely it's at least printed on the shells themselves? But if that happened I guess one would have to be cut open to see what's there.
 
I’d cut one open and you’ll have all the info required. Shot size and type and I’m sure 12 grains of some kind of shotgun powder.
 
Is it actually marked spelled out, ‘grains’? Or is it abbreviated, ‘gr’, or ‘g’?

I know European manufacturers like Cheddite, Sellier & Belot, or Zala, use grams to describe the load of the shotshell. They use the term 20 caliber, instead of ‘gauge’ too, but for that size of shotshell the usual load is about 26g ‘grams’.
Your 12 nomenclature is half as much than that for small to medium size bird game shotshells. Doesn’t make sense in grams, less so in grains.
As far as powder in a 2-3/4”, 20 gauge/caliber shotshells generally contain about 380 grains of powder.
I’ve never heard of “grains” referred to anything other than bullet, or powder weight.

Unless the 12 nomenclature on your shotshell is a calculation of the diameter of shot size by subtracting the shot size number from 17 and dividing that by 100. Example: #5 shot —> 17 - 5 / 100 = .12”.
 
There’s also an archaic measure that was used with black powder, (drams), where 1/16 of an ounce equals 1 dram. So for about 21.2 Grams of powder would equal 12 Drams. But you said grains.
 
easy said:
Is it actually marked spelled out, ‘grains’? Or is it abbreviated, ‘gr’, or ‘g’?

I know European manufacturers like Cheddite, Sellier & Belot, or Zala, use grams to describe the load of the shotshell. They use the term 20 caliber, instead of ‘gauge’ too, but for that size of shotshell the usual load is about 26g ‘grams’.
Your 12 nomenclature is half as much than that for small to medium size bird game shotshells. Doesn’t make sense in grams, less so in grains.
As far as powder in a 2-3/4”, 20 gauge/caliber shotshells generally contain about 380 grains of powder.
I’ve never heard of “grains” referred to anything other than bullet, or powder weight.

Unless the 12 nomenclature on your shotshell is a calculation of the diameter of shot size by subtracting the shot size number from 17 and dividing that by 100. Example: #5 shot —> 17 - 5 / 100 = .12”.
Click to expand...


Depending on the powder and payload 12 to 25 grains of powder is commonly used in 20 g shells, not sure where you get 380 grains from.
 
If you fix this link go here - ht tps://www.ballisticproducts.com/Chilled-Lead-Shot-12-13mm-11_bag/productinfo/02612/

Scroll down to the first chart.

Appears that 12 grains per pellet would be between .190" (BBB) and .200" (T), if made of chilled lead shot. Would be my guess of what you bought - is two squares on the box in your picture - upper square appears to be "caliber / gauge" and lower square appears to be "shot / plomb". Slicing open one shell would confirm what is in there.
 
Last edited:
I wish I had delved into this thread sooner.

It seems like a pretty obvious possibility that 12 grains is the weight of each shot pellet. I say this because otherwise there is no measure of shot size on the box, and shot size is a pretty important factor in shotgunning.

12 grains = 0.778g
At 11.3 g/cc = .0689 cc pure lead
Using the formula for volume of a sphere, r=0.25 cm, or a diameter of 5mm
 
easy said:
Is it actually marked spelled out, ‘grains’? Or is it abbreviated, ‘gr’, or ‘g’?

I know European manufacturers like Cheddite, Sellier & Belot, or Zala, use grams to describe the load of the shotshell. They use the term 20 caliber, instead of ‘gauge’ too, but for that size of shotshell the usual load is about 26g ‘grams’.
Your 12 nomenclature is half as much than that for small to medium size bird game shotshells. Doesn’t make sense in grams, less so in grains.
As far as powder in a 2-3/4”, 20 gauge/caliber shotshells generally contain about 380 grains of powder.
I’ve never heard of “grains” referred to anything other than bullet, or powder weight.

Unless the 12 nomenclature on your shotshell is a calculation of the diameter of shot size by subtracting the shot size number from 17 and dividing that by 100. Example: #5 shot —> 17 - 5 / 100 = .12”.
Click to expand...

Man you must be shooting some SPICY ass shotgun shells, lol. Didn't know you could compress 380 (Three HUNDRED and eighty) grains of powder into a 20 gauge, but here we are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom