8 Gauge Shotgun.

FlyingHigh

FlyingHigh

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i watched the new western Appaloosa last week. i really enjoyed it. anyway, Viggo Mortensen packs around an 8 gauge shotgun. when i heard them mention that, i nearly #### myself. i thought 10 was plenty big enough. the sucker he carries is a big bad ass thing. i want one just for the "because i can" factor.

anyone here ever fired one of these things? how many shoulder surgeries did you need afterwards? where can i get one? :dancingbanana:
 
I've only shot up to 10gauge.

Your shoulder will take it as well as you condition yourself for it.

Example, I shoot magnum slugs, buckshot you name it EVERY week. My shoulder gets beaten on lots.

Yesterday I was shooting an M305 an SKS an it's like recoil didn't even exist at all.

10 gauge I'll shoot 3-4 5 round boxes of in a row at max.

As for 8 gauge, hell never seen one in person or you bet I'd ask to fire it.

If your used to hard recoil, you'll have no problems at all shooting the big boys.
 
I've fired an 8 bore BP rifle, and handled 4 and 2 bore versions. Back in the days of BP and commercial hunting, if you wanted a heavier slug for penetration on, say, an elephant, you increased your bore diameter, and hence your bullet weight. The 2 bore I played with weighed 22 pounds according to the guy in the museum, very cool (and heavy, lol). - dan
 
If you read the book "The Gun and its Development" by WW Greener, you can get some insight on how these were used in the late 19th century.

E.g. pass shooting up to 100 yds on geese and swan with heavy loads of lead shot. More big lead = enough energy and pattern down range to do the job. 8 bore SxS were portable enough to haul out to a blind, obviously too heavy as a walk-around gun at around 14 lbs if I recall. They also recommend a single barrel 4 bore for shooting close to your carriage ;)

There was also punting which is a completely different style of "hunting" if you want to call it that!
 
I was told that 4 bore and 8 bore shotguns were used here on the east coast from stationary blinds for commercial water foul harvest in the late 1800s.
 
I have fired an 8 and it is no worse than a 10 due to the weight of the shotgun. Now the 4 bore information will have to come at a later date as a close friend of mine has a newly aquired Greener SxS and yes we will be firing it soon I'll post some pics of the event.
 
8 bore was fairly common in the maritimes and they are still found and gunshows from time to time. they were used for pass shooting at flocks of duck and geese. remmington still loads 8 gauge hulls for use in ram set tools i belive.

anthing bigger than an 8 i think would qualify as a punt gun, which were used in scotland and the UK during the late 1800's and early 1900's. they were kind of a cross between a big shotgun/ small cannon and attached to the front of a punt boat for waterfowl hunting.
 
wow. that's alot of info there. more history to these guns than i thought.

in the movie, Mortnesen's character carries the gun everywhere with him. if this thing was pushing 14 pounds, that's quite the extra weight.

now, in a realistic scenario, would a bounty hunter/sheriff carry such a large weapon, or would they go more for the lighter weight 12 or 20 guage, Colt pistol and Henry repeating rifle?

the devastation of an 8 gauge would be considerable, but back then they didn't have to worry about body armour or anything.
 
you would carry whatever you could afford.... a long rifle for fetching dinner and a sidearm for saying hello are the respected norm... while a 8ga cannon might have some "wow" factor it's weight would be a bit much... like the "old western" hand cannon in hell boy HA!

i got to shoulder an old wall gun a fellow had at the kamloop's gun show last year... was cap lock smooth bore hex barrel with a 1" bore... i could only hold it in a fireing position for about 5 seconds before it got shaky... i figgerd a starting load for it would have been around 150gr of Fg cannon powder!
 
FlyingHigh said:
wow. that's alot of info there. more history to these guns than i thought.

in the movie, Mortnesen's character carries the gun everywhere with him. if this thing was pushing 14 pounds, that's quite the extra weight.
/QUOTE]

Haven't seen the movie, so I won't comment on that, but the M1 Garand is on the better side of 11 pounds. The Lewis gun was 28lbs and could be carried and utilized by a single soldier (I know, I realize that's a little different situation than the town's sherrif).
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FlyingHigh said:
the devastation of an 8 gauge would be considerable, but back then they didn't have to worry about body armour or anything.
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depends what you mean by 'devastating'. you have to remeber this load was popular in the 1800's. the loads typically launched had less shot than the modern 'heavy' 12 gauge loads waterfowlers use. 8's were typically availible in 3'', 3 1/4'' and 4'' and had a bore of 0.835'', a 12 gauge is .729'' bore.

that, and the fact that they used blackpowder means relativley low pressures. its main advantage was 'bigger gun = more shot', which increased the likelyhood of hitting the target.

although ive never tried it, ive read that a 410 shotgun will penetrate more than any other gauge when they are loaded with equal size shot.
 
I have a ml 8 bore double. Weighs 14 lbs. Have only fired it with sub 2 oz loads. Recoil is a bit different, because the gun is so heavy.
I wouldn't put much faith in stories about nuts and bolts, etc.
 
gallen270 said:
depends what you mean by 'devastating'. you have to remeber this load was popular in the 1800's. the loads typically launched had less shot than the modern 'heavy' 12 gauge loads waterfowlers use. 8's were typically availible in 3'', 3 1/4'' and 4'' and had a bore of 0.835'', a 12 gauge is .729'' bore.
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I seem to recall up to 4 oz of lead shot could be used in an 8 Ga. Considerably more than any modern 12 ga.

As for black powder, I don't think you gain much if any velocity in a shotgun shooting smokeless. The velocities shown for muzzle loading shotguns in my Lyman Black Powder manual looked fairly equivalent.
 
depends what you mean by 'devastating'.
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well, i'd be figuring that if a 12 gauge would kill a guy, a 8 gauge would blow his belly out his backside.

i'm guessing these guns would be fired mainly at targets less than 20 yards away (in a sherriff/bad guy scenario), so i'm not sure how much velocity would affect the performance. basically, the shot had to penetrate maybe 3 layers of clothing and a cowhide jacket or vest.
 
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