As I detox from social media, I have decided to embark on a series of posts that cover some of the things that authors do that will cause me to wall a book1, but that probably aren’t the writer’s fault, because they tend to be a little bit esoteric.
Today’s topic of study is the shotgun — particularly the subject of “gauge”, and why — outside of science fiction — the words “.12 gauge” or “12mm gauge” should never, ever, ever, EVER come out of your keyboard.
“Gauge”2 is an archaic method of measuring diameter involving spheres cast from a pound of lead. To the best of my knowledge these days shotguns are the only thing that still uses this method.
To do so, one takes a block of lead that weighs one pound. If you take this one pound of lead and fashion it into a sphere, anything the same diameter as that sphere is “one gauge”.
A pound of lead split into two equal parts, each then fashioned into a sphere, anything the diameter of one of those two spheres — a ball weighing a half-pound — would be “two gauge3”.
Same one-pound block of lead, split into four equal parts — a quarter-pound sphere of lead — anything that diameter would be a “four gauge4”.
A lead ball one-eighth of a pound in weight would result in a diameter of “8 gauge5”, so on and so forth.
Yes, there were 2 gauge, 4 gauge, and 8 gauge shotguns in the past, although the 2 gauge was a so-called “punt gun” mounted on a tripod for firing at entire flocks of game birds6.
As you can see, the term “.12 gauge” makes absolutely no logical sense, nor does the term “12mm gauge”. How does one split one pound of lead into “.12” pieces?
Common gauges for shotguns these days include the 10 gauge7, the 12 gauge8, the 16 gauge9, the 20 gauge10, and the 28 gauge11.
Notice that the smaller the number, the larger the diameter of the barrel — 10 gauge having a bigger hole in the Danger End than the 28 gauge, and also a bigger thump on both ends.
And, of course, because we’re Americans we have to have that one outlier that doesn’t follow the very clear rules: the .410 shotgun.
Notice two things about the “.410” — first there is a decimal, properly, in the designation; and second the absence of the word “gauge”.
The .410 shotgun12 is actually a calibre — the diameter of the barrel is 0.410 inches. Why? Why is the smallest commonly available shotgun referred to by calibre when every other shotgun is listed by gauge? Because we’re Americans and rules, standards, and logic make us uncomfortable.
There’s more — a lot more — about shotguns that writers frequently get wrong, but that’s a decent start. I’ll put up more of these as we go along.
Ian
That’s when I close the book, and throw it vigorously against the wall, never to open the cover again. Often cursing is involved.
Not “guage”, pronounced around Chateau LawDog as “Bloody goo AH gee!”, right after the book achieves flight. Happens more than you would think.
1.3 inches.
1.05 inches.
0.835 inches.
Does that mean the 4 and 8 gauges were shoulder-fired? Yes. Yes, they were. Men were men, and shoulders were nervous, back in the day.
0.775 inches
0.725 inches
0.665 inches
0.615 inches
0.545 inches
For those who are curious it would be a “67-ish gauge”.
Ah, the great expert problem.
The writer is vastly outnumbered by readers, all of whom are experts in different fields.
OTOH, ammunition tends to be crucial to the plot, so it's something you should pay particular attention to.
I have fun with this stuff when I'm doing 17th century, and talking about musket bores.