November/December 2011

The Gun Room

The 14-Gauge... Sort of

by Steve Smith

kay, here’s a math quiz: what do these fractions signify (bearing in mind this is a gun column): 6/8, 7/8, 8/8, 9/8? Right, they are the standard shot loads of the four gauges of shotguns: ¾ for the 28, 7/8 for the 20, one ounce for the 16, and 1-1/8 ounces for the 12.

Here’s another question: Have you ever hunted when the conditions called for more than an ounce of fairly big shot, but not much, certainly not an ounce and a quarter and most of the 1-1/8 ounce 12-gauge loads are intended for target shooting and not hunting?

Well, I admit this is really nitpicking, so don’t send me notes saying I’m being nitpicky and hair-splitting: I admit it – I’m being nitpicky and hair-splitting because it’s fun and all of this is supposed to be. What I’m saying, and what the title does more than imply, is sometimes maybe we wish they made a 14-gauge shotgun. Think about – it would hold a little more shot than the standard 16-gauge load and weigh a little more than the 16, but yet not be as brawny in weight or shot load as the 12.

How would a gun like that shape up? First, what about the shot load? If a 16’s load is an ounce, and a 12’s 1-1/8 ounces, a 14-gauge should be 1-1/16 ounces. The gun weight: Lion Country Supply, importer of the Spanish Ugartechea (you-gar-tah-chay-uh) side-by-side shotguns, and they’re nice guns, even their lowest grade, lists the weight of its 16-gauge guns at between 6-1/4 and 6-1/2 pounds. They list the weight of the 12-gauge in the same model as between 6-3/4 and seven pounds. (Gun weights vary because of wood density.) That should make our 14-gauge gun, if it were a Ugie, at between 6-1/2 and 6-3/4 pounds. Baby Bear’s porridge.

Back to ND11 TOC