8 gauge: what is it for?

[Beetle Bailey]

I was at the shooting range testing a couple of my rifles and the guy next to me was shooting a double-barreled 8 gauge. It was the first time I'd seen one in person, and he was shooting both black powder and smokeless powder. The cartridges were brass and loaded with a single lead ball. From the standing position, he was getting about a six-inch group at 25 yards, but the holes in the paper looked enormous.

He confessed that it was a bit difficult to keep from flinching when he shot it and he mentioned something about elephants. When he shot it, the recoil sent the barrels pointed upward at a 45 degree angle and he would only shoot a few times before he cleaned the barrel. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure if it was a rifle or a shotgun, since I didn't think to ask.

So, besides dispatching charging elephants, what are 8 gauges for? I tried a search, but neither "8" nor "eight" were useful.

 

[esheato]

I would assume you could use it for whatever you wanted.

LOL

Ed

 

[sm]

Industrial Uses

Dead Serious.

Example : Cleaning Boilers.

http://www.winchester.com/industrial/8_gauge/industrialloads.aspx?load=1

 

[zinj]

Eight gauges were used in America primarily for market hunting waterfowl, that is before the Migratory Bird act was passed (sometime in the late 20's IIRC) that set a maximum of 10 gauge for migratory birds, due to the fact that market hunting was seriously depeleting bird populations (this is the same law that requires a repeater to be plugged to only accept three rounds).

In the early-mid 1800's European colonies in Africa and Asia the eight gauge was a common caliber for a muzzleloader used for hunting thick-skinned dangerous game. They were very popular with the early ivory hunters. The advent of smokeless powder and cartridge arms pretty much rendered the large bore muzzleloaders obsolete.

Today there are some industrial guns chambered in eight gauge used for blasting slag out of kilns. I know if you dig deep enough in Remington's website you can find the specs for the ammunition they sell for these guns.

 

[Beetle Bailey]

Thanks to all. So, nobody has tried skeet with one?

 

[sm]

Skeet?

Yep. I have shot skeet with 8, 10, 12, 20, 28, 24, 32 gauge and .410.

I have been known to hang around a skeet field, private skeet field a time or two and try about anything...
Single shot, SxS, O/U., Pump, Semi , Lever action and even Bolt Actions shotguns.

 

[Oldnamvet]

What? You haven't shot skeet with a 16 gauge? Better rectify that Steve.

As to industrial uses, the company I retired from has a rotary kiln incinerator and uses 8 gauge shells to break off the slag that forms. The barrel and action are mounted to the unit so all the operators have to do is aim and fire. They don't get any recoil. Sometimes they aren't too careful and have shot off the sensors and probes in the kiln as well. I remember one of them telling me that the shells cost nearly $10 each --- and he was standing ankle deep in empties. I never did find out what the payload was on those huge things.

 

[sm]

Yep. I have shot skeet with 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 28, 24, 32 gauge and .410.

Edited.

Oldnamvet, thank you.

You know, some folks say there is not a lot of variety in shotguns.
When one sits down to type what all they have shot in regard to shotgun, it is easy to miss one, as I did.

Oldnamvet,
Follow the link above to the Win Industrial site.
What you shared is exactly what I was referring to.
They show a "zinc" loading now.
I cannot recall what the old loads were, seems they were different...

 

[Mike U.]

8 gauge: what is it for?

Inflicting pain. On both ends.

 

[Brass Fetcher]

What is it for?

When you are all out of Claymore mines...

 

[Mannix]

the shells cost nearly $10 each

And how many did they go through? I'd take the opportunity to try and make a few bucks reloading them. All the payload is is a 2 oz piece of zinc, shouldn't be that hard to make even.

 

[High Planes Drifter]

I've been told what sm brought up, plant use.

No , not dispatching ferns, and hibiscus bush's ; industrial plants as in paper mills, boilers and such. I've been told that the 8 ga. is used to unclogg piping. I've never seen one first hand, cant imagine what shooting one feels like. I've seen an 8 ga. slug. It was huge and heavy.

 

[Beetle Bailey]

When you are all out of Claymore mines...

That would have been cool if he was shooting shot out of it, but alas, he only fired a lead ball, which I suppose weighed 2 oz.

sm so, when you shot skeet with the 8 gauge, how'd you do? With all that recoil, could you see the clays break?

 

[Tinmancr]

wow

I don't remember which it was but one of the ancient shotgun bores a bipod or monopod had to be used due to the size.
I think it was 4 gauge though, anyway that is pretty sweet.
Biggest thing I've seen is a 600 gr 12 ga 3 inch slug, and it went cleanly through an old harddrive "the hard side"
We also put one through every other solid thing we could find.
ahhhh what fun an afternoon at the range is.
oops totally forgot the question, the big one I remember was listed as being for killing lots of birds from afar with one shot.

 

[scout26]

8 gauge: what is it for?

To make sure your chiropractor or Orthopaedic doc can meet his monthly BMW payments.

 

[sm]

How did I do?

This was a old, old, Market Gun. Waterfowlers used these to fell Waterfowl.

DRs orders were no regular skeet, due to me messing up a knee *again*
So I shot ladies skeet.

I shot like 20, maybe 21 out of 25. I really did not fell well, just I had to limp on out and shoot this gun.

I may be dumb, I ain't stupid. These were "mild" duck loads of #6 shot. The gun weighed like 15# , so recoil was not that bad.
Getting that puppy to swing took some effort, and with my weak knee, it hurt "pushing".
Follow through?
Oh once that puppy got to swinging, it "swung".

Doctor came out, just my luck, as I was just finishing.
NO Skeet he said.

He figured I could not come up with a way around that Doctor's Order.

 

[zinj]

I don't remember which it was but one of the ancient shotgun bores a bipod or monopod had to be used due to the size.
I think it was 4 gauge though, anyway that is pretty sweet.

You are probably thinking of punt guns, which are generally measured in inches. They were mounted in a fixed position to the front of a skiff and were fired on resting groups of waterfowl. Not exactly the most sporting proposition.

As an aside, there were some four gauge muzzleloaders used by ivory hunters. I want to say Samuel Baker used such a gun at one time, but I would have to check. Someone posted a writeup a while back of a Canadian who built his own four bore cartridge gun. Said he was spun a bit bit and looking at sky after touching it off.

This was a old, old, Market Gun. Waterfowlers used these to fell Waterfowl.

Was it a cartridge gun? If so, where did the hulls come from? I know that the current industrial loads have a step near the base so they can't be chambered in old sporting guns, and I am curious as to where these guys get their components.

 

[sm]

This has been near 30 years ago.
These folks had family back in the day in the Market Hunting Business, including Punt Guns and other services related to the business of the times. Putting together Punt Boats was one best I recall.

These folks had money, and had shells. I do know they sometimes had shells custom made, and same folks special ordered shells for 24 and 32 gauge shotguns as well.

I was friends of these nice folks. I hunted for free, even asked to back up folks taking cripples, for clients they invited down to hunt. Folks from all over, even out the country invited to come in , just to hunt.

At that time, it was Pricey to pay to hunt in a set up as they just invited folks to come in for free...business dealings.
Handshake meant a $million dollar was fine...lady or gents handshake better than a contract if you will...
Last I heard, a set up today like what they had, means a $75K to $100k membership fee...

I miss some folks, the folks themselves. The benefits were nice and all, still I miss some neat folks.

Shooting this gun was just one of the things I did...

 

[Bud Tugly]

I remember an article about punt guns from one of the outdoor magazines many years ago. If I recall correctly, the title of the article was "50 ducks with one shot". They showed pictures of these massive shotguns mounted on the front of boats that were used by market hunters in the old days. They'd wait for a whole flock to settle in on a pond and let go with one blast.

 

[Simon Broadbent]

8 Bore

In the UK if this is a shotgun we would use normal cartriges i.e. pellets rather than a single ball and use it for wildflowing in particular goose decoying in winter for the geese coming down from Iceland and farther North (Greylags and Pinkfoot)

Regards

Simon Broadbent

 

[Dan Forrester]

The double barrel 8 gauge was imported by Navy Arms form Italy probably about 25 years ago. I read this in a book a long time ago. I even emailed Navy Arms to see if they had any leads on where to find one but they had nothing for me.

Tennessee Guns used to import a 4 gauge auto loader from Russia. This was just 2 or 3 years ago. The price was I believe $899. I haven’t seen it on their sight for quite some time now. Just a guess but no sporting use would probably mean destructive device.

Dan

 

[arkangel06]

i know that they used 8 guages to fire uop into the grain silos to get all the stuck on stuff to come off