# 8 Guage Shotguns



## Gooser1

hey i was wondering if anybody knows where i can find a picture of an old 8 guage shotgun on the internet, or information about it. thanks guys :beer:


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## Militant_Tiger

so you want it NOT to shoot then i gather? because to my knowledge no one produces 8 gauge shotgun shells. i mean seriously if a 10 gauge isint enough for you, you would have to be going for some kind of mutated goose or a bear. in which case you should be using a rifle.

cheers


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## Austin Bachmeier

He wants pictures and information.... Its not a crime to learn about things from the past... :eyeroll:


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## mallard

Geez,All he wanted was some pictures of them.As far as I know,In England 8's are still used.Try a search under English shotguns.


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## GooseBuster3

I would use an 8gauge *FOR GOOSE HU*NTING if they were still legal. :eyeroll:


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## mallard

Tyer you would use one of those multi-barelled punt guns if they were leagal :lol: .


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## GooseBuster3

Yes I would, the more shot I get out there the better!! :lol:


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## Leo Porcello

I went to google and typed "8 gauge shotguns" and it game up with a bunch of results and some pictures. I guess they still use them to start yacht races. Pretty interesting stuff. I would use one if it was legal. Also the original Bass Pro Shops in MO has a display with a punt gun. I may have a picture of it.


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## Militant_Tiger

well this got me into looking at some "punt guns" by accident and all i can say is wow. you have got to see these things, one of them could throw 2 pounds of lead in one shot. I read that the most ducks taken down at one time was 30 or something around there.


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## Austin Bachmeier

on the chesapeake they would kill hundreds with one shot.


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## GooseBuster3

Commercial duck hunters used punt guns. Man I wish I lived back then.!


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## mallard

Punt guns,battery guns,sinkboxes,traps.They used anything that would kill more ducks,mainly canvasbacks.


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## dlip

about those punt guns, hell man, i read somewhere that the record was 500 geese with one shot, gaw, think about that, heck seeing 500 geese is pretty good, thats taking out flocks at a time, and they would mount them like a turret on the front of boats, i wouldnt mind taking one of those to the woods to hip shoot with :sniper:


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## Bobm

Eight guage shotguns are still used in Britian for water fowl use, you can buy reloading components for them in England as well. The British don't load them with anymore shot than some of our 10 guage loads. What the larger bore does is give you the ability to shoot large shot with very uniform dense patterns something thats hard to do with the tiny 12 :lol:. It would be a good idea to allow the 8 to be used again now that steel is mandated probably reduce crippling and would be cool


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## Guest

I'd give it a try for snows!!! I'd really be making it rain geese then!!!! 8)


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## buckseye

I read the reason people quit using them is it would shake their brain loose and they would have brain hemorage. I know what ya all mean tho I always wanted to see a flock of 500 sob's come down all at once too.

That would be fun to be set up by people that didn't know you had the big gun with extra range, you could sky bust the birds way up there and really make them think you were a super good shot.


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## Bobm

Hey buckseye anybody that lays out on the cold ground in the dark waiting for a goose to fly over doesn't have to worry about brain damage :lol: its too late!


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## chief

I own a punt gun, bring it out sometimes when the neighbor cat starts creeping in my yard.....one of these days the feline is going to be a perminant ornament on its owners front door. MEOW.....better yet, could have used it on the refs in last nights T-wolves game....one shot would have gotten them as well as USHER, TIMBERLAKE.....etc


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## nodakoutdoors.com

Chief, tell me how you really feel about cats?


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## jhegg

How about a 4 gauge?:beer:







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## gandergrinder

How is that legal to shoot at waterfowl? It looks like it is a breech loader and as far as I know the largest legal size is 10ga. Not trying to bust your balls I'm just wondering.

What do you shoot as far as shot. Bismuth?


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## Maverick

Nice Pic Hegg!


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## Bobm

What is the weight of the shot charge a 4 guage? Nice looking picture!


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## jhegg

Thanks for the compliments on the pic. Lest any wardens are licking their chops, I didn't shoot these geese with this gun - I used a pip-squeak 10 gauge.  
With a 4" brass shell, this gun is capable of shooting a 4 oz. load of lead shot and about 3-1/2 oz. of bismuth. I did fire one shot of 3-1/2 oz. of lead @ 1330 fps (4 foot screen velocity). The gun literally came out of my hands. Luckily, I caught it before it crashed to the ground. Recoil was severe. :evil: I only fired one of those loads. Actually, with 3-1/2 to 4 oz. of shot at a velocity of 1100 to 1150 fps, the gun is very manageable. 8) You would use large shot (#BB or larger) so the lower velocity would not be a problem. I would call this the perfect long-range pass-shooting goose gun.


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## Bobm

Is it a replica or original where do you get a 4 inch brass shell?


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## jhegg

Bob,
The gun is an original Army Navy underlever. Army Navy was an exporter. I don't know who made the gun, but it was from one of the better english houses. 
The brass shells we had made to fit the chamber and use a 209 size primer. My good friend Tom Armbrust owns the gun. He also has his own peak pressure testing equipment. It's really nice to be able to custom design your own loads. :wink:


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## Bobm

Thanks, its really nice, the next time I go to Europe I am going to look into getting an 8 guage I've always wanted one.


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## jhegg

I could probably get you lined up with one over here if you are interested. They don't come cheap tho.... :eyeroll:


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## Doug Webb

As per 8 gauge shotguns this may be hard to believe, but here it is. My
best friend's grandfather served as an Army officer during WW I. For
a time he was in Texas, attached to the Texas Rangers, and also was
assigned to help run some very nasty prison camps. These camps had
prisoners who worked on real chain gangs, and some of them literally
had large iron balls chained to their ankles. They were often employed
clearing land, cutting brush, or making gravel with sledge hammers.
Their guards were issued 8 gauge pump shotguns. Who manufactured
them is unknown to me. When this officer spent a month in charge of
the camp's armory, he found out that they had one more of these
pump guns that the inventory showed. The night he went there to
"creatively acquire" it for himself, he learned that someone had already
beaten him to it. Of course, one can no longer hunt in the US with an 8
gauge, but it certainly would make a good home defense gun. The
phrase "alley cleaner" does come to mind. Surely, some of these guns
must still be in existence. I'll bet that someone, somewhere, would be
willing to make brass for one, but for a probably high price. I note that
it's not hard to obtain ammunition for the older British double rifles used
on dangerous game in Africa. The last I knew, new shells for a .600
Nitro Express rifle were $210 for a box of 5 rounds. Just the thing for
some Saturday afternoon plinking at one's local gravel pit or land fill.
Does anyone out there know anything about these pump guns? I have
yet to find any source materials about them. I have seen older, muzzle
loading percussion 8 gauge shotguns, but every one I've ever seen had
Damascus barrels, too. I wonder how the effective range of an 8 gauge
shotgun compares to 12 and 10 gauge guns? I remain somewhat
surprised that large gauge shotguns do not seem to have found their
way into the trenches of WW I. Of course, the US Army had "trench 
guns" but as far as I can tell, they were all 12 gauge weapons. Any thoughts, anyone?


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## southdakbearfan

Actually, 8 gauges are still in use, commercially. They are used to clean the slag out of the long kilns in cement plants. I have a couple of the shells from a buddy that worked in the plant in rapid city.

I believe the shells were made by winchester, and were stamped 8 ga commercial on the bottom, might have to dig them out to look.


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## mr.trooper

Here is a picture of an 8 guage side by side next to a .410 bore side by side:









Here is a picture of the muzzles of the same two guns:









If you think those shotguns are big, then check these two out:


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## rowdie

While tearing down some old brick boilers in my younger days, I found some old 8 ga shells. They were slugs, and they were huge! I guess they used to use them to clean the boilers out somehow. I would bet those slugs could knock down an elephant.


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## People

As southdakbearfan said they are still inuse for cleaning slag out of power plants and such. I found 8ga rem hulls but could not find the gun that fired them. I have never seen a actual shot gun that was ment to be held. The Remington that I seen picts of was mounted on a tripod and had the T&E Mec and looked kind of like a old 30 cal. Very much different as it is a single shot but should give you an idea. I do not know if they still make them or not a search on google did not pull any thing for me.


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## fishead

The web site sells reloading supplies for an 8 gauge.
http://www.ballisticproducts.com/


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## pennsyltucky

ive been looking into building a barrel in 8 ga for a NEF single shot frame. now that ive been searchin, ive noticed that the only area of hunting that regulates u to a 10 is waterfowling...... at least in PA it doesnt say what gauge u can use for turkeys. is there somethin somewhere that dissallows the 8ga? i mean for other than waterfowl?


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## Militant_Tiger

Where would you get or how would you make shells?


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## pennsyltucky

http://precisionreloading.com/2004catalog.htm

they have hulls wads etc for the 8. im sure they are industrial hulls, but whats the difference when im the one loading them? with the pressure trace i can build all my own loads. and i like roll crimps better anyway


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## darkgael

A link to a modern 4 gauge http://www.tulatoz.ru/en/toz123.html

Pete


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## R y a n

darkgael said:


> A link to a modern 4 gauge http://www.tulatoz.ru/en/toz123.html
> 
> Pete


Can you IMAGINE how much that mule kicks? I thought for sure I'd be going to that page to see some gun that mounts to a duck boat. Someone HOLDS that thing! 

Shooting it 3 times has to seperate your shoulder!

Ryan

.


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## lecub

If you are recoil sesitive you may not want to look at these videos of 4 bore and 8 bore rifles www.gunshop.com./vintage6.htm


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## R y a n

lecub said:


> If you are recoil sesitive you may not want to look at these videos of 4 bore and 8 bore rifles www.gunshop.com./vintage6.htm


Crap....wish I could view them. I'd sure love to look at the vid's, but I won't put Apple's SlowTime on this laptop to view a .MOV file... :x

Ryan

.


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## Triple B

ouch, looks like old man rivers took one in the head. I use one of those when I go dove hunting :lol:


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## Militant_Tiger

Yeah I liked when the bloke caught it in the head as well. One would think to step aside from a beast like that.


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## Eightbore

Bobm said:


> Eight guage shotguns are still used in Britian for water fowl use, you can buy reloading components for them in England as well. The British don't load them with anymore shot than some of our 10 guage loads. What the larger bore does is give you the ability to shoot large shot with very uniform dense patterns something thats hard to do with the tiny 12 :lol:. It would be a good idea to allow the 8 to be used again now that steel is mandated probably reduce crippling and would be cool


Good answer, also a lot of us still use them because of the nostalgia that goes with them. Also you have to admit that 4 and 8 bores give much better results than trying to cram a lot too much shot into too small a tube, which seems to be the norm over that side of the pond :eyeroll: .

Do you realise that there were in fact five (5) chamber sizes made for the 8 bore. Starting at 3 1/4", 3 1/2", 3 3/4", 4" and lastly a 4 1/4". A good 4 1/4" magnum 8 will throw a max. 4 oz of shot from each barrel. Where as the normal loading for the 3 1/4" is 2 1/2 oz now days. (Eley used to load 2 oz in theirs). These are for cartridges NOT slug loads or solid ball.

Anyway an interesting read, thanks all.


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