My shoulder hurts just looking at these...

[kbm6893]

I went skeet shooting almost 30 years ago. Had my Mossberg 500. Didn’t know what I was doing but hit a few. My friend brought some 10 gauge. Knowing nothing about shotguns, I figured 10 gauge was less powerful than 12, since 10 is a smaller number. One shot was all it took. Never again. Can’t even imagine an 8 gauge.

 

[Skeet 028]

Just need to post this. The first 8 ga I got to shoot was a really nice Parker Double. I had a waterfowl party and one of the guys in it brought the Parker. I've seen 3 or 4 Parkers over the years. all owned by old(er) than me fellows. One is owned by an old(92) acquaintance from back east in Md. He has lived here in Wyoming for 35 years. He asked me if I could find him a box or two of shells for his(yep). He was a Chesapeake Bay waterman and I know he may have been a bit of a scofflaw in his waterfowl hunting. But there were quite a few of them/us in the waterfowl shooting field back in the 50s/60s. The 8 ga guns are a bit heavy and if I remember only shot 2 or at most 2 1/4 ounces of shot Heck, 3-inch 12s shoot that much these days. If I am not wrong I think the 8 can still be used in Britain for hunting

 

[Valmet]

I’ve been fortunate to shoot many of the big elephant-bashing cartridges up to and including some of the Nitros, and in my experience nothing rattled the teeth quite like a .378 Weatherby Mag

 

[martyd]

I loved shooting the 458 Winchester Magnum & 375 H&H Magnum.
I wish I still had both of those rifles, well maybe not, I wouldn't be able to afford reloading them.

The 458 can be easily loaded from max all the way down to 44 Magnum velocities.

The 375 does not hurt to shoot even with max loads, the tapered case produces less chamber pressure than today's sharp shouldered magnums. Recoil is a shove rather than a sharp wack.

Me in the late 1970's
Note the position of the rifle barrel in full recoil, max load.
Better yet notice the shadow UNDER my front foot.

 

[RV4driver]

On a dare (I was young) I shot an old Spanish made ten gauge double barrel, both barrels at once from the hip a bunch of years ago. The thing had a tang safety. When I started, I was firmly gripping the pistol grip. When it came to rest after recoil I was firmly gripping it up around the receiver. There was what I learned was a strip of my skin curled up in a ball on the flange of the safety. My hand had a perfectly square trench dug right across the palm that was made by the flange on the safety as it went through my grip. No more two barrel demonstrations of macho for me after that.

"Macho dies at the altar of reality".

 

[max503]

I recently bought an RIA single shot 20 gauge. The lightweight, plastic model. It is not a lot of fun to shoot, even with the lightest loads.

 

[Skeet 028]

I recently bought an RIA single shot 20 gauge. The lightweight, plastic model. It is not a lot of fun to shoot, even with the lightest loads.

I bought one of those RIAs...little fold up gun...but mine is a 410 for snakes in the yard. Bet the 20 does recoil a bit. Does it weigh 4 lb?

 

[6GUNSONLY]

I’ve been fortunate to shoot many of the big elephant-bashing cartridges up to and including some of the Nitros, and in my experience nothing rattled the teeth quite like a .378 Weatherby Mag

I always imagined that .378 Weatherby would be a beast to shoot. Have shot a .375 H&H, not bad at all. Never had opportunity to shoot a .378, never sought it out, either. Shot a .30/.378 a few times, it had a good brake on it and the recoil was actually quite mild, but the muzzle blast horrendous. No thank you.

 

[Rudi]

I had 1 of those 10ga goose guns many years ago. It was heavy, never noticed much recoil while hunting. Never went plinking with it.

 

[Czechvar]

Did the 8 Gauge Shotgun actually have an intended purpose? I mean, other than breaching concrete bunkers?

 

[Road Rat]

A man’s got to know his limitations!

 

[Nevada Ed]

I loved shooting the 458 Winchester Magnum & 375 H&H Magnum.
I wish I still had both of those rifles, well maybe not, I wouldn't be able to afford reloading them.

The 458 can be easily loaded from max all the way down to 44 Magnum velocities.

The 375 does not hurt to shoot even with max loads, the tapered case produces less chamber pressure than today's sharp shouldered magnums. Recoil is a shove rather than a sharp wack.

Me in the late 1970's
Note the position of the rifle barrel in full recoil, max load.
Better yet notice the shadow UNDER my front foot.

When My tour in the Navy (CB's) was up, I bought a 270, 30-06 for myself and a 375 H&H for my brother to box up and bring back to the states.
The 375 was no really that bad with it's recoil and it could handle any "Beast" in the USA, at that time.

However, I never asked him about how many boxes of ammo, that he went through.

 

[Skeet 028]

Did the 8 Gauge Shotgun actually have an intended purpose? I mean, other than breaching concrete bunkers?

The 8 ga was actually used in waterfowling until they passed the migratory bird act. It was also used to clean the insides of blast furnaces or something with industrial loads. The last 8 ga shells I bought for a friend may have been Winchesters but they were loaded by other companies back in the day. At one time there were well over 500 different loadings for shotshells available until the 30s...from the diminutive 9mm Rimfire shotshells to I think a 4 bore

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Did the 8 Gauge Shotgun actually have an intended purpose? I mean, other than breaching concrete bunkers?

Like I said in Post #12, I'm fairly sure it was developed as a goose gun. Since they are high fliers the gun was needed at the time to reach out well enough to put effective fire on them.

Now with the highly developed 3" and 3.5" 12ga shells it is no longer needed. Actually even the 3.5" shells are not being used as much as the 3" Magnum type shells.

 

[Skeet 028]

You kinda have to understand bore sizes originally. Ga was figuredc by the number of round lead balls of the bore size 12 was 12 lead balls 20 was 20 balls 10 ga was 10..8 ga was 8 balls weighing 2 ounces each. The ammo companies figured other loads in the gauges by changing th wadding to make more room in the cases. The original 3 inch 12 had an ounce and three eights. Pressures on shotshells were kept to a very narrow range as there were so many guns of varying quality. So the only real way of obtaining extra range was with the use of MORE shot. With advent of longer shells 3 in 12s, 3 1/2 inch 10s...they got more shot in...with the newer powders and steels used today shotshell pressures can be higher with higher velocities with heavier loads of shot...but like everything else...there are still limitations

 

[Pig Hunter]

Shot an 8 bore double rifle once. When the owner told me to make sure I had my mouth closed as teeth clacking together could cause a concushion ! I hit the 18"x 5/8 steel plate I was shooting at. That plate flipped around and over the crossbar it was hanging from. A .357 would just make the plate wiggle a little! One shot one hit was enough for me.