Shotgun Recoil Chart

10 gauge – A heavy firearm with a forceful recoil, the 10 gauge is the largest legal shotgun in the United States. It’s not as popular as it once used to be, though it is still in use. It’s used primarily for hunting waterfowl, such as goose and duck.

A 10-gauge has around 63 ft-lbs of recoil. That is 2 to 3 times as much as most 12-gauge rounds (non magnum). That’s more than 4 times the limit that is considered comfortable (15 ft-lbs).

One of the bad raps the 10-gauge gets is it has unbearable recoil. That’s not true, particularly in the gas-operated auto-loaders, which have more tolerable recoil than most 12-gauge pumps or inertia-driven semi-autos. The 10-gauge is also a heavier gun so it soaks up more recoil than a 12 does.

An 8 bore is a . 835 in (21.2 mm) caliber firearm. Historically it was used to fire solid projectiles from smoothbores, rifles and partially rifled ball and shot guns, as well as shot from muzzle-loading and breech-loading actioned shotguns. Later breech loaders were designed to fire cartridges.

While use and possession of punt guns is still legal in the United States, Federal regulations prohibit their use in migratory waterfowl hunting.

50 waterfowl

Due to their ineffectiveness on the largest game (up to 35 shots being recorded by some writers for a single elephant), they soon developed into larger caliber black powder smoothbores. The caliber was still measured in bore or gauge—10, 8, 6, 4 bore and 2 bore—or the guns were named by number of projectiles per pound.

2 Gauge