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What's the difference between 12g & 20g?? Please


splitstop63
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20 gauge guns are generally lighter in weight than 12 gauge -and so are easier to carry and are popular with ladies who shoot as they are with older male guns.

 

Having said that, many experienced guns who are good shots use a 20 gauge guns to very good effect - I am not one of them and use side by side Old English twelve gauge guns.

 

Pricewise, I don't think there is a whole lot of difference between 12 and 20 with most good makers of guns - my wife has a Beretta 20 gauge Silver Pigeon. If you are in the league of having a new English gun built, then a 20 gauge will most likely be more expensive than a 12 gauge, but if you can afford that, the differential is unlikely to cause you too much loss of sleep.

 

Cartridges - from experience of buying both 12 and 20 gauge, I find little if any difference in price - 16 and 28 gauge are MUCH more expensive.

 

Hope that helps

 

The Mods may move this to a more appropriate forum - I just don't know for sure.

 

good luck anyway

Edited by woodcock11
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Hi, simply the main difference is the diameter of the barrel thus what makes a gun a certain gauge and if course you need the same gauge shell as gun.

 

The smaller 20g shells can often be more expensive than the larger (and more common) 12gauge. Clay game and wildfowl shells are available in both.

 

20gauge is sometimes referred to as a ladies or youths calibre (wrongly) as the guns are often lighter.

 

There are much explanations out there surprised you haven't found any.

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In short a 20 g is smaller (narrower) than a 12 g and probably a bit more expensive to feed. The bore size measurement is a bit archaic as it comes from the weight of a ball of lead that can be fired (as is Canon's and muskets), a 12 gauge shotgun would be able to shoot a lead ball that weighed 1/12th of a pound whereas a 20 g would only fire a ball 1/20th of a pound.

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Splitstop is New Member - give him a break - we all have to start somewhere and P/W is renowned for its friendly & good advice.

 

However, you are right in that Google can answer most questions if you know where to look!

I can see he is a new member....and as you pointed out Google is probably the best source of information on the planet.

It was a simple answer to a simple question...nothing more nothing less.

If you knew more about me then you would know I help a lot of people out with info which is done via pm rather than discussing it on the forum....

A good example is the lad who does the new sock decoy covers, he was asking for help so I sent him a couple of pm's and put him in touch with PT, and he did the review in sporting gun for him....

 

TEH

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Thank you All for your Help and Advice Appreciated! :good:

 

Sorry What i meant was i had done a search on pw not Google So Sorry Again Thanks Again for All Help B)

 

There's no need to be sorry pal about your question, we all have to start somewhere in this maze of technical stuff we talk about with the use of shotguns or any general related shooting matters :)
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Thank you All for your Help and Advice Appreciated! :good:

 

Sorry What i meant was i had done a search on pw not Google So Sorry Again Thanks Again for All Help B)

 

PW search ignores any words of 3 letters or less, so lots of common terms such as...... 12g 20g 177 .22 air gun rat hmr fox dog cat :ninja: FAC SGC FEO will all return no hits.

 

if you type site:forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk 12g 20g into google, it will search PW for those terms. a few results to go at :good:

Edited by HW682
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I have found 20gauge to be around 40 or so pounds dearer than 12 gauge a thousand.if you are new to shooting I would suggest you go with 12 unless there is a special reason for a lighter gun.once you get some experience behind you then have a go with other gauges.i find some 20's hold a slighty better price second hand than 12's.but not all.atb

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In short a 20 g is smaller (narrower) than a 12 g and probably a bit more expensive to feed. The bore size measurement is a bit archaic as it comes from the weight of a ball of lead that can be fired (as is Canon's and muskets), a 12 gauge shotgun would be able to shoot a lead ball that weighed 1/12th of a pound whereas a 20 g would only fire a ball 1/20th of a pound.

 

Or if you were to make a round lead ball to perfectly fit inside a 20 bore barrel 20 of these balls would weigh 1LB ..... 12 Bore ... 12 balls will equal 1lLB

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Interesting post this as I have just bought a Franchi Alcione , 3" chambers, steel proofed, beautifully grained wood and 2 sets of Barrels

1 in 12g, and the 2nd set is in 20g, both are 28" long, and came with 5 chokes for each barrel.

I did notice a small difference in cartridge price (app £6.00)when I bought a slab

The weight seems to be roughly the same for both, and I can't wait to get out this weekend and try it out.

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The 12 ga can handle a bigger load than the 20 ga can and the 20 ga handles a lighter load better. There are advantages in that at both ends. If you wanted to walk a lot of moor for rabbits or grouse say and also take them at shorter ranges without smashing them up too bad a nice lightweight 20 and correspondingly light loads might be sweet on the other hand if you wanted to use some 34 grm or over loads a 12 in a correspondingly heavier gun that is perhaps more suited for higher birds or perhaps even geese or fox with even heavier loads still this bigger bore is greatly superior. I am not a fan of pushing a 20 into 12 bore 3" magnum load territory and I also feel the 12 shouldn't pretend to be a 10 ga, though with modern long chambers and heavier guns it seems possible it is however pointless, not ever as good as it seems and counter productive.

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Interesting post this as I have just bought a Franchi Alcione , 3" chambers, steel proofed, beautifully grained wood and 2 sets of Barrels

1 in 12g, and the 2nd set is in 20g, both are 28" long, and came with 5 chokes for each barrel.

I did notice a small difference in cartridge price (app £6.00)when I bought a slab

The weight seems to be roughly the same for both, and I can't wait to get out this weekend and try it out.

Interesting but don't really see the point of having sets of same length, weight, MC barrels on the same action ??? Am I missing something
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The amount of recoil to a gun is related to the weight of the shot and the speed at which the shot travels. If you have a 24 gram cartridge in 12 bore and a 24 gram cartridge in 20 bore (and they are pushing the shot at the same speed) then the energy directed backwards when you fire the gun is the same. The felt recoil is related to the weight of the gun. So, if both guns were the same weight then the felt recoil would be the same.

 

20 bore guns tend to be lighter and so the felt recoil will be higher.

 

My 11 year old has used both and prefers the 12 gauge. But it is not that simple. The cartridge choice is all important and that is where the 12 bore has the edge, there is a much bigger choice with 12 bore. My 11 year old was a little put off when using a 24 gram cartridge, but my 12 year old daughter was not. When I used 12 bore Very Low Recoil cartridges (and subsonic) then the felt recoil is virtually zero and yet it made no real difference to their ability to hit clays at sub 40 yard ranges.

 

If you really want a light gun, and I have a 12 bore game gun which is light, then I would recommend a 12 bore which is light. If recoil is really a problem then you can go for a semi auto where the felt recoil is much less.

 

If you go for a 12 bore then you have a massive choice of cartridges which will cater for every need.

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