What is a 16 gauge shotgun?

Answer 1

well for starters, you need to know what a shotgun is. a shotgun, like any other firearm, uses a source of ignition to ignite a powder charge and launch a projectile(s) at normally very high speeds. a shotgun in general differs from a rifle or handgun because a rifle or handgun fires a single, bore sized projectile from each cartridge. a shotgun typically fires MANY projectiles from each cartridge (typically called shells when talking about shotguns e.g. "shotshell") a shotshell can be purchased with either a load of several hundred very small pellets (birdshot), or just 8 or 9 larger pellets (buckshot). this is what makes a shotgun a very versitile hunting tool. you can load it with the smaller shot and take small game (birds, squirells, rabbits) and then take that same firearm and load it with the larger buckshot and use it to take much larger animals. buckshot is also commonly used for personal defence purposes because of its incredible lethality and stopping power. another difference is that rifles and handguns come in many different "calibers" that term refers to the size of the bore as well as to the size of the projectile it fires. shotguns come in "gauges" that term refers to the size of the bore of a shotgun. some popular gauges for shotguns are 28,20,16,12 and 10. the smaller the number, the larger the bore of the gun. (28 is a smaller diameter bore than a 20, and so on) how do they come up with the numbers for gauges you might be wondering?? the number is simply how many bore-sized lead balls it would take to equal a pound.