20 Gauge Pellet Count

[Jake Stump]

Hey All, wondering if someone can help me with some information I’ve gotten from a research letter.

I have a 26” 20 gauge that shows the right barrel at 100 pellets and the left at 150 pellets using 8 shot in a 30” circle at 40 yards. I’ve tried to look this up and have read several threads on it but if I’m doing my math correctly that would right barrel well below the pellet count for a cylinder choke (40%).

Is this unusual or am I missing something? Thanks in advance!

[Dylan Rhodes]

I have the same confusion with one of my research letters on a 12 gauge. I can't seem to find anywhere the weight in oz of shot used. That would constrain the answer to a certainty. Does it happen to mention shot weight?

[Dave Noreen]

The shot tables in my Remington catalogs shows 358 #8 chilled shot in a 7/8-ounce load. Two of the 20-gauge hang-tags I've saved pictures of show 100 & 150 --

118585

118586

[Jake Stump]

Thank you - and no, no shot information but from what I've read it seems the 20 gauge was mostly 7/8, not sure on the 12's. If I did my math correctly only 100 were in the circle out of 359 (around 28%) which seemed a lot lower than the 40% that cylinder should be around.

[Jake Stump]

Hey Dylan, found an older post that indicated that 12's were usually patterned with 1 1/8 oz.

[Drew Hause]

Table in Parker catalogs at the turn-of-the-century. Things could change with time

https://photos.smugmug.com/Shotshells-and-pressures/Shotshells/i-BSvRVgq/0/6b530a91/M/Parker%20Catalog%20Shot-M.jpg (https://drewhause.smugmug.com/Shotshells-and-pressures/Shotshells/i-BSvRVgq/A)

7/8 oz. Tatham No. 8 would be 350 pellets

[Dave Noreen]

From the limited data points from the pictures of hang-tags I've saved, it appears to me that lighter weight 12-gauges were targeted with 1 1/8-ounce in 2 5/8-inch shells and heavier 12-gauges were targeted with 1 1/4-ounce in 2 3/4-inch shells.