The "gauge" of a shotgun - or "bore" if you prefer - is determined by the number of spherical balls of lead of a particular diameter which will exactly equal 1 pound in weight. It doesn't matter if you're shooting lead, steel or aluminum, the bore size has been predetermined with spheres of pure lead. An eight gauge bore tells us that the bore is of a size that eight spheres of lead of that particular diameter will exactly equal one pound. A twenty gauge, on the other hand, will require twenty spheres of another particular diameter to equal one pound.
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