![]() With a 3-inch chamber, it weighs only a little more. The “modern” 20-gauge is more of an all-around shotgun, used much like a traditional 12-gauge on anything from upland birds to waterfowl. Once in a while Eileen lets John borrow her 20 for “field-testing,” pictured here with a couple of white-fronted geese taken with Hevi-Shot handloads. Thompson of Oklahoma State University firmly stated in their small but exhaustively researched book Mysteries of Shotgun Patterns, published in 1957, “It is the shot load that kills, not the gauge.” The 3-inch 20-gauge killed at least as well as the long-time standard 12-gauge duck load using soft shot in paper shells. Even before this new technology, most shooters judged “shot-killing power” by the gauge. Like most humans, many shooters are slow to accept technological change. As a result, the 3-inch 20-gauge put considerably more shot into long-range patterns, and the harder shot penetrated deeper. But the 3-inch 20-gauge magnum was loaded with up to 20 percent more shot, and the shot was often harder-sometimes even copper-plated-and held in a protective plastic cup. This was the 20-gauge round hunters knew when the 3-inch 20-gauge appeared, and the reason most considered it suitable only for moderate-range upland birds. Even when SAAMI standardized the 20-gauge chamber length at 2-3/4 inches, the shot charge only increased to an ounce, not enough to improve long-range performance with “drop” (soft) lead shot loaded in paper shells with felt and paper wads. In 1916, the “standard” 20-gauge load used a 2-1/2-inch shell loaded with 7/8 ounces of shot. This wasn’t uncommon back then, because the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI) wasn’t organized until over a decade later, bringing some order to the chaos of various ammo and firearm companies, each deciding on their own cartridge and chamber dimensions. However, no loaded 20-gauge ammo with 3-inch shells was listed, so obviously the 3-inch empties were for custom shotguns. ![]() catalog listed 20-gauge “empty paper shotshells” in five lengths up to 3 inches. For example, the 1916 Winchester Repeating Arms Co. New and revolutionary are in quotations marks because 3-inch 20-gauge shells weren’t completely unknown before 1960. This was also when the supposedly “new and revolutionary” 3-inch 20-gauge magnum appeared, allowing the use of what was then considered the standard 12-gauge “duck load” of 1-1/4 ounces of shot. ![]()
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