M L shotguns

[kurt varga]

dumb queston, but i'll ask any. just bought a english fowler 12 ga from caywood, beautiful firearm. i know that the loads are by vol equal powder to shot, now the question, by vol does no. 8shot weight the same as no 4 shot, i would weight some but only have one size shot. to me it seems that the #8 would be denser load and would weigh more, by vol.

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[Patrick Chadwick]

The density of lead is the same in both cases. The volume of a sphere as a function of the radius is the same in both cases. So, with perfect packing one would expect the weight per unit volume to be the same.

HOWEVER - the packing is not and can never be perfect, because of the "boundary conditions" i.e. the shot being poured into a cylindrical space. This means that the packing efficiency at the edges is worse for the coarser shot. So the finer shot will actually pack a little more weight into the same volume.

Patrick

[jjroth]

Dixie gun works catalog, there a bunch of BP info in the back section.