Buckaroo8
Well-Known Member
OK then lads, here's a question we have sought the answer to for many years. Not bullets this time, so perhaps no one will know, but shotgun pellets.
Simple? Why is a No 6, or a 5 or a 7 or whatever given that designation? It, the number, means nothing - or, do the learned members on here know better? Add to that, that the French, since we have been talking about them, use different numbers as far as I recall. Metric designations have no relation to anything.
A very big HELP request chaps.
I had a look at a book published in 1856, written by Dr John Henry Walsh and it describes this:
SHOT.- The different kinds and sizes of shot are as follows, according to the list issued by Messrs.Walker and Parker, who are generally considered the first makers of the day:-
AA contains in the oz 40 pellets
A contains in the oz 50 pellets
BB contains in the oz 58 pellets
B contains in the oz 75 pellets
1 contains in the oz 82 pellets
2 contains in the oz 112 pellets
3 contains in the oz 135 pellets
4 contains in the oz 177 pellets
5 contains in the oz 218 pellets
6 contains in the oz 280 pellets
7 contains in the oz 341 pellets
8 contains in the oz 600 pellets
9 contains in the oz 984 pellets
10 contains in the oz 1726 pellets
Dust shot variable.
There is no mention of how "Messrs Walker and Parker" came to give these numbers to represent the number of pellets to the ounce. I am no mathematician but I can't see much of a pattern there either.