Gents:
Years ago I recall reading the proper weight for an English shotgun was 96 times the weight of the shot charge. Does this sound familiar to you? Some brief calculations show the following:

1 ounce of shot x 96 equals 96 ounces or 6 pounds

1 1/8 ounces of shot x 96 equals 108 ounces or 6 3/4 pounds

1 1/4 ounces of shot x 96 equals 120 ounces or 7 1/2 pounds

1 1/2 ounces of shot x 96 equals 144 ounces or 9 pounds

2 1/2 ounces of shot x 96 equals 240 ounces or 16 pounds

3 1/2 ounces of shot x 96 equals 336 ounces or 21 pounds

I have shotguns in all of the above weights and the rule seems to fit--from my very light W&C Scott hammer gun and one ounce to an 8 bore and 2 1/2 ounces and a 4-bore proofed for 3 1/2 ounces. The weight of the guns are spot on.

Cal

I can't say much about weights in general for English guns.

My great grandfather's J. Lang seems a bit light by this (10 ga hammer gun) which is about 8#.

Personally, with modern guns those weights seem awfully heavy to me.

For competition guns that seems light. Many of the serious clays competitors using 28 gram to 1 1/8 oz loads seem to be using 8 to 9 pound guns.

It is Greener's old rule. However there was no hard and fast rule as such with English shot guns.

So you will see Purdey guns, Boss guns and etc that weight 6lbs 12 ounces or even up to 7lbs chambered for the standard British 2 1/2" cartridge.

This was because the often favoured selecetion was 1 ounce of #7, 1 1/16 ounce #6, 1 1/8 ounce #5.

So the customer would get a gun made at say just about 6lbs 4 ounces if all he ever wanted to do was shot 1 ounce loads.

For a hunting gun, sounds about right for my use. For a serious trap, clay, or skeet gun, 8 pounds is about right.

I do most all of my hunting with a 5-pound 28 ga now.