doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The 24 Gauge: An Oddity

Last week in a gun shop in FL I saw 3 boxes of 24ga and 4 boxes of 32ga on the shelf. Owner said he sells a few boxes a year.

I see Ballistic Products has Cheddite hulls available when they are in stock. I think BP has developed some new recipes for these in there newer reloading manuals. I'm not sure where one would find a 24 gauge gun for sale if looking for one. When I look at all the main websites and auction firms they are few and far between in the US.

As stated earlier I own and regularly shoot a 24 gauge. A French BLNE in near mint condition and weighs 5 1/4 pounds. It is my play gun when messing around at a preserve or late day dog walk with a chance of quail.

I have shot both reloads and factory ammo without issue. I even had RMC make 30 brass hulls for it, though I have not used them yet.

The up side is they can be super light weight guns. In Europe they have 24 gauge shells at 2 1/2, 2 3/4, and 3 in. The common available shell in the USA are 2 1/2 are 11/16 ounce (Fiochi) and 3/4 ounce (RST). Shells are not easy to find, though I have stockpiled RST shells when they were available.

Reloading dies maybe out there, but I have not seen, that said I have found roll crimping easy. I use a GAEP crimper.

The down side is limited tested reloading data available. Most data is for 3/4 and 5/8 ounce. Also i do not know of anyone who can test 2 1/2 in 24ga loads. There are only 2 tested 7/8 ounce loads, one blue dot, the other 4756. I have used the 4756 load with good effects. I have not found any other 7/8 ounce data, or even better 15/16 or 1 ounce data.

I have a Rizzini double. Haven't shot it yet. Actually, Fiochi 24 and 32 ga shells are pretty available and not nearly as expensive as most 28 ga.

410 = 1/2
32 ga = 5/8 oz
28 ga = 3/4 0z
24 ga = 13/16 oz
20 ga = 7/8 oz'

BP wads
May cut off the bottom recoil section of the wad to
allow room for the shot

A 24 gauge is strictly for relief of boredom.
JR

24 ga. There are about 74 Beretta 24 gauge o/u guns in the US. I imported them. 12 were single trigger. This was in the early 80s, found them at Beretta in Italy on my first trips there. Sold them in the US at the time for $995 and that included 2 boxes of shells.

I also have Ferlib make me a couple of 24 gauges and a couple of 32 gauges.

I have the first 24 ga that Arrieta can remember making. I have shot it at quail.

John Boyd
Quality ARms

I can’t recall having enough boredom to try to eliminate it with a 24 gauge.

YMMV.

Best,
Ted

If you search Halifax I made a posting of a gun I purchased in 2018 it was a 24 gauge.

I have a very highly adorned German Damascus 2 barrel set, one set being 28” 20ga and the other 30” 24ga. I believe it to be from around 1890. It only has black powder proofs as I recall. I’ll get pictures and try to re-remember how to post them.