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The "penny weight" is new to me but I have heard of taking the shot charge and multiplying it times 96. This would give 6lbs-12oz for 1-1/8oz and 6lbs-6oz for 1-1/16. I think I read it in a GT Garwood book.

Best,

Mike

I think someone brought this up before; modern factory hunting loads have been getting faster and energy levels have come up. A 20g often is shooting a load with the same or more energy as some old 12g loads in guns about the same weight as those older 12g guns. No free lunch.

Amarillomike,
I was told x100.... perhaps Garwood was opting for an additional 4% safety margin.


Over the years, I've tried to acquire the best example of one of these thoroughbreds I could afford to...currently I have a double proofed Rouchoux with a wrist circumference of 4 inches in 16ga...that's less that 1.3 inches in diameter...L' Abielle (Paris) sold some of the best examples but I believe they were actually produced in Belgium

I think that many factors need to be taken into consideration.
English Driven days usually involve the use of vehicles to take you to each drive so for comfort and recoil absorption the heavier gun makes sense.
Pigeon shooting over decoys usually involves transportation and then decamping to set up a hide, so a heavy gun to shoot 90 odd birds makes sense.
Walking 15 miles over a heather and bracken strewn moor to shoot grouse would require carrying a lightweight gun (or using a loader to carry your heavy beastie)if it was all walked up I would prefer a lightweight.
Joe Nickerson went from 12 to 20 to 28 guage as he grew older.
At Dig's age I would suggest he cut out the cigar's and shot a .410
Every gun has its place in your cabinet, it's really a question of horses for courses.
Incidentally I think it was W.W.Greener who suggested 96-1 as the gun to cartridge ratio.

W W Greener gave the 96:1 ratio of gun to shot wt at least as early as his 9th edition (1910). Burrard gave a recommendation based on FPS of recoil velocity, irregardless of gun wt. His recommendation will work out very close to the 96:1 ratio. Note that both of these were recommended for driven bird shooting (high volume) & for loads having a "True MV" (most vel listed my US makers is instrumental, not true MV) of around 1300 FPS.
In the overall scheme of things, personally I would consider any 12ga, except the miniature 2" guns, 6 3/4 lbs or less as falling in the light wt class.