Hey Guys,

Although I'd be very surprised to learn that I was the first person 
to do this, here goes:

Given the frequency of finding round lead ball and shot on historic 
sites, and the fact that it has often been distorted in use, making 
it difficult to accurately measure, I came up with an Excel table 
that allows you to simply weigh the large shot or ball, and determine 
gauge and/or caliber.  Of course, this assumes the shot or ball was 
originally round and is still essentially whole ...

I created the conversion table to range from 1-200 Gauge or 1.671 - 
0.28 caliber, which should cover most anything firearms-related (and 
even small cannon :-) ).  I realize  that there were 2 and 4  gauge 
market shotguns out there, but it would be unlikely for them to be 
shooting solid full-bore projectiles.  By the same token, anything 
smaller than .28 caliber would almost certainly fall into the 
buckshot or shotgun pellet range, where caliber measurement would be 
largely unnecessary.

Note that I have cross-referenced GAUGE, CALIBER, GRAIN WGT, GRAM 
WEIGHT, and ROUNDED GRAM WEIGHT and ROUNDED CALIBER.   This should 
cross-correlate with historic sources, as well as modern literature, 
and lab data.

I have not added information about standard sizes of buckshot, 
shotgun pellets, etc., as that data is pretty readily available on 
the web (Wikipedia).

If anybody wants a copy, please send me an e-mail and I will forward.

Mark

P.S.  Again, if somebody has already done this in a easily accessible 
format, just ignore.


-- 

Mark C. Branstner, RPA
Historic Archaeologist

Illinois Transportation
Archaeological Research Program
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
209 Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
23 East Stadium Drive
Champaign, IL 61820

Phone: 217.244.0892
Fax: 217.244.7458
Cell: 517.927.4556
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"I hope there's pudding" - Luna Lovegood (HP5)