What is "SG cartridge"?

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In Burmese Days by George Orwell, when they are waiting to shoot the leopard, "Flory took four SG cartridges from his pockets and took Elizabeth’s gun to load it silently."

What is "SG cartridge"?

The story is about Burma in the late 19th century.

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[+3] - contrex - 02/06/2013In Britain the SG in shotgun cartridge nomenclature stands for 'super game'. It refers to pellet size. A two and three quarter inch gauge SG cartridge might have a nine pellet 36 gramme charge.

View best answer, chosen by youngsking

I believe the story is about Burma in the early 20th century--whether or not, SG cartridge probably means shotgun cartridge. I've never hunted leopard, so i can't say if you do it with shotguns, but a shotgun could certainly ruin a leopard's day.

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@Setanta,

Thank you Setanta, I made a mistake about when it happened.
I think you are right. The annotation of the Chinese version says SG means Schützen Gewehr in German, meaning sniper rifle. But I figured it might be wrong.

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@youngsking,

Elizabeth’s gun could have been a Lee Enfield, they were very popular.

There were also a few Sub-Guns in use at that time... sub machine guns.

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@youngsking,

youngsking wrote:

In Burmese Days by George Orwell, when they are waiting to shoot the leopard, "Flory took four SG cartridges from his pockets and took Elizabeth’s gun to load it silently."

What is "SG cartridge"?

The story is about Burma in the late 19th century.

It refers to a size of buckshot in a shotgun shell.

Note the "Table of Buckshot Size" here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun

Quote:

000 or LG ("triple-ought")
00 or SG ("double-ought")
0 ("one-ought")
1
2 or SSG
3
4

The text of the book in English is online:
http://www.george-orwell.org/Burmese_Days/index.html

It looks like the events in question happen in Chapter 14:
http://www.george-orwell.org/Burmese_Days/13.html

(I wonder why the link to Chapter 14 has a "13" in it?)

It looks like they ran into a problem when it turned out that the guy only had birdshot in his pocket when he needed to reload the gun.

Quote:

He fired again, and there was a fresh thump as the shot went home. The leopard gasped. Flory threw open his gun and felt in his pocket for a cartridge, then flung all his cartridges on to the path and fell on his knees, searching rapidly among them.

'Damn and blast it!' he cried. 'There isn't a single SG among them. Where in hell did I put them?'

The leopard had disappeared as he fell. He was thrashing about in the undergrowth like a great, wounded snake, and crying out with a snarling, sobbing noise, savage and pitiful. The noise seemed to be coming nearer. Every cartridge Flory turned up had 6 or 8 marked on the end. The rest of the large-shot cartridges had, in fact, been left with Ko S'la.

Personally, I'm not sure I'd want to hunt an animal as dangerous as a leopard with something as short range as a shotgun.

But that doesn't mean it can't be done I guess.

I've heard of professional hunters using a semi-auto shotgun loaded with buckshot to back up clients hunting leopard. But that doesn't mean the client was also using a shotgun. A professional hunter would only be bringing their gun into play if their client were about to be attacked, meaning that the leopard would always be within range of their shotgun in any situation where they would be required to use it.

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Long-range weapons aren't very useful in forests or jungles. If you miss, you're screwed. It's kind of hard to miss with a shotgun--it's no accident that they are also referred to as scatter-guns.

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@oralloy,

You nailed it.

Quote:

Different terminology is used outside the United States.
In England and Australia, for example, 00 buckshot cartridges are commonly referred to as "S.G." (small game) cartridges.

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By the way, before someone objects that deer and other game animals are hunted in forests, deer and other games animals are often grazing animals, you line up your shot while they are standing still or moving slowly. Deer are also frequently hunted from deer stands in trees. Tigers and leopards are not grazing animals, and are unlikely to be standing still while you line up your shot. If you shoot and miss, the animal might run away, but the odds are also good that they'll attack--they don't fear men. In India, tigers were traditionally hunted with shotguns, and they were also hunted by people riding in howdahs on the backs of elephants. If the animal does attack, it can't bring down an elephant, and likely can't get at you.

Waterboy's an idiot. Orwell was in Burma in the 1920s. People weren't walking around the jungle with submachine guns in the 1920s.

EDIT: Something like a deer stand was often used in India to hunt tigers, too. Of course, the big cats can climb trees, so i think would have preferred the elephant.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Long-range weapons aren't very useful in forests or jungles.

True.

Hunting leopard in close cover must be nervous business.

1 Reply

@oralloy,

I believe it was considered the occupation of manly men.

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@Setanta,

Idiot Setagirl, you have no idea what was going on in Burma during the 1920's

1 Reply

@H2O MAN,

I have a better idea what was going on anywhere in the world in the 1920s than you do--and probably a better idea of what was going on than you have of what's going on right now in your native land.

Idiot.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Why so smug, Setagirl?
Your **** also stinks.

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In Britain the SG in shotgun cartridge nomenclature stands for 'super game'. It refers to pellet size. A two and three quarter inch gauge SG cartridge might have a nine pellet 36 gramme charge.

1 Reply

@youngsking,

Hello Community,

The Strain Gauge cartridge is not at all like any other cartridge. All other cartridges, whether moving magnet, moving coil, or moving iron, are "generators" - that is, you put motion in, and you get energy out, a tiny voltage that you amplify and send to your speakers. The key here in describing all other cartridges is in the word MOVING. All other cartridges need to move a mass around - a magnet, and iron core with wires or moving iron. They are all magnetic generating systems, which require a mass to be constantly moved to generate a voltage.

Thanks and Regards,
Knives Switchblade

1 Reply

@KnivesSwitchblade,

Shut up, you scum bag bot.

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@contrex,

Thank you for your answer. Thank you all for helping me out.
But the previous answer quotes Wikipedia and says SG means 'Small Game'. I am confused now. Small game or super game?

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@youngsking,

It appears that sg cartridges stands for small game cartridges and SG cartridges stands for super game cartridges--do you see the difference?

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Cut me some slack, Setanta
I should have imagined the big letters could make so much difference.

1 Reply

@youngsking,

Cut you some slack? I've not said anything rude to you nor insulted you. It seems to me you've got an attitude problem. I won't trouble you again with any responses.

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What is "SG cartridge"?

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