This article deals with traditional hunting amunitions in paper cases, intended for smooth-bore shotgun. The paper describes the development of gunshot cartridges in historical terms, with particular emphasis on the origins and development of systems, initiating the combustion of subsequent generations of propelling cargo. The work gives an author’s look into the uprising process of an integrating gunshot cartridge. The article contains a number of information about historical cartridges, currently not to be found, their dimensions, markings and ignition systems. The described cartridges are often examples of rare and long-lasting constructional solutions, that have been made to create a modern cartridge in weight scale calibers. The presented work includes a number of numerical data as well as ballistic, obsolete and archaic today’s cartridges, with dimensions and ballistic properties. Some of the theses and data in this paper contained, according to the author’s knowledge, are for the first time presented in the literature, and others can be found, but it is very tedious because of their dispersion in the literature or the availability of hard to find and unstable internet sources.