A hammer bit for drilling a borehole in earthen formations includes a bit body having a bit axis and a bit face, a plurality of gage cutter elements mounted to the bit face in a circumferential gage row, and a plurality of adjacent to gage cutter elements mounted to the bit face in a circumferential row that is radially adjacent the gage row. The ratio of the radial overlap distance to the radial span distance between radially overlapping gage cutter elements and adjacent to gage cutter elements is greater than 0.25. The ratio of the radial overlap distances to the diameter of the gage cutter element is greater than 0.25. An average cutting area of the gage cutter elements per gage cutter element is less than an average surface area of an entire cutting surface of each of the gage cutter elements.