hi, anybody out there got advise on 10 guage guns and amo?i have always been curious about 10 guage,but they now seem more available than ever and i am thinking of picking one up to shoot duck / geese.
i have been looking at remingtons sp10,are they up to much?what alternatives are out there ? any advise ? thanks.

Welcome to the forum bandit. Rules are simple, be nice and join in.

Remington SP 10's are nice guns, but the advent of the 3.5 inch 12's make them almost obsolete. The advantage of the big 12's is you can shoot most everything from light trap loads to loads that equal or almost equal anything a 10 can do. That's a real advantage to folks that don't want to tie up the money for a dedicated 10 gauge.

I shoot a Mossy 835 for a turkey gun and with an aimpoint 5000 red dot sight on top it's good to a little past 60 yards.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q172/faucettb/Preditor%20masters/Mossberg835-1.jpg

Most all of your modern shotgun loads are all at the same velocity. You just gotta determine how much shot you want to be able to throw.

The 10ga will surpass the 3 1/2" 12 ga only in the shot charge vs. velocity thing. And this,not by much.

I have 3, 10 gauges. Two NEF/H&R singles and one Rem SP10. I had these before the invent of the 3.5",12 gauge.

I used the SP10 for yotes in Maine. Also for the high flying Snows and Canadians on their way down from the north country.

I love the 10ga. It really shines with a really good choke. I favor the Pattern Master. It will keep your shot groups fairly tight at 70yds. I killed bunches of coyotes at that range using #4buck and some of the larger steel shot.

Before the invent of the 3.5",12ga the 10 really shined. Now.....well.....the choice is yours. ----pruhdlr

The only reason I bought a 10 is that 000 Buckshot stacks properly in it. Definitely not a reason for most folks, it's just that I like to play with Buckshot. ;)

DC

just saying 10 gauge makes my shoulder hurt.......

I know this is going to ruffle some feathers because it goes against the myths that have been perpetrated since flintlock fowlers were state of the art equipment. A larger shot payload in a smaller bore does not do diddly-squat for effective wing shooting. Once you exceed a balanced loading, you begin to create a variety of issues from pellet acceleration deformation to excessive string length. A properly built 1.625oz load in a 10ga is far more effective than a 2.25oz load in 12ga. This is one of my biggest pet peeves since I used to be one of the “bigger is better” crowd until I started shooting a lot of paper… If you’re going with a 10ga, don’t shy away from one with a 2.875” chamber, that’s plenty enough room to build an excellent load. If you get one with a 3.5” chamber it’s not a problem, you’ll just have more room for additional cushioning that will allow you to push the load a little harder.

Anyway, to answer your specific question on a 10ga, the absolute best one I ever owned was a butt-ugly old Brazilian made double. It was the finest German engineering, perfectly fitted parts that came together into a weapon that was perfectly fitted to the shooter - but oh man, was she just ugly to look at because the outside was all buggered up and hid the internal beauty. Anyway, unless you plan to shell out around $7.5K, you can forget about getting a finely crafted double or you can search the old gun racks and maybe get lucky. There are cheaper ones available that will function well but they are going to be of the Brutus types with no grace to them.

I had an Ithaca Mag-10 for a while, good gun but extremely picky on what loads it would reliably cycle. Marlin super-goose bolt action, definitely no grace in this one but very much functional, you can gain a lot of benefit from taking a rasp to it and shaving a few pounds off it to improve the handling – some other work can also be done to these to improve these guns far beyond the way the come in the OEM configuration. Older “H&R” single (pre-NEF), another function only gun, not bad but they take some getting used to. Last, but not least, I had a Hausman pump that was also excellent (design based on the Winchester model 25) smooth handling even though it had a 34” barrel and what made it wonderfully accurate was the three-bead sight picture. This one was also exceptionally comfortable to carry and shoot.

Economy wise, the NEF is probably the best choice. Add the two extra sight beads and train yourself in the art of rapid reloading of a single by keeping an extra round or two stuck between the fingers of your trigger hand.

I know this is going to ruffle some feathers because it goes against the myths that have been perpetrated since flintlock fowlers were state of the art equipment. A larger shot payload in a smaller bore does not do diddly-squat for effective wing shooting. Once you exceed a balanced loading, you begin to create a variety of issues from pellet acceleration deformation to excessive string length. A properly built 1.625oz load in a 10ga is far more effective than a 2.25oz load in 12ga. This is one of my biggest pet peeves since I used to be one of the “bigger is better” crowd until I started shooting a lot of paper… If you’re going with a 10ga, don’t shy away from one with a 2.875” chamber, that’s plenty enough room to build an excellent load. If you get one with a 3.5” chamber it’s not a problem, you’ll just have more room for additional cushioning that will allow you to push the load a little harder.

Anyway, to answer your specific question on a 10ga, the absolute best one I ever owned was a butt-ugly old Brazilian made double. It was the finest German engineering, perfectly fitted parts that came together into a weapon that was perfectly fitted to the shooter - but oh man, was she just ugly to look at because the outside was all buggered up and hid the internal beauty. Anyway, unless you plan to shell out around $7.5K, you can forget about getting a finely crafted double or you can search the old gun racks and maybe get lucky. There are cheaper ones available that will function well but they are going to be of the Brutus types with no grace to them.

I had an Ithaca Mag-10 for a while, good gun but extremely picky on what loads it would reliably cycle. Marlin super-goose bolt action, definitely no grace in this one but very much functional, you can gain a lot of benefit from taking a rasp to it and shaving a few pounds off it to improve the handling – some other work can also be done to these to improve these guns far beyond the way the come in the OEM configuration. Older “H&R” single (pre-NEF), another function only gun, not bad but they take some getting used to. Last, but not least, I had a Hausman pump that was also excellent (design based on the Winchester model 25) smooth handling even though it had a 34” barrel and what made it wonderfully accurate was the three-bead sight picture. This one was also exceptionally comfortable to carry and shoot.

Economy wise, the NEF is probably the best choice. Add the two extra sight beads and train yourself in the art of rapid reloading of a single by keeping an extra round or two stuck between the fingers of your trigger hand.



thanks to everybody that replied, some intresting views, very intresting i am even more curious now , thanks again