10 gauge

[GWP HUNTER]

any 10ga hunters in here? just pick up a gold lite for geese/ ducks . i know its overkill for ducks but so is a 300 win mag people use for california deer. i have a sbe 3 and i love it but wanted a 10ga.
if you have one how you like it?

[_GreyHound510]

Is it a double 10g??

[Kevin11mee]

The 10 ga is awesome. No such thing as too dead. Like someone somewhere at some point once said, the only reason I shoot 3.5's at ducks is they don't make 4 inchers. Seriously, both my dad and uncle shot Ithaca 10ga and they are hammers.

[mausercat]

I had a co-worker who used to use an Ithaca Semi-Auto back in the 70's and 80's back when steel shoot was still not very good. He switched to a Remington 11-87 with 3 inch shells because he said that the newer shells were as effective as early steel 10 gauge shells.

I think that the new 3 inch tungsten shells make 3.5 inch 12 gauge shells and 10 gauge obsolete. Sure they are expensive, but you don't shoot that many. I have had very good luck with them. They pattern very well and have great energy.

[Slow]

More pellets = more pattern density. The advent of bismuth that isn't as frangible as the old days might herald a new day for the mighty 10 ga.

At the end of the day the price to reload specialty non-tox shot is a rounding error for what most of us spend on waterfowl hunting. With that in mind, I'm planning on reloading bismuth 2s to see how well they do on geese next year.

[NaClAddict]

I used custom 2 3/4” bismuth #5’s this year and found them as good as the 3” #2 rio and heavi shot. Used to have a lot of dropping feathers without downing the duck with #2, I think more pellets in the spread is better.

[sargenv]

I used the 10 for a few seasons and I still bring it out now and then when shooting geese for later in the season. I reload for it but the main issue is that the hulls are really only good for about 3-4 loadings. The Browning Gold beats up the hulls pretty well. 1 1/4 oz of #2's are great for ducks and my preferred load for geese was 1 3/8 oz of BBB steel loaded to about 1525 fps. I haven't tried to load anything too exotic in the 10 due to the costly price tag. I'm going to stick to loading the 18 gm/cc shot for the smaller gauges.

With the 3.5" Stoeger or Benelli SBE II in 12 ga. Pretty much relegated the 10 to the safe more often than not. The Gold 10 was good at one thing over the 12 Ga 3.5 guns, it had the heft to handle the added recoil expected.

[Ark001]

I don't use mine exclusively for small ducks, but if I'm hunting mallards or going somewhere to shoot both ducks and geese, I use the 10 fairly often.

[edgerly779]

Very expensive ammo.

[200Apples]

^ ^ ^ less expensive when reloaded.


I still kick myself for passing up a 10ga bolt shotgun I saw at MBRetting many years ago... the barrel must have been 34".

I wouldn't use it for hunting since I'm not a shotgun hunter (yet) but I had fancied chopping the barrel and using the firearm as an 18" barrelled, shoulder-fired cannon.

For, you know, zombies. Just think of the buck loads one could come up with. Then again, my aging shoulder...

[Imageview]

Not to be an enabler, but there are several marlin super gooses up on GunBroker. And since you appreciate a fine marlin anyways...

[200Apples]

Who, me?

Tempting but I just dumped a small fortune into a 6-speed transmission repair.

There goes any fun budget for at least three months. Thanks for the heads up, though!

[THBailey]

Does my 10ga Pedersoli SxS front stuffer count? I feed it RotoMetals bismuth/tin shot and it smacks the waterfowl and turkeys with authority.