Sandhills & Short Ten
Earlier in the year I purchased a NH short ten gauge from a member off the for sale section here. My intentions for the gun was to hunt Sandhill Cranes with it this fall. I connected with some sandhill's with it last weekend in Oklahoma. It been a fun adventure researching non-toxic loads for it, getting the components together and finally bringing down some birds with the gun & ammo.
The gun is a 3 framed NH-10 2 7/8" chamber 32" twist barrels all original and 120 years young. The load was found in the ballistic products ITX manual. It consisted of cut down new primed Cheddite hulls roll crimped with 1 3/8oz of ITX Original-10 shot a PT1044 wad and 44gr blue dot powder advertised as 7300psi @ 1200fps. I'm pleased with the load overall. If I did my part it dropped the cranes stone dead. The only druthers I had is the load is a bit dirty and leaves some residue in the barrels. I can't detect any problems in the bores with the ITX-10 shot.
I also had a buddy shooting his Fox HE along side me. What a hoot it is shooting a 120 year old gun with modern loads. It sure turned some heads with the guides and the others in blind.
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