Mark, You could do what I am going to do this Turkey season with my short, short 2 5/8" 10 gauge lifter...brass shells loaded with black powder. It will be the first time for me, but I am really looking forward to it. I have been shooting sporting regularly with black powder shells for the last 3-4 years. Track of the Wolf makes some nice 10 gauge 2 5/8" shells, that even have Parker stamped on them.
I do not reload smokeless for 10 gauge yet, but have shot 2 5/8" RST 10 gauges shells out of my older lifters. I believe they are 1 1/8 oz 1100fps and kick more than they probably should given the chamber issue you described. Still very manageble, but isn't exactly a hunting load. I am going to play around with some 1oz. loads for target shooting when I start reloading, but that is another story...
I like the black powder shells and I am looking forward to doing my first hunt with them this spring. I will either load 3 or 3 1/4 drams of 2f with 1 1/4 or 1 3/8oz. of shot. There are some good videos from MidwayUSA on loading brass shells and Track of the Wolf sells a great reloading manual as well. And the 10 gauge brass shells are just a little too cool on top of everything else.
Here is a video of me shooting a mixture of both with an older lifter I recently sold:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaVyEPISyKk
Good luck!
Jay
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