10 gauge Quail Loads

[CraigThompson]

I've mentioned on here or there that I have a Grade 1 top lever 2 frame 10 gauge that left the factory with two sets of barrels 26" and 30" . Today I decided to try 1 ounce as well as 1 1/8 ounce . In the past I'd have used Red Dot but in my infinite wisdom I saw fit to sell close to thirty pounds of the stuff in the last 6 months and I now have none . I do however have close to twenty pounds of Green Dot and the Alliant manual shows several 1 as well as 1 1/8 ounce loads for the 12 gauge using Green Dot . I pretty much settled on a #32 MEC bushing which the book says throws 19.6 grains and no I didn't weigh it . I first tried a couple with 1 1/8 using red beans to displace space as well as a couple using 16 gauge 1/8" cards . In both I used a 10 gauge overshot card to keep the crimp relatively flat . Strangely the ones with the 16 gauge cards seemed a bit more stout . But nice enough none the less . I then put the ounce charge bar in and again used the MEC #32 bushing loaded two with redbenas and over shot card then two with 16 gauge spacers and an over shot card . Talk about powder puff loads these were it atleast in the snail , I'll need to load a few more to see how the pattern looks at 25 yards from the wide open 26" barrels . It's worth a mention when loading each version I'd load one in a RST hull and one in a REM hull and saw no noticable difference based on the hulls . If the patterns look decent I'll have to try a few rounds of skeet with the once loads . If I can hit skeet birds well enough to suit me the quail will be in for a world of hurt if they flush in my quadrant .

[charlie cleveland]

what does your 10 ga quail gun weigh....I bet that it will be hard to miss a bird with them short open bores....charlie

[CraigThompson]

what does your 10 ga quail gun weigh....I bet that it will be hard to miss a bird with them short open bores....charlie

I’ve not weighed it but with the short barrels I’m assuming 7 1/2 or less .

[Reggie Bishop]

10 gauge and quail shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence.

[Stan Hillis]

10 gauge and quail shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence.

Amen, and Amen.

[CraigThompson]

10 gauge and quail shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence.

Don’t care , got it may as well use it !

[Dave Tatman]

You'll save time on cleaning. Not hard to breast out a pile of feathers.....

:rotf:

Dave

[CraigThompson]

You'll save time on cleaning. Not hard to breast out a pile of feathers.....

:rotf:

Dave

Well for the life of me I can’t see how an ounce of shot from a 10 gauge will be and harder on the quail than an ounce of shot from a 16 or 20 gauge .

[George Davis]

Gentleman, those will be Virginia Quail large, fat, dumb, lazy and been laying around for years living on tax payers handouts.

[Keith Doty]

Craig, I'm concerned about you suffering a back injury carrying that in the field!

[CraigThompson]

Craig, I'm concerned about you suffering a back injury carrying that in the field!

Amazingly the gun isn’t that bad weight wise . Where we quail shoot at Rasawek we’re typically only out 2-3 hours so it’s not to strenuous .

[Dave Noreen]

117829

[charlie cleveland]

back in the daythe 10 ga was king even hunting quail...charlie

[Dave Noreen]

No it wasn't. According to the presentation Charlie Price did on gauges for the PGCA 7th Annual Meeting & Conference in Cleveland, 21 July 2001, 10-gauge production peaked in the 1881 to 1885 time frame at 44% of production while 12-gauge was 54% in that period. After that 10-gauge production dropped off steeply and after 1900 it was 1% or less.

[CraigThompson]

Got around to trying the 1 1/8 Green Dot loads both with REM and BPI wads . Shot a round with each using a 28” EH and a 26” Grade 1 top lever . Shot a pair of 23’s at skeet missing the same two birds both times . Needless to say no fault of the guns no fault of the loads just the nut on the stock :whistle:

[Pete Lester]

No it wasn't. According to the presentation Charlie Price did on gauges for the PGCA 7th Annual Meeting & Conference in Cleveland, 21 July 2001, 10-gauge production peaked in the 1881 to 1885 time frame at 44% of production while 12-gauge was 54% in that period. After that 10-gauge production dropped off steeply and after 1900 it was 1% or less.

What do you attribute as the cause of the sharp decline? Was it the advent of smokeless powder making smaller bores more capable?

[Bill Murphy]

Trap association rules and pigeon shooting rules, both of which I am a bit rusty on. Anyone remember the details? Reverend Drew?