The Mighty Short Ten
 

I went over to S. Berwick Maine to shoot some practice trap with my 32" NH. It's not a looker but sure shoots well. I had some 1 1/8 ounce 7.5's pushed along with 700x. They were shooting what they called Helter Skelter. Shooters standing at the 16 yard line but not changing stations. Somebody would call pull and another shooter might shoot it out from under them or if there was a miss there might be two or three shots at the same bird. I layed in wait for each target that was missed by at least two and often three shooters. Then I gave it some windage and figured in some drop and Whamo! I was on my game and the Big 10 busted 44 or 45 out the 50 long range droppers I shot at. It hit them hard too. Almost everyone there asked what I was shooting. They smiled when they saw it was 10ga, most never heard of 2 7/8 shells and all were stunned the gun was 117 years old. I joked with them that you would think there would have been some improvements to shotguns over 117 years :rotf:. The short ten Parker's are simply amazing in their long range performance.

Until you actually shoot a short ten for awhile you can not fully appreciate just how much more capable they are vs. a standard 12ga at long range targets.

Pete,
Great job! :bowdown:

I can't wait till I can take my 10 gauge Colt with 36 inch barrels out to the range.

Ken

Pete I have no doubt that the Parker 10s (of which I don't own) border on the mystical in their clay crushing abilities, but I would have to say that it's probably the "nut behind the bolt" that does the trick. I'll bet you can do the same thing with a 12.

Pete,

You are spot on. Those 10 gauge Parkers are nothing less than magicians wand and work so wonderfully with lite loads. We used to play cames like chip and out, killer, buddy and a few others for money and if you got lucky you could pay for the shooting. I didn't have a 10 in those day, but i'm sure everyone would have cried foul.

Harry

nothen better than the 10 for the hunting we do(pete,bob,bill). the 12 does not shoot as well or hit as hard with the bigger shot as the 10. i have done alot of shooting with my light 10 and heavy 10 the last few years and i am still in awe in what it can do at the long shot.:bowdown:

Ed, same nut behind the butt here reporting. I own several long barreled tight choke 12's. They do not and I believe can not break the targets as hard and consistently hard as the short 10 at long range. There is a huge difference. I shot registered trap for 15 years and shot nothing less than 1 1/8 7.5's for everything. I have observed tens or thousands of breaks. There appears to be no making up for the efficiencies of the larger bore.

the 10 ga is an awsome thing. i have shot game with the short 10 forover 45 years.best all arond gauge in my book. but the mighty 8 ga andthe monster 4 bore are truly impressive also. charlie

You are all getting me 10 ga excited, which I have never owned, but hope to own the Parker two barrel set on Gunbroker so I too can join in on the excitement that I can feel in your writings. It's a 126 year old gun and I hope it's shootable.

Bill

I love mine too... even though it was "bitten by the tiger" as Mr. Day would say. 32" fluid steel PH. Hammers the game!

Kudo's to you, I'd like to see the reaction on their faces when the mighty 10 smoked those birds. I'm not familiar with Parker 10's, what size of frame were the majority built on, and what was the lightest available? Just wondering