10 gauge to 12/20 gauge adapters
 

Has anyone used these with satisfactory results? I’m interested to know the brand and how well they worked for you. It would seem there would be a problem with the gas seal but maybe not.

I use 10ga to 12ga little skeeters in my Ithaca Flues 10ga. They work great with target loads. I have 4 so I can shoot a station at sporting clays. I also use 16ga to 28ga little skeeters, but the real savings is in the 10ga. A ten pound 10ga with 12ga target loads has very little recoil. Good luck

Another type of those were called GaugeMates. The Gold version worked with ejectors. I dont know if they are still made, but may be available on EBAY or Amazon.

Yes the little skeeters are fun in a 10 ga I use 20 and 12 ga

I had a pair of the gold Gaugemates but in 10ga/16ga.
They have rubber o rings around them to seal in the chamber.
I didnt particularly care for them, they made my guns really hard to close. Although I had one 10ga that was a little off the face and they would make it close like a vault door.

Im not sure anyone has actually done any chronograph testing with these gauge adapters. The 16 gauge loads I was shooting were 1 1/8oz @ 1350fps and they kicked noticeably harder than the RSTs 1 1/8oz @ 1150 fps. So I dont think the over sized bore is hurting velocity that much .

The OP I think meant the smaller wads sealing or filling the larger gauge barrels . I’ve used the Briley shorty tubes in 12 gauge O/U plenty times with no issue if 20 , 28 or 410 . I will say with the shorty tubes 410 factory skeet loads seemed a good bit louder coming out of a 12 gauge barrel .

That’s correct 6pt-Sika, I was wondering how the shot charge/wad seals down the barrel and if there was a velocity drop. I’m inclined to guess 10 to 12 would work fine. I remember Stan Baker used to essentially put a 10 gauge barrel on 12 gauge guns for better patterns, maybe “flatter”.

It’s a fair point about chamber sealing though, anyone had trouble with inserts regarding that?

So far we have gauge mate, skeeter and Briley as available brands to check out.

I'm only set up to reload five gauges and 10-gauge isn't one of them. I've had good luck with the 10- to 12-gauge Gauge Mates and my Remington STS 12-gauge reloads. I also have a set of the Browning Little Skeeters but it is often difficult to get the empty hull out of them.

I don't believe the Gaugemates had a rubber o ring. Those were Chambermates. At least all the Gaugemates I've had or still own never had o rings. The Golds came in a soft case with a brush and tool to remove them. They also had part of the lip removed so they could be used with ejectors. They also cost 150 compared to the $50 " Silver " Gaugemates. I only got bit one time. After that I'd just grind off a 1/4 of the lip and have the same thing without the little accessory pack. At one time I had 12/28 and they worked of skeet ok. I never did understand how the bore could be so much bigger and still work. Guess everything happens within the shell. They aren't made anymore. The last I knew was they only were making adapters for pistols or rifles.

These are the ones I had but in 10-16ga. I didnt really care for them they didnt extract well and the orings were fragile .Never tried any like the little skeeters but if I was to buy chamber adapters again I would probably go with something like those .Or if I was going to shoot that many sub gauge shells spend the money on the Briley tubes .

I had trouble getting the shells out of the skeeters so I split them long ways with aair drven cutter worked fine no problems since...I use the 8 ga to 12 ga a whole lot even use 10 ga in the 8 ga at times...patterns very good.....even killed a turkey this way....charlie

First ones I have seen with the o rings. Learn something new every day.

It was one of those ideas that sounds good on paper but is flawed in practice .
Even when the extractors would remove the adapter you still had to use a rod to remove the cases from the adapters. I think when it comes to gauge adapters its best to KISS ( Keep it simple stupid) as my AG shop teacher used to say :rotf: . Honestly though for me vintage double gun collecting is such a expensive hobby worrying about shell cost is a non starter for me .

On my " silver " some of the lip was removed like a " gold " so the fingernail could be inserted under the rim of the shell so it could be removed without removing the adapter.

Yeah the shells I were using would always get stuck in them. I think maybe the heavier loads werent meant to be fired in the adapters .

There used to be some plastic adaptors, I bought a pack of 25, 12 to 20 to shoot a special club match, they weren't very expensive and worked fine. I'd load all 25 and drop them in my bag and push out the empties and reload them between rounds..

Here are some samples
chambermates left Gaugemate silver middle and Gaugemate gold right

https://i.imgur.com/OSTuGpv.jpg

I also use gage mates and skeeters 10 ga to 12 ga...they work very well...I took a little die grinder and split the skeeters shell comes out real easy...also use the savage 410 to 12 ga insert works well....charlie