The 10 bore handles 1 ¼ oz. of shot better than the 12 bore. The 10 bore makes a great waterfowl gun and it patterns larger shot better than most 12 bores. I don’t shoot larger than #4 in a 12 except when I could get #3’ back in the day for geese. I never owned a 12 that patterned 2’s worth a damn. The 10 might do ok with them, but since I don’t use 2’s for waterfowl there is no need to pattern one of my 10’s with them. I would suggest that if one wants to use larger than #4 shot in a 12 bore that they take some shots at paper and see what the patterns look like. You might be unpleasantly surprised. I used to do a lot of pattern work with my guns and know the shot size limitations, for optimum performance, for the different gauges.
Back in the day, I used to kill deer in a thick swamp with buckshot. Patterns were awful with 00 buck but I found that I could get decent 40 yard patterns with #1 buck, but only if I melted wax around the shot. That worked pretty well. I wish I had a 10 bore back in those days for buckshot.
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