The Short Ten - How many shooting one?

[Alan B. Webber]

Originally Posted by thaynedelange

I shoot a grade 3 lifter with 28" factory length barrels. Fabulous gun. If truth be told...the 10 bore is the magic gauge. The old timers knew this very well. Then someone said a hunting double needed to be light. What a crock! Once you shoot a 10 you won't want to shoot anything else. Just my opinion of course.

Your right. 10's are the most fun. I shoot short 10 RST 1/1/4 oz 7.5 loads at ZZTrap once in a while with my d grade #6 frame guns (hammerless and hammer) and though the loads are pretty slow they bust the plastic real well. 41/4 drams of black powder (Track of the Wolfe CNC machined brass cases)with about 1 1/4 oz of lead (or bismuth)are really deadly on ducks and geese (and a real crowd pleaser). 3 1/2 " 1 3/8 oz of steel in my D grade #3 frame are the deadliest. You can easily kill a mallard, goose or driven pheasant at 70 yards if you can reconcile the lead you have to give them. The 3.5" gun does kick. I can't do 1 5/8 oz anymore although I just put an ISIS pad on it for the coming duck season so we'll see.
By the way a great way to clean a lot of the soot out of your black powder barrels after a days shelling is to shoot a couple of final smokeless loads through them. It doesn't take nearly as much soap and water after that.