10ga 2 5/8” – Finally Dialing it In…

[Jay Oliver]

I had a wonderful morning experimenting with some short, short 10 loads shooting sporting clays. I had bought this $125 grade lifter last year and had only taking it out once. The 2 5/8” RST 1 1/8oz 1100 fps shells just had way too much recoil(to the point I was worried I might crack the stock, I only shot 2 shells). I suppose this wasn’t a surprise as there are sharp chamber shoulders in all of the 2 5/8” chamber 10ga. lifters I have. I usually resort to shooting black powder only in these early guns. I was hoping to find a better solution with this nice #2 frame 10ga. with 28” Laminated barrels choked cylinder/modified.

I decided to back off a bit and try some nitro 1oz loads and use a star crimp(The RST 2 5/8s are roll crimped, but was hoping for some simplicity and reloading speed). They worked just liked I hoped they would today. The load was 18 grains of Red Dot, 1oz. of 7 ½ shot, Remington SP-10 wad and 2-16 gauge 1/8” nitro cards. I put some addition spacers under my shell plate(which was set up for 2 7/8 shells) on my MEC 600 and they were easy to load and crimp. There was some recoil, but so much better, I didn’t feel like I was putting any stress on the gun. And…I was smoking clays with them.

I also loaded some black powder shells trying a different powder. I used 2 ¾ drams of Goex Olde Eynsford 1 ½ f and a 1 1/8 oz. of 7 ½ shot. These did very well also and I like this powder. I had several doubles and gathered a small crowd asking questions. I switched between nitro and black powder as I made my way through the sporting clays course.