2 7/8" 10ga Reloading Data

[Cory Rams]

Thanks for all the obsolete, impossible to find, load data! I just picked up a lee loader in 2 7/8” and 3.5” . I am trying to find the heaviest “safe” loads possible for my Damascus Charles daly 1873 SxS for turkey hunting. I ordered some BPI nickel plated #6’s and have some chilled #5’s. I have a few RST empty cases laying around. I bought 2 boxes of #5 RST 1 1/4oz which didn’t pattern as good as I would have liked. I also bought a box of #6 RST which I haven’t tried yet. I was given sone various plastic wads to try and have some cushion wads and cardboard shot cards coming. I have 700x, red dot, green dot, unique, FG, FFG, and FFFG powders. What is the max PSI for Damascus barrels? I thought it was around 6,000 and I see loads listed up to 10,000 on the 4 page load table. I would like to load the heaviest load possible. I see the heaviest listed is 1 5/8 oz. any load recipes for 10 gauge RST casing with a 1 5/8oz load? Cant wait! Has anyone ever tried duplex loads? I was thinking of half #5’s and #6’s .

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Cory Rams

Thanks for all the obsolete, impossible to find, load data! I just picked up a lee loader in 2 7/8” and 3.5” . I am trying to find the heaviest “safe” loads possible for my Damascus Charles daly 1873 SxS for turkey hunting. I ordered some BPI nickel plated #6’s and have some chilled #5’s. I have a few RST empty cases laying around. I bought 2 boxes of #5 RST 1 1/4oz which didn’t pattern as good as I would have liked. I also bought a box of #6 RST which I haven’t tried yet. I was given sone various plastic wads to try and have some cushion wads and cardboard shot cards coming. I have 700x, red dot, green dot, unique, FG, FFG, and FFFG powders. What is the max PSI for Damascus barrels? I thought it was around 6,000 and I see loads listed up to 10,000 on the 4 page load table. I would like to load the heaviest load possible. I see the heaviest listed is 1 5/8 oz. any load recipes for 10 gauge RST casing with a 1 5/8oz load? Cant wait! Has anyone ever tried duplex loads? I was thinking of half #5’s and #6’s .

Given your sarcasm for my effort some years ago in gathering all the historical data I could find for loading the short ten all I will say at this point is good luck.

[Cory Rams]

Originally Posted by Pete Lester

Given your sarcasm for my effort some years ago in gathering all the historical data I could find for loading the short ten all I will say at this point is good luck.

There was zero sarcasm meant by my post. I was honestly excited to see all the load data! As for PSI....I meant pressure. I see 6,000 to 10,000 pressures listed( I called it PSI). I was asking if all of these listed loads were safe for Damascus barrels. I cannot find any load books listing Damascus load pressures. From other readings I was under the impression that 6000 was the max load pressure in Damascus 10 gauge barrels. I’ve been reloading and casting for over 20 years but have never loaded shotgun shells.

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Cory Rams

There was zero sarcasm meant by my post. I was honestly excited to see all the load data! As for PSI....I meant pressure. I see 6,000 to 10,000 pressures listed( I called it PSI). I was asking if all of these listed loads were safe for Damascus barrels. I cannot find any load books listing Damascus load pressures. From other readings I was under the impression that 6000 was the max load pressure in Damascus 10 gauge barrels. I’ve been reloading and casting for over 20 years but have never loaded shotgun shells.

Has your gun been evaluated by a competent to do so gunsmith who deemed it is safe to shoot? What is the chamber length, are you certain it is 2 7/8"? The heaviest 10ga load available at the time your gun was built was most likely 1 1/4 ounce of lead with a velocity around 1150 fps.

The spreadsheet lists all the published and tested 2 7/8" 10ga loadings I could find and their sources noted. No I do not consider all of them safe to shoot in composite barrel guns. There were 10ga double guns produced with fluid steel barrels, notably the Ithaca NID Super Ten that was designed to shoot the heaviest of 2 7/8" 10ga loadings. What a Super Ten will handle and what your gun will handle are different.

Working up the heaviest loading you can find for a near 150 year old gun is unwise and potentially dangerous IMO. A 1 1/4 ounce loading at 1150 fps out of a 10ga will take down any bird provided the choke and shot size are correct and the range is inside 40 yards. Good luck.

[Cory Rams]

Originally Posted by Pete Lester

Has your gun been evaluated by a competent to do so gunsmith who deemed it is safe to shoot? What is the chamber length, are you certain it is 2 7/8"? The heaviest 10ga load available at the time your gun was built was most likely 1 1/4 ounce of lead with a velocity around 1150 fps.

The spreadsheet lists all the published and tested 2 7/8" 10ga loadings I could find and their sources noted. No I do not consider all of them safe to shoot in composite barrel guns. There were 10ga double guns produced with fluid steel barrels, notably the Ithaca NID Super Ten that was designed to shoot the heaviest of 2 7/8" 10ga loadings. What a Super Ten will handle and what your gun will handle are different.

Working up the heaviest loading you can find for a near 150 year old gun is unwise and potentially dangerous IMO. A 1 1/4 ounce loading at 1150 fps out of a 10ga will take down any bird provided the choke and shot size are correct and the range is inside 40 yards. Good luck.

When I first bought this 1873 Charles Daly from a garage sale back in the 90’s for $45. I took it to a gunsmith who measured the chambers at 2 7/8” and was told it was a 10 gauge. I was pretty excited since I currently owned 3 browning gold 10 gauges at the time. Through the years one of my best friends went to a Colorado gunsmith school after working for an old school smith during his high school years. He ended up opening his own shop 15 years ago. I had him install hammers from Dixie gun works and inspect the gun over and deemed it safe to shoot. I searched for the original hammers for a good 20 plus years with zero luck. I sent a tracing of the existing hammer with measurements to one the Dixie gun works gunsmiths who matched it up with the closet ones they had. After the hammers were installed my gunsmith buddy and I test fired it with #5, 2 7/8” RST shells. It’s shoots beautiful. I put 17 pellets in a turkey head and neck target at 20 yards. I was just hoping for a tighter group. I did buy some #6, 1 1/4oz RST ammo to try but haven’t had a chance to shoot it yet. I figured it would be more economical to reload since I have a good 5 pounds of black powder and and 8 pounds each of 700x, green dot, and red dot. Imo it’s more rewarding to harvest game with ammo I loaded. I appreciate the helpful info. If 1/1/4 oz loads at 1150 FPS is what factory loads were a 150 years ago then imo is what the gun should be firing. That was the reason in my original question I asked for the heaviest safe load as I do not want to damage my gun. It’s been a long journey to get it up and running. I just removed the century and a half of barrel surface rust a few weeks ago and refinished the barrels with a coat of Oxpho bluing. I then removed the bluing accept for where it highlights the Damascus pattering. I also refinished the wood furniture in the last week refinishing it with boiled Lind seed oil. When I bought it the action was rusted shut. It’s come along ways. My goal was always to restore the rusty gun with one one missing hammer into a shooter and harvest a turkey with it which I will be trying to do here in a month and a half. I figured I’d try to load up some tighter grouping ammo vs the RST’s I tried in it. If not I’m sure the #6’s RST’s will probably group tighter than the RST #5’s.





It’s still far from perfect but looks a million times better then when I first bought it IMO.