The Short Ten - How many shooting one?

[Paul Harm]

I've found the plastic start crimp works just fine. The short kit is nothing other than a spacer to make up for the shorter shell. A piece of wood would work. Where it's needed is in the final crimp - it makes the shell go up in the final crimp the proper distance so the shell isn't " belled out " at the end. If any of you want load data go to our reloading forum. Short 10 loads are the same for longer shells but adjustments will have to be made with the wad so everything will fit. Many times fiber wads will have to be used and they can be bought from www.circlefly.com . Graig has recommended what size wads to use. For nitro I use 18grs of 700X and the Remington SP-10 wad [ with a 16ga wad inside for filler] ; and with BP, 85grs of 3F, fiber wads, and 1oz of shot. Good luck - Paul

[Grantham Forester]

All these posts are interesting, and I see that the LC Smiths are also mentioned here. No mention of the Fox or Ithaca guns yet, perhaps later. I have used a friend's 10 Stoeger double for geese in past years, but not since steel shot. Perhaps this is why the main topic has been both turkey hunting and then clays. I can only imagine what a tight fisted load of No. 8 chilled shot from a 10 gauge would do to a clay target at close range- decimated!!

A friend has a very old Damascus barrel 10 gauge LC Smith- very ornate pattern to the barrels, engraved and the side plates are "stepped" at the rear apex on both sides. It is a hammerless with double triggers, fine wood- but his gunsmith cautioned against shooting it as it has the first design bottom barrel lug, with squared corners. He said those were prone to stress cracking, even with the black powder loads of that time.

I understand his opinion, as a tool maker, we learn first off that a radius moves stress, but a 90% corner traps it. Could I get a read on this from BFT please??

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Grantham Forester

All these posts are interesting, and I see that the LC Smiths are also mentioned here. No mention of the Fox or Ithaca guns yet, perhaps later. I have used a friend's 10 Stoeger double for geese in past years, but not since steel shot. Perhaps this is why the main topic has been both turkey hunting and then clays. I can only imagine what a tight fisted load of No. 8 chilled shot from a 10 gauge would do to a clay target at close range- decimated!!

A.H. Fox never made a 10ga gun. I think that is too bad they are nice guns. Bismuth and Nice Shot are viable alternatives for waterfowling with a Short Ten.

Frank Cronin hit a clay pigeon at Hausmans early this month with one of his signature 1 1/4 ounce BP loads form his 5 frame hammer 10. I have seen lot of clay pigeons hit over the years, in the 6 digits. I have seen complete dustballs but had never seen this. He shot and the target literally and competely disappeared, POOF. Others on here saw that happen too. Both remarkable and memorable.