Ithaca 10 G

[William Davis]

Need a little Ithaca 10 G advice. Blundered into one in a gun shop today. Gave it a look and put the gun on hold until I can research it a bit more. At home had the excellent DGJ Spring and Summer 2014 articles by Frank Srebro on Ithaca's big 10's. Will go over them in detail then drive back for a closer examination next week.

Serial number is 439542, 32 inch with fairly extensive engraving. More detailed than the "Star" Ithaca's Bit strange to me is the butt stock, wood, grip checkering etc looks like the plainer grade Ithaca's. Seems to me the higher grade guns would have had fancy wood. Everything about the stocks fit says factory though. Gun is with a 20 G from the same seller that's a obvious re-stock. Wonder if the 10 had butt stock switched at some point with a factory stock intended for lesser grade.

DAH is bit less than 3 inches with a pad that looks like the one shown in Mr Srebro's part II article. Gun itself has fluid steel barrels & cocking indicators had no way to measure the chambers chokes or barrels. Do that next week, although measuring 10's is difficult with the tools I have at hand.

Armed with the DGJ issues and good advice will go back to give it a detailed inspection. I have enjoyed my Parker 10 Hammer gun and wanted to add a Parker Hammerless 10, but this Ithaca may be a nice gun to shoot. It feels nice anyhow.

Not looking for price indications, Exactly what it is and mechanical issues to look for. Would use it for Clay's with short 10 loads.

William Davis

[OH Osthaus]

That serial number is into the NID range

You might look for articles on the grades available in that model

[William Davis]

Been Googling but so much clutter on Google Ithaca Grades get lost. Nothing detailed like the Parker descriptions. It might be a 1 1/2 grade based on Google Images but the photos are not real good. If it is 1 1/2 the butt stocks look fairly plain from photos.

All complicated by not having the gun in front of me. Impression of the engraving from memory is sort of like a Ideal Grade Smith.



William

[StubTwist]

Based on your description of the engraving similar to the Ideal, does it look like this?

This is from page 82 in Walt Synder's book "The Ithaca Gun Company From the Beginning .

[William Davis]

That's the gun, and armed with Grade 1 information Google is coming up with more information.

Thanks a lot

William

[Cold Spring]

William, thanks for your kind words on the articles. The Super 10's are excellent guns. That s/n dates to about 1927. The Grade stamp will be found on the front end of the water table, and on the back end of the barrel flats. F (Field), 1, 2, 3 etc. If you don't have a 10-guage chamber gauge the easiest way to check the chambers is to dismount the barrels, and using a factory 3-1/2" shelll with roll crimp, try to insert the shell. It should not fully chamber. If it does - the chambers have been lengthened. Super 10's weren't designed for 3-1/2" shells. Caveat emptor.

[William Davis]

They were good articles and most appreciated.

I have access to a Mansion wall thickness gauge and a Skeet's Bore gauge. The Skeet's won't handle 10's for bore diamater but the Mansion will measure wall thickness. Can measure the barrel wall thickness, choke length, and chamber length with it.

Only 10 hulls I have are fired 2 7/8 RST's and new primed unfired 3 1/2 inch Remington's. Saw the photos of 3 1/2 inch shells in the 2 7/8 inch chamber. I would expect the unfired uncrimped empty 3 1/2's would do the same thing, stick out past the extractors while the fired 2 7/8 would drop all the way in.

William

[Eldon Goddard]

A grade 1 1/2 super 10 I wouldn't spend to much time thinking about it, make sure everything checks out and buy it before you regret loosing it.

[Cold Spring]

I agree with Eldon's reply.

A new 3-1/2" Remington olive-green colored hull will protrude about 9/16" from an unaltered Super 10 chamber.

[William Davis]

I just put a new Remington hull in my Parker Hammer 10, indicated depth to extractor with a black marker . Inserted in the Ithaca ought to tell if the chamber has been lengthen

Looking through books last night. Elmer Keith has a lot of good things to say about Super 10's. Some references on line to Col Askins and the Super 10 but my Askins books can't find much, however they are not indexed might take some sifting. Paul Curtis was mentioned too, will look through his books tonight

William Davis