doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com History of 10 ga. magnum load

The 2 7/8 inch length for the 10-gauge shell was the North American "standard" from at least the 1890s. The heaviest factory smokeless powder loads offered in the 2 7/8 inch 10-gauge shell were 4 1/4 Drams of bulk smokeless powder and 1 1/4 ounces of shot, or 34 grains of dense smokeless powder such as Infallible or Ballistite and 1 1/4 ounces of shot.

I think it was in late 1925 or 6 when Western Cartridge Co. applied their progressive burning powder work to the 2 7/8 inch 10-gauge shell and brought out their 1 5/8 ounce Super-X load, often referred to as the Super-Ten. The first Western Cartridge Co. paper I have that lists it is dated Jan. 1, 1927. By their 1927 catalogue Peters Cartridge Co. was also offering the 1 5/8 ounce 10-gauge load in their High Velocity line --

Keith's Mag 10 can be seen at the Cabela's store in Boise, along with many of Elmer's other firearms and memorabilia. Some sweet double and bolt action rifles, and of course a number of handguns.

Mike, I believe that the 10 gauge was chambered in a number of different chamber lengths up to 4" in the earlier years, but I'm not sure when the 2 7/8" became standardized. I used to purchase a box or two of 2 7/8" Remington rolled crimped shells per year in the early 70's, to use for duck hunting. I'd use these shells as a tune up to using my double 10 with the 3.5" shells for goose hunting.

I have seen reference to 2 1/2", 2 9/16" and others, including 2 7/8" chambered 10 gauges from the 1880's, so perhaps your model 1889 is in it's original configuration.

Back in the early 80's, I hunted turkeys with a 1939 3.5" Ithaca NID 10 (#500691). It was a brute and I handloaded 2 1/8 oz for the left barrel and 2.5 oz. for the right in a 55% load for close-in birds. The right barrel was a shoulder-fired Claymore mine round of #3 bird shot and it was loaded with just a gas seal, no cup. I shouldn't have sold that gun.

I recall in the mid to late 1950s the factories began offering
2 3/4" shells in 12, 16 & 20 gauges with 1�oz, 1�oz & 1 1/8oz respectfully. All the gun writer of the day referred to these as "Short Magnums" or "Standard Length Magnums". To the best of my knowledge, though I could well be wrong, this was the first time these terms were used.These loads were essentially equivalents of the "Super Ten" in the smaller gauges, but don't recall ever hearing the 1 5/8oz Super Ten referred to as a Short Magnum back in those days.

While going to school at the University of Idaho in the early to mid 70's, a good friend of mine bought one of the Marlin bolt action 10 gauges for a song from a guy. Although I'm not sure if this was it's primary purpose, the guy my friend bought the gun from used it for hunting huns and pheasants in the area, perhaps even chukars!

Full length 3.5" shells handloaded with 6 & 7.5 shot. My friend probably still has those handloads.

I have one of the Ithica NID mag 10's and use it with handloads to hunt pass by geese and sand hill cranes. I use bismith and nice shot in about 1 7/8's - 2 oz. loads. Mine is over bored to .795 because of some stupidness before I acquired it. Briley had to bore match the bores and then reproduced the original choke profiles with screwins.

It is a big gun but if you can shoot/swing from your knees or standing and lift weights regularly it is very shootable. I have killed cranes cleanly to 80 yds. if I am having a good day. I had to experiment a bit with loads/wads and shot to get patterns to work well but they typically are full at 60 yds. No one makes guns like these any more.

Just out of curiousity docbill what does your Ithaca weigh? My 1889 Remington 2-7/8 10 bore weighs in at an even 10 pounds.

I haven't weighed it in a while but about 10 lbs. with 32" f/f. I had the stock bent for cast off because of my personal geometry and it is stocked at about 15" for my 35" arms.

The introduction of the 3 1/2 inch Magnum-Ten was the first use of the term "Magnum" I find in North American shotgunnery. The 1 5/8 ounce 2 7/8 inch 10-gauge was called the Super-Ten. The next application of the term "Magnum" was in 1935, when Winchester introduced their Model 12 designed for the 3-inch 12-gauge shell and Winchester/Western upped the payload of some of their 12-gauge 3-inch Super-Speed and Super-X loads to 1 5/8 ounce. These 12-gauge 3-inch 1 5/8 ounce loads were called Magnums.

The 12-, 16- and 20-gauge "Short Magnums" were introduced in 1955.

The first commercial listing for a 3-inch Magnum 20-gauge was the Magnum Model 21 in the January 2, 1954 Winchester catalogue. However, there are no 3-inch 20-gauge shells listed in the January 2, 1954 Winchester Ammunition catalogue and price list!?! The Olin brothers and their buddies had been playing around with 3-inch 20-gauge Model 21s for some time before that. In the 1955 Winchester and Western ammunition catalogues the 20-gauge 3-inch Mag. is offered with 1 1/8 ounce of Lubaloy #6 or 1 3/16 ounce of Lubaloy #4. The 3-inch 20-gauge Mag. offerings from Winchester and Western remained the same through the 1959 price lists. For 1960 the 3-inch 20-gauge magnum with 1 1/4 ounce of chilled shot was added to the offerings, while the Lubaloy loads were still 1 1/8 and 1 3/16. The Winchester and Western offerings in 3-inch 20-gauge shells remained the same thru 1968 where my old catalogues play out.

In all of my ammo catalogues from 1900 to 1931, the only other length 10-gauge shells I find are 2 5/8 inch brass NPEs for hand loading. I don't find any loaded 10-gauge shells offered in anything but 2 7/8 inch cases.

I also have an Ithica Crass from 1888 in 10 ga. with 3" chambers and 30" barrels. It was someones pigeon gun and is serial numbered in the <12,000 # as between the hammer guns and the first official Crass. It weighs about 8 lbs. and handles like a similar weight 12 ga.