doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com RST Shotshells #10 Shot - Opinions?

Thanks, Geo. I use to order the Polywads from Jay when they came loose in a flat, 250 count. Never used his spreaders, but what I bought was 2 1/2" Vintagers for my short chambered Hollis damascus gun. Don't recall ever having had a misfire.

All my best, SRH

I found it very interesting that, while reading a book about grouse hunting in the late 1800's, the author had this to say

"The charges that I have used for many years in a 12-gauge seven pound cylinder bored gun, with entirely satisfactory results, are, for the right barrel-which I nearly always use first-three drams of good black powder with five-eighths of an ounce of number 10 shot, and for the left barrel the same amount of powder with seven-eighths of an ounce of No. 8 shot. These charges give good penetration and pattern, while the recoil is scarcely noticeable."...."I was shooting quail in North Carolina with my friend Harry Reade, when his shells gave out and I handed him some loaded with No. 8 as above described, but he could do nothing with them, missing one-half of his birds, while those that he hit were so badly torn that they were worthless. I then gave him some that were loaded with No.10, and with them he did some excellent work, killing eight or ten without a miss, and so well did he like them that he declared he would use no other charge."

Maybe the number 10 shot used over a hundred years ago was larger then what is sold today, but I don't think there is much difference.
Pete

I've never attributed what I call the "dead bird flying" syndrome to shot size. Rather, at least from my observations, it's a function of where you hit the bird. Quite obviously, if it doesn't drop immediately, you haven't broken a wing. And the ones I've recovered don't show any head wounds.

But it's something I've seen numerous times with pheasants. Little or no visible reaction from the bird to the shot. But I've learned that if you think you hit the bird, you need to keep watching it as long as you can. (Much easier to do on open country birds, like pheasants, than on grouse and woodcock.) People often talk about the "towering" phenomenon, when you hit a bird and it flies straight up, then dies in the air and tumbles back to earth. Haven't seen that often, but I have seen pheasants continue flying as far as 2-300 yards, then just fall from the sky. What I've found with birds that behave in that manner: 1. They are dead, won't move from where they hit the ground; and 2. Their chest cavity is full of blood. Seems to be a function of severing a major blood vessel. Heart keeps pumping, bird keeps flying until it bleeds out, at which point it crashes.

Haven't often seen it with grouse or woodcock, mainly because you lose sight of them sooner. But a few years ago, my partner took a shot at a grouse with his 28ga, thought he'd missed. No feathers. But I told him I thought I'd seen a very slight "jerk" from the bird after the shot. We followed the bird's flight path as best we could. Maybe 150-200 yards farther on, my Brittany went on point. Big log in front of us. Didn't know whether it was the bird we were following or another one, or whether the bird we were following had been hit--so approached at the ready. Diesel vaulted the log, spun around, and pointed back at us from the far side. It was my buddy's grouse, stone dead, lying behind the log. When we cleaned it, we found the chest cavity full of blood--as I have on numerous pheasants. (And most of them have been hit with 6's, or even 5's.)

With grouse and woodcock, our rule is to always follow a bird we've shot at, if you have any notion at all that you may have hit it.

Over on the Fox Collector's forum our member SILVERS has a piece about killing a grouse with his 16 gauge Fox using RST's #10.
Got the picture of the bird to prove it.

I used RST 10's almost exclusively on woodcock this past season and they were great and hard hitting but only at close distances, either in the open or shooting through light cover.

As mentioned, they don't carry much energy beyond 20 yards or so and I ended up wounding more birds than I would have in the past with larger shot (I think). This was not a huge problem since I hunt with dogs and all wounded birds were quickly retrieved but I was troubled by this increase in wounded birds. Next year I will either go back to 8's or severely limit my shooting to only close in birds with RST 10's.

On live game, only if shooting over a pointing dog and engaging in 10-15 yards. 10 shot does not hold energy over the same distances as other shot. I do not argue that some may effectively push it out to 20 yards, but advise you test in tighter.

That said I almost exclusively shoot over a point and have moved to larger shot as my standard (#7). I did this to reduce number of shot hitting the bird and to ensure solid hard clean kills.

I would never use #10 for wild birds except under prefect conditions. If you pass shoot much (something I am not particularly good at) I would definitely stick to larger shot. My solution when going to blocking (the rare time I block on pheasant) is to increase charge size (from 1 oz to 1 1/8) and leave everything else the same shot size and velocity (about 1150 for everything)

You owe to live game to use the most effective killing load within the constraints of the type of shooting you are doing and your individual strengths and weaknesses.

I have had the same experience with bobwhite.

Many times, after the bob we were aiming at in the covey rise is bagged, we have gone two or three hundred yards and the dogs found another dead bird, freshly killed.

Another indication of a hit on otherwise healthy flying bob is a dropped leg. Upon having the bird in hand the leg won't be broken, just loss of hydraulic pressure from the internal bleedout I suppose.

10's won't break a skeet target except at 1,7, and 8, no enegery even at 20 yards
bill

There's a saying that's applicable to a wide variety of topics on gun forums...."Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

Right, Mike. I can kill a goose with a Louisville Slugger, but I choose not to.