The only 10 gauge I have ever owned is a 32" barreled 10 lb Lefever E grade. I have shot a Spanish made 3" 10 gauge magnum that belonged to my Father-in-law & killed a Canada goose with it.
Some ys back when the TN Gun Collectors put on a decent show in Nashville I met & became friends with another Lefever fan. He had a 10 gauge L Barber (AKA Barber & Lefever) hammer gun. I did not weigh it nor measure the barrel length. My best guess was the barrels were 28" & weight closer to 7 lb than to 7 lbs. I could very easily see myself walking up beside a good pointing dog to flush a covey of quail. I considered this to be an Upland gun & not a waterfowl one.
I would, of course, want to use a load suitable for quail, such as a 3 dram -1 1/8 oz shot or no more than a 3 dram-1 oz shot load. One would not see a nickel's worth of difference in the pattern than equivalent loads from a 12. The thought that just because it is a 10 that it will throw a pattern as wide as Barn Door & Slay everything therein is simply LUDICROUS. With the same amount of shot a barrel with a bigger hole May, or May Not, throw a more uniform pattern, but seldom a wider one with equivalent chokes.
5 drams of powder behind a light shot charge is also Ludicrous. W W Greener pointed this out at least as early as 1910.
"Use Enough Gun" Robert Ruark
