doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 10ga SXS Waterfowl?

I hear recent studies in the UK have raised concerns about the use of the recently introduced 2 1/2”/65 mm steel loads in 2 3/4” (and presumably 3”) chambered guns.

The fear is that in the gap between the case mouth and the forcing cone steel pellets can escape the protective wad and score the cone.

This adds to my determination that if I ever have to use steel, it will only be in guns that have cost me less than a 25 cartridge box of Bismuth.

ROMAC that's a beautiful Francotte. Do you know the weight? I have a true love of Francotte shotguns.

Stan that NID is top notch.

We finally agree on something.

Merry CHRISTmas, ed.

These old short tens are the ones that currently handle the bulk of my waterfowl hunting


[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ww315/thatvoodoothatyoudo/IMG_2741.HEIC[/img][/URL][/img]


[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/ima...udo/IMG_2742_4LFJbF6jULohjvY6tDNb6x.WEBP[/img]

For what its worth, when the lead shot ban came in the early 90's, I sold my Model 23 Winchester I used for ducks and geese and bought an Eibar made 10 ga for $300 brand new. 32" bbls, wt 9 1/2 lbs, chokes F&F. I also bought two boxes each of Federal 3 1/2 in. steel 1 5/8 oz loads in BB and T shot, then I went to see my local gunsmith George Orndorff who agreed to ream the chokes out 5 thousandths at a time, then I would test them at the pattern board. Took about 5 weeks, I wouid pick up the gun downtown on Friday, pattern over the weekend , then bring it back to him on Monday. Unreamed, the barrels printed a tight oblong pattern that was thin in the middle. Sort of like a figure 8 on a 30 degree axis from the vertical. Not acceptable. 5K cut, rounded out a bit. 10K, same. 15K little rounder, still very tight. 20K (leaving 22 points still in the barrel) gave me a perfectly round 40 inch pattern with 80% of the load of BB's inside 30 inches. I stopped there on the left barrel, and cut the right another 5, leaving 17 in. Perfect round pattern spread over 48 inches with 65% in the 30 inch circle. Stopped there. T's patterned 10% tighter, but with way fewer pellets. I shot greater and lesser Canada's for 10 years with that gun, using only steel BB's. The longest goose I shot was probably 60 yards dead overhead, looking for its mate. The BB's worked. Never had to go to the T's, which still sit in my gunroom. The right barrel was also deadly at 30 yards when they cupped up. Then, I got into vintage doubles and the old Eibar 10 has sat unused for almost 20 years. I now shoot Bismuth 2's out of a Parker lifter with open chokes, which is deadly on cupped birds, and just got a Parker top lever with 32 inch barrels and original full chokes. That gun patterns 130/150 RST No. 2 Nice shot 1 1/4 oz nominal, all within a 36 in circle. I bought 30 of the Nice shot about 10 years ago (at about $3 per shell) and they no longer offer it. My bad. Still, if I wasn't enjoying shooting the hammer guns so much, I would pull out the Eibar to kill geese.

Those guns, and the dead mallards you have pictured with them over the last 15-20 years, are one of the main things that attracted me to short tens about 12-14 years ago. I recall so many of the pics you made in the blinds, etc., with them.

It has taken until now to find the right one for me, one that doesn't weigh as much as an artillery piece. Thanks for posting that, J.B.

I find LimaPapas observation most interesting as they mirror my findings at the pattern board almost Identically. I imported some Italian 10 ga O/U's which had .042" choke in each barrel. Base patterns were 64%. Steel No.2s. Starting with the lower bbl I opened them up in .003-.004" increments. A steady increase in density and improved evenness of distribution were noted until at .018" constriction Where it was printing an 84% pattern .Set the top barrel to this dimension and continued with the lower bbl until at .008" restriction i got a very good 60% pattern. I've subsequently used the .018 & .008 on a number of guns , both 10 & 12 ga with very good results. I did balance the chokes to give cone length to choke parallel lengths with a ratio of 1:1.3 to accommodate the longer shot column of steel vs lead , weight for weight.

That is very interesting, Hugh. Did you determine the ratio by trial and error, or was it something you learned elsewhere? Many of the old guns, which were designed to shoot lead only, had tapered chokes with no parallel section. I have wondered if parallel profiles in chokes came about as a result of trial and error, or simply a lack of the proper tapered reamers to get the job done that way.

From memory, it is just under 8 pounds.

I'll have to pull it out and weigh it this weekend.

That would be very light for a 32" Ten. I'm interested, also, to know if it's that light.

I'm waiting on a new set of digital scales to arrive. My other set started acting crazy recently. I dug out the instructions and it said to check the batteries. I had forgotten it had batteries, because of the 120VAC converter it has. The batteries were corroded so bad they had eaten up the spring contacts. I trashed it and ordered a new one. I'll have to remember to remove the batteries before storing it, from now on. I also use one to balance rod/piston assemblies for the 2.5L Merc two-stroke high performance engines we play with.