doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 12 gauge inserts in a 10 gauge

Gents; Sorry to take up your time with this seeming silly question; but does anyone make a chamber insert that slips into a ten gauge, stepping down to a 12 gauge.
The reason I ask, is my experience has been the larger the bore, the nicer patterns seem to me to be. I was wondering what a 10 gauge stepped down to a 12 would be like.
Sam Ogle Lincoln, NE
samogle2001@yahoo.com

I have some Gaugemate 10-12 adaptors that worked very well. Unfortunately, Gaugemate no longer makes the model I have, though they do make a different model 10-12 adapter.

Steve

Thanks Steve; I will contact them.
I have shot light (7/8 ounce) loads in a 12 & they just do so well, I thought "I wonder what a 10 gauge shooting 7/8 ounce or 1 ounce would be like?" I realize the gun would be heavy, but it would be for targets; not hunting. (I have a 16 gauge Fox for that.)I shoot "light" loads in my 16 gauges, and a little bit light in my 28 gauge, although not too light.
(Think McIntosh, who said "A .410 is miserable little [censored] of a gun.")
Thanks again, I will contact Gaugemate.
Sam Ogle, Lincoln, NE samogle2001@yahoo.com

Thanks to the wonderful folks here, I have four 10-12 Gauge Mate Silvers.
They are wonderful for use in my old 10 gauge guns.
They are split down the side so the hulls fired in them do split but there are LOTS of AA hulls available for reloading.

I really enjoy using an Ithaca 10 gauge NID for doves

Mike

I used a 10-12 Gauge Mates in my 10b SB hammergun by that fine London gunmaker T BARCLAY & SON of Oxford Street. I kid you not, I came across it at auction and just had to have it! No doubt just a hardware store.
Anyway, with fibre wads, which I use exclusively, it was a damp squib. You could tell by the sound and recoil that it was not doing much and they just tickled the birds. I suspect too much blow-by and loss of pressure.
Experimenting with plastic wads improved it immensely but as I do not hunt with anything but fibre, it was a non starter.
Just my experience, others seem to have had better experiences.

Here�s a photo of the old �Silver� Gaugemates. If you can find a set, spread them a little wide so they fit tightly in the chamber. Grind a spot at the top of the split so that you can flick out the empty with your fingernail while the sleeve stays in the chamber (tip courtesy of HomelessjOe). I�ve found that Winchester AA�s work very well in them, some brands stick a little in the sleeve.



Steve

I've a bud who shoots a Damascus 10 SxS chamber sleeved to 12ga. He shoots sporty clays w/it using modern target loads. He had another prior to the current one. Has shot thousands of targets with them, zero issue.

When you stop to think about it, the .750 nominal bore dia. is the same as the older 12ga. Baker Big Bore bbls. that many people [mostly trap and flyer shooters] were fans of.

FWIW, I had a back bored 12ga. [to .745"] O/U some years ago w/very long forcing cones and could never get it to 'sound' right w/fiber wads. Had to use plastic wads & not all of those tried obturated/sealed all that well. Settled on a couple of plastic wads that never sounded 'punky'. That's speaking to reloads. I never had an issue w/any of the normal factory Winchester AA target loads sounding f'unny'. AA wads have comparatively deep skirts.

"Nominal" diameter for a 10 ga bore is .775". 11 gauge = .751"
This does not of course prove what any individual gun's bore will measure. No doubt with that very Loooong forcing cone you were getting a lot of gas blow-by using fiber wads. Guns built when fiber wads were the norm generally had short cones.

HI, Sam. Here is a little experiment you might care to conduct. Learn to use Shotgun Insights pattern analysis program. Load up some 3/4 oz 12 gauge loads. Shoot 10 patterns of said 12 bore and 10 patterns of 28 bore. Run analysis and see if a big difference in bore diameter actually does have an influence on pattern. Report here!! :-}

DDA

Sam, many people who can't shoot them well badmouth them. As Clint E. said, "A man's got to know his limitations".

SRH