doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com L. C. Smith 10 gauge brass shot shell loading

It has been some time since I posted here, but I have a new project. A 1907 Damascus 10 gauge Elsie is on its way, and I could use some advice on loads. I load brass shells in 12 and 16 gauge for some other guns, including an 1894 Elsie 12 that has "twist steel" barrels. But in these gauges, there are modern shells with "dram equivalent" loads, including low pressure RST shells. I could use some advice on these 10 gauge rounds. What say you?

This is part of the Smith listing in the 1908 Sears catalog, which states the damascus barrels were "bored for nitro powder" and had been proof tested



The standard 10g load then was 3 1/2 drams powder with 1 1/4 oz. shot in a 2 7/8" case; although loads with more powder, not shot, were available.

The barrels should of course be evaluated by a specialist with the interest, equipment (bore scope and wall thickness gauge) and expertise to properly do so. Assuming adequate wall thickness and barrels free of defects, and giving some reasonable allowance for the now almost 115 year old stock wood (and assuming the head of the stock is free of cracks), it is easy to load smokeless powder shells at pressures equal or even lower than those for which the gun was designed.

Pete Lister has posted a wonderful resource for loading the "Short 10" on the PGCA Forum
http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11403

Have you looked over the FAQs on the LCSCA site?
https://lcsca.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=274&club_id=43784

Looked at the parkerguns thread but did not download the short ten spreadsheet. I've been reloading my 1885 10 gauge Lefever C for the past several years. I use Hodgdon Longshot and either buffered Bismuth or NICE shot for Canadas and duck. Don't use a progressive press to make the 10 gauge loads/reloads. I rarely use 50 in a season. Start with primed 10 gauge 3-1/2 inch Federal shells. Cut them down to 2-7/8 with a tool (from BP, if I recall), put in the load of Longshot appropriate to the weight of shot, overpowder card wad one or two fiber wads, and then an SP-10 shot cup, a 16 gauge cushion wad or not in it, depending on quantity of shot, last an overshot .125 card and roll crimp with an antique British tool. Have loaded up to 1-3/8 oz of shot for geese, but usually use 1-1/4. Have reloaded spent hulls using old British tools to reprime.

Have not tried brass shells.

Regards, Tim

There are 3 sources for 10 g brass hulls:
The older shells made when the 10 g was far more popular, the 10 g "Parker" hulls at Track of the Wolf (which seem similar to the Mag Tech 12 g hulls and the Rocky Mountain hulls. The "antique" & "Parker" hulls use a large pistol primer and wads, etc need to be a size larger, 9 or 8 g wads etc,. The Rocky Mountain hulls, although more expensive, seem to be indestructible and on another thread here or somewhere else I read that some cowboy shooters have loaded RMC hulls 3000 times. The RMC hulls use a 209 primer and standard 10 g wads, etc.

For my Syracuse Quality 2 10 gauge Smith
I use Alcan All-Brass hulls and they work great if you
have *57 primers

Mike

I bought the 10 gauge "Parker" hulls and proper size wadding. Found an original loading set on e-bay, even had the box. I found that the 3 1/2 dram powder setting on the dipper delivers 1.2 oz of #6 and 75.4 gr Black MZ (by wt.) or 2 3/4 dram. Given that this substitute powder runs about 15% "hotter" than holy black in my experience, this seems like a reasonably conservative load. I fired 4 rounds yesterday at a target board set at 40 yards. With this heavy gun, there was not much recoil, but the full/xfull barrels peppered that target with a nice even pattern. Looks like I have a vintage turkey gun. Thanks for all the very helpful input.