Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns What 10 ga guns are out there?

What 10 gauge guns do you have? And what do you use them for? Or do you just caress them and tell them you care? I just bought a synthetic stocked BPS 10 gauge. Thanks T. It has honest wear but looks good for me as I will just use it. I cleaned the barrel with Ed's red, then put the action minus the buttstock in my 9L. ultrasonic cleaner. I need to clean off the dried solution and oil it in a miserly way. Any advice on this action as to where and what, for lube. I have Mobil 1 0 - W20, Ed's Red, and TW25B for grease. I have to be careful to use a tiny amount of the 0-W20 as it is heavier than some gun oils. TIA and Be Well. Rusty

I have a Browning Gold 10ga that is used for late season geese. It also doubles as a back up to my back up duck gun.

I have used the 10 to turkey hunt before, but it is just to heavy to lug around when running over hill and dale.

26" BPS Synthetic stock. Have killed a buncha geese, turkeys and several coyotes with mine.

Had it torn completely apart once for a cleaning, usually just remove the barrel, hold it butt up with mag tube down and action open and just spray the piss out of it with WD-40 or Rem Oil.

I have packed it many miles and through a lot of schitt since I received it as my HS graduation present in '93.

These days I don't turkey hunt all that far from the truck so it still gets some time in the turkey woods each spring. Heavy old booger.

I have a 26” SP10 that is high brass murder on waterfowl. It’s heavy but points well and recoil isn’t nearly as bad as some lighter 3.5” 12ga guns I’ve shot. It’s also been as reliable as a claw hammer in salt swamps and mud flats and everywhere else I’ve taken it. It throws beautiful even patterns with big charges of big shot, I’ve killed cripples out at 70 yards.

If you’re serious about killing waterfowl and you don’t have to freight it around a lot it’s a wonderful tool for the job.

My first 10 ga was an Ithaca Mag-10 I bought used in 1980. I bought it for goose hunting along the "firing line" at Lac Que Parle refuge. I used for all my waterfowling for a bit as steel shot was mandated for only 12 ga in the early years as that was the only gauge in which steel was available. For being as big as it was, it handled very well.

I bought a Richland O/U in 1987 but it went down the road quickly. It was rather bulky and poor handling compared to the Ithaca. I also did not like it having Full in both barrels. Recoil was also rather harsh which was probably due to poor gun fit.

About 1996 I bought a Browning Gold Light. It was a good handling gun and it made a few trips to Canada and Texas with me as well as a number of more local trips. I sold it to another guide who really wanted it. I wish I would have kept it.

I dabbled in an SP-10 briefly but it just did not handle like my Ithaca. It also had a few bugs in it as it did not like to cycle steel loads. It's unreliability had me send it off too.

I bought a BPS right afterward but it stayed around for only a couple of seasons. It was overly thick and unwieldy with its 30" barrel so it went down the road too.

I still have the Mag-10. I had the barrel cut down and choke tubes installed in the early 90's. It is my favorite waterfowl gun though it is used mostly for cranes and pass shooting geese. I found a second one at a very reasonable price but haven't pulled out the wallet yet. I really need to as I would like a back up to my current gun.

I had an Ithaca Crass 10 gauge 2 7/8" for many years and used it several times for duck hunts with 1 1/4 ounce loads of bismuth and ITX. It worked well. I recently fell heir to a Beretta Silver Hawk 10 gauge 3.5 inch. A close friend passed and left it to me. Beautiful gun. I was going to use it last year on a goose hunt but had to cancel when my Dad got ill. I hope to get out with it a couple times this year.

That Beretta is a beauty Mart.

I once shot a coyote with a Spanish 10bore SxS a friend’s dad had. We took it turkey hunting and he let me try it on a coyote standing on a terrace about 60 yards away. A load of 2s folded him up like a lawn chair.

I've never used a 10 on coyotes but have taken several called ones with BBs and #4 buck in a 12 gauge. I like your lawn chair analogy. That fits perfectly.

I no longer shoot a 10 but had a few over the years. This is my experience as well in regard to the SP-10. If I was to get another 10 it would be the remington.

As a side note the 10 BPS I had was the only gun that functioned during a goose hunt where we got coated with freezing rain. Everyone else's gun got frozen and locked up, the BPS with it's enclosed action/bottom ejection kept going. I imagine an Ithaca 37 would as well, but of course it's not a 10.

Browning gold lite 10 gauge - I got it last year from reeds sporting goods (great prices).

It’s a tad heavy, I typically use it in my boat duck hunting - but it hits big mallards like a sledge hammer at 50-60 yards... Wild !

Hardly feel any recoil - If you do get a 10 make sure you get a terror choke tube too.

BPS 10 with 26" barrel in the Stalker model, AYA Matador 2, and an old Damascus barreled Ithaca Flues model 2 7/8" used with bp. They are the tits on a pass shoot. MB

Decades ago in Manitoba I used an Ithaca Mag10 to shoot trap.

This was on a bet: the owner had just got the gun and he was sure I'd be reeling so badly from the "brutal recoil" that I'd either give up, or that I'd have such a flinch I wouldn't be able to break enough birds to win the bet.

I can't recall how many clay pigeons I had to break to win the bet, but I think it was 19 or 20. Anyway, I did win the bet (good thing I did -- the looser had to pay for a bottle of beer and the box of factory ammo which was bloody expensive!

Thanks to the automatic action, I didn't find the recoil was much worse than the very fast loads I used in my Winchester 101 3 inch O/U 12 ga. These loads were published by Ballistic Products and exceeded every factory load available at the time. These loads loosened up my poor 101 over two seasons of heavy shooting, but as an impoverished graduate student, I only had 2 shotguns (I also had a featherweight Ithaca SKB S/S 20 gauge for grouse). I lived on snow geese, Canada geese, mallards, canvasbacks, and sandhill cranes.

A 10ga auto or pump would stood up much better, but the Winchester 101 was what I had at the time. I knew what I was doing to it, and have no complaints about the Winchester 101 - I pushed it beyond the normal limits of a double-barreled gun.

John

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/830736307

Here’s your rig. As others have said, one of the best ever made

The Ithaca mag 10 is a fantastic firearm, and a goose slayer second to none. I have shot one for 30 plus years with hundreds of kills, They are a little to heavy for spring gobbler season and long treks into the spring woods, but in the goose blind, they the shizzle !

Laugh if you want, but I have two: an A. Hollis hammer gun from the 1880s (2-7/8 inch chambers) and a Darne that probably dates from sometime prior to 1900 (also 2-7/8 inch). I use RST non-toxic loads in both. The Hollis weighs about 8-1/4 pounds and the Darne is a svelt 7-1/4. A completely different experience than the heavyweights with Roman candle loads.

the Ithaca mag 10 was bought buy remington... it is now known as the SP-10...

But it’s heavier and clunkier than the Browning Gold 10 lite ... big time.

True, I had both, the weight made the Rem recoil much less, and never had a problem (with either one that is)

I've got a Browning Gold 10, not the Gold Light.
Mine has a 30 in barrel and it gets used field hunting geese, cranes and ducks.
Loaded with #4 Hevishot reloads using a Briley Modified choke, it will kill birds dead as far away as you can hit them.
Recoil feels like a 20 because the gun is so heavy, about 11 lbs.

Get the Browning Gold Lite if you're going to hunt with it, no question.

I use the 10ga often for waterfowl. My BPS and Gold where first bought in 92 and 93. I bought the gold from the original buyer about 2005. It is my backup 10ga. I generally pack the BPS. I shoot it better. Might have to do with shooting many thousands of shells with it. The 10ga is a reloaders gun, if you want too get the most out of it. An example. Factory 10ga steel shot ammo runs 1260-1500fps depending on the weight of the pellets. My loads are 1500-1600fps and they cost about $0.45 to $0.55 each. 1 3/8oz of steel #1 to BBB at 1600fps plus is very effective, it also is a lot easier on the recoil than any 12ga 3 1/2" load. Or you can run 1 1/2oz at over 1500fps and 1 5/8oz over 1450fps. The Gold really tames the fast heavy loads. On longer hunting trips where I might hunt 3-5 days in a row. I shoot the gold. I have a 7 day hunt planned for this fall. The 10ga Gold will be the main tool I use.