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.

Quite a group of guns there. I might look at a double one day. Was looking at a 10 gauge muzzleloader for fun. Anything needing more will get the BPS. Have used a 20 gauge percussion and decided that a 10 gauge would be OK in a percussion. Thanks, and Be Well, Rusty.

I had an Ithaca Mag 10 but sold it recently. Never used it much. Killed some geese with it. And some turkeys. My brother killed a couple of deer with it using buckshot. It was an impressive shotgun and threw wicked patterns.
It was too long and heavy to be fun to use. I think it weighed 11.5 pounds loaded with lead loads. I didn't feel like the recoil was that bad. But nobody except my brother would shoot it if they watched me shoot it.

I have an original Ithaca Mag 10 with both the 32 inch fixed choke barrel and and second 26 inch interchangeable choke barrel. Also have a American Arms O/U with 26 inch barrels and choke tubes.

i just ordered a new Browning 10 ga. auto for my son we were goose hunting last week we shot plenty geese but this time of year geese are hard to kill with all those feathers and using steel shot is almost worthless sometimes .

. Steel shot is not very effective beyond 55 yards. Even shooting 1700fps loads of BBB in the 10ga. Steel shot hits a wall where it just stops working. In perfect conditions a 10ga can kill a large goose effectively to about 65 yards with the 1700fps reloads of BBB. The best factory loads are 55 yard loads at best. Keep your shots inside 55 with 1500fps BB 1450fps BBB. Smaller shot are Duck loads. Larger T F just have too few pellets and lack penetration due to size. Reloading for the 10ga is required for best results with steel shot. The best factory ammo is the Federal 1 1/2oz 1450fps BBB, Second in my opinion, is the Remington Sportsman 1 3/8oz 1500fps BB load. The Winchester loads are better suited to ducks or Close range geese. If you have patterned your loads and are not killing very well when you put that pattern on the birds. Odds are good they are too far to shoot at.

had a mag10 24" roadblocker. sold it. wish I had it.

That is a interesting piece!

John, if you could eat snow geese you were a hungrier man than I. I have an acquaintance who calls them sky-carp. ‘Course folks eat carp too. 🙂

Mine is a BPS .. I have shot grouse, pheasant, duck , goose and turkey with it.. It is mainly my waterfowl gun..

Mine is a BPS .. I have shot grouse, pheasant, duck , goose and turkey with it.. It is mainly my waterfowl gun..

I used to like barbecuing a lot, and an old snow goose on the barbecue could be as tough as an old boot, so no argument there!

However, I learned to shoot only the young-of-the-year snow geese and they were quite good.

John

Back in the early 80’s I would go to SE Iowa for for some pass-shooting near the DeSota National Wildlife refuge. The several hundred thousand geese were maybe 95% “snows and blues” as we would phrase it. Guys would line the roads and ditches bordering the refuge for the morning fly-off.

The geese however would lift off in widening circles in the early grey minutes before the sun would lip the horizon so that by the time they where crossing these roads they were 70 to a couple hundred yards high. They “knew” the drill. However, there were always a few, maybe The young or just slow learners, that would suddenly emerge out of the steel-grey fog at thirty or forty yards, or fifty or sixty yards.

Guys could be ready for those because their calls were clearer, louder than their much higher compatriots and their progress was plotted and prepared for by their honking.

What is always clear in my mind is one guy had an old SxS 10 ga. I wish I had taken note of the make but did not though I’m am quite sure it was not an expensive double. Clearer still is he had his right thumb, and the knuckles of his index, middle, and ring fingers taped with white athletic taped which even then would often be bloodied by the trigger guard and the action release-lever just forward of the tang.

I’ve often been intrigued by SxS doubles in 10 ga since though have no conceivable use for one even if I didn’t have to carry it. Thus it’s the only gauge shotgun of the five currently in common use I’ve never had or even shot.

But I sure do like that Beretta Silver Hawk 10. I would just have to walk up some pheasant with it. Or posting with it at the end of a SD sorghum strip taking “driven” birds coming high and fast.

Here you go.

However, if you would be so kind to let me try it. I would prefer the driven hunt. Or since it weighs 10 pounds, can we make it a short walk up hunt were we know the Birds are there for absolutely sure.


https://stevebarnettfineguns.com/baretta-shotguns-for-sale/beretta-silver-hawk-10-gauge

Or if one thinks they would like an even bigger hammer....



https://stevebarnettfineguns.com/parker-1-shotguns-for-sale/parker-ph-8-bore

I've used mine on geese. I've pass shot them and over decoys. Mine is a Browning Gold. It definitely hits geese harder in both situations from my (but limited) experience than 12s whether 3" or 3.5". Same shot size. Maybe it patterns better, I don't know.

My goodness! An 8-bore? 13.5 lbs? 36” barrels? Let’s see...900-1200 gr of shot? Surely a gun that has outlasted its day.

As to the Beretta, I like double triggers in a double but I guess with both barrels choked the same, there is no choice to be made. If I was twenty years younger I’d hold it against you for providing that link. 😜😀

I see it used in the English driven bird-hunt tradition scenario. Birds high, fast and a guy to reload it and hand it to you.
However, posting in the fields of SD will suffice. 😀

I’m guessing “it hits harder” is more likely due to just more shot on target.

In my limited experience with them, I’ve found 3 1/2” 12’s to be akin to having your teeth cleaned unless in a heavy, gas-operated gun.

I often found itches scratched latter in life to be the most rewarding.

There is a boot clogging mud patch at the end of a SD cornfield in waiting. But it won’t wait forever.


As they say, thank me later. 😀

I’m guessing “it hits harder” is more likely due to just more shot on target.

In my limited experience with them, I’ve found 3 1/2” 12’s to be akin to having your teeth cleaned unless in a heavy, gas-operated gun.
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Thus patterning better.

I did shoot a Spanish double when we could use lead. I shot it twice. I may be not remembering correctly, but the first was a 2oz load and the 2nd was a 2 1/4 load. The first wasn't bad in a 10 lb gun the second made me take a step back. With the Browning and the loads with steel we have now it isn't too bad.

Used to own an Ithaca Mag 10- used it for pass-shooting geese, a tool it was well suited for. Then, along came the 12 ga., 3.5" magnum, in lighter, more versatile shotguns, and the Mag 10 went down the road.
I hunted Alaska Brown Bear on the Aleutian Island chain a number of years ago. My guide's 'camp gun' was what he called a 'poor man's double rifle'- a shortened, double-barrelled 10 ga. SxS, fitted with express sights, and loaded with buckshot or slugs.
After my hunt was over, and my brown bear was in the salt, he asked me if I cared to shoot his 10 ga., at an old 5 gallon bucket that had washed up on the beach. I fired one round, and handed it back to him- recoil was beyond brutal. By far the hardest-recoiling weapon I have ever fired.

Model 1901 Winchester lever action. 32" Full choke 27/8".
A great gun that is a ball to shoot!
In my younger days, I could carry my (lead launcher) Ithaca Mag 10 deluxe all over the place!
Now, both guns just look good semi retired in the gun rack.

I've had as many as 7 10 gauge guns at a time. I'm down to 6 right now which includes a ANIB Remington SP-10 I picked up today. I also have 2 sons that hunt with me and I'm the dedicated armorer.

My go to goose guns have been an Ithaca Mag 10 that I had cut down to 26 inches about 25 years ago and had Colonial chokes installed. I also have a Browning Gold 10 which has been a real workhorse for me. I and my sons also have used them for deer drives and we have put down 3 deer in 3 shots on a few occasions. (PA and NJ have plentiful doe tags available). A long time ago I was able to by a case each of 3 1/2 inch 00 and 4 Buck shells (20 boxes of 5 each) and have been using them ever since. I used the Browning to take a buck and doe this year with one shot each.

I cut down the empty hulls and use them to reload 2 7/8 inch shells for my Francotte 10 gauge which carries like a 12. I also have a W & C Scott hammer 10 which I reload with low pressure 1 1/8 ounce loads and also black powder loads. Sometimes I buy RST light 10's and use the Scott for preserve hunts. Lastly, I have a Stoeger imported 32 inch SXS dedicated goose gun made by Sarasqueta of Spain. I shoot Bismuth loads out of it on occasion.

All of them have their purpose and are a lot of fun.

I've had a BPS since the second year of production.

A 30" gun was all I could find. So I shortened it to 23 1/2" and had some barrel work done on the inside, as well. Used it for turkeys and geese for a lot of years before going to a pair of 3 1/2" Winchester gas guns.

Performance with lead turkey loads is so similar between the 10 and the SX Winchesters that the recoil tradeoff is not worth carrying the 10. HOWEVER...……...…..the 10 will do things with 2 1/4 ounces of #2 copper-plated lead that should, really, probably, be against the law......…. The 12 gauge gassers won't come close.