Advantages of Using a 10 Gauge

<P style="MARGIN: 0px">You often hear someone question whether there is any advantage in using a 10ga. for waterfowl hunting.&nbsp; With the advent of Hevishot, much of the advantage it enjoyed over the 12ga. has been eliminated for most waterfowlers who make the choice to use Hevishot over using steel.&nbsp; However, for those who continue to use steel shot, particularly large size steel shot, the 10ga. can often deliver better patterns with high velocity heavy weight loads than is possible with most 12 gauges.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">&nbsp;</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">The following 2 pics. are of patterns I shot today at 40 yards using my BPS10, a modified version of RSI99, which uses 1 1/2 oz. of shot, BBB's and my .720" Terror.&nbsp; The center dense patterns suggest that these should be goose killers beyond 50 yards.</P>

 

<P style="MARGIN: 0px">The following pics. illustrate a common phenomenon with chokes, that being, a change in pattern with a change in shot size.&nbsp; Generally, unless a choke is too tight for a particular shot size, as shot size increases, patterns will tighten up giving the appearance of&nbsp;higher center density.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">&nbsp;</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">With the Terror chokes,&nbsp;shot size&nbsp;changes seem to&nbsp;result in less of an effect on pattern quality than with other chokes.&nbsp; I found, when using a Mod. choke in my&nbsp;BPS10,&nbsp;it would pattern fast T's well, but not fast 2's&nbsp;I used for ducks.&nbsp; When I used an Improved Modified, it would pattern fast 2's well, but not fast T's.&nbsp; The Terror chokes seem to function well with a wider variety of shot sizes and loads&nbsp;than other chokes I have shot.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">&nbsp;</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">However, when shooting&nbsp;slow loads, often nearly any decent choke will pattern well.&nbsp; Once, when Big Mexican and I tried some of his factory BB's in his BPS10 using my original Pattern Master and his factory improved cylinder choke, it was impossible to tell which choke produced which pattern.&nbsp; They both produced very good, dense patterns at 40 yards.&nbsp; When you start shooting loads faster than 1350 fps., often the choke choice becomes more important in producing good patterns, particularly with the larger shot sizes where you are working with fewer pellets and an extra&nbsp;few strays can significantly reduce pattern coverage.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">&nbsp;</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">The following shots are of a Rem. 1 5/8 oz. load of 1's, 2's and T's.&nbsp; These loads were chronographing only about 1200 fps., despite Remington's claim of them having a considerably higher velocity.</P>

 

<P style="MARGIN: 0px">Several years ago, just before Alliant introduced Steel powder, Midway sold a bunch of unfired, primed, Remington highbase wad 10ga. cases for less than $0.13 each.&nbsp; I bought 700 of them, but found out later that they could not be loaded with heavier shot charges&nbsp;than 1 3/8 oz. with Steel powder, as it is a very bulky powder, occupying 20% more volume than Blue Dot for the same weight.&nbsp; In addition, it requires heavier powder charges than Blue Dot.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">&nbsp;</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px">Usually the Federal cases produce higher velocities with heavier shot charges than the Remington cases, and often better patterns.&nbsp; However, since I have so many of them, I decided to work up a 10ga. load for this case using the RSI wad and 1 3/8 oz. of shot.&nbsp; The following three pics are of a 1 3/8 oz. load of BBB's at 40 yards I fired yesterday through the .720" Terror choke, after working up the load.&nbsp; The velocities were running in the mid to high 1500's.&nbsp; The pattern with the lowest percentage was the first shot and it's lesser performance may be due to some oil remaining in the bore after the fouling shot was fired.&nbsp; I often find velocities to increase for&nbsp;2 or&nbsp;3 shots from a clean, oily bore until the oil is burnt out, increasing 30-50 fps.&nbsp; And, for some reason unknown to me, the patterns are often lower in percentage as well.&nbsp; The patterns, as shot, were 80%, 94% and 90%, in that order.</P>