Double Barrel Shotguns - 10 Gauge

[streak]

How many of you shoot and hunt with a double barrel 10 gauge?
Note any experience, brand name. loads, etc.! Also incude black powder loads that you reload!

[IOWA DON]

STREAK
   I used to do most of my Iowa pheasant hunting with double barrels in 12 gauge and use an Ithaca 10-gauge Auto Mag for late season birds. Here we have roadside hunting and I don’t have access to any private land. One drives the roads, looks for pheasants and then tries to figure out how to get a shot at them. Carrying a heavy 10-gauge is not a problem as one doesn’t walk that much when hunting that way. My Auto Mag has the barrel shortened to 26-inches and I used 2-1/4 oz of no. 4’s.
   Then I finally got a good 10-gauge double, an old Ithaca NID in 3-1/2 inch Magnum in almost new shape. I had Briley cut the barrels to 28 inches and install choke tubes. About that time the Iowa pheasant population really dropped so I’ve probably shot 50 birds or fewer with it but think I can hit them better with it than my current 12-gauge double, a Model 23 Winchester with 25-1/2 inch barrels and Win-chokes.
   For the 10-gauge double I use 2-1/4 oz of No. 8’s (hand-loads) in the first barrel with a cylinder or improved cylinder choke and close birds can’t get away. I use 2-1/4 oz of No. 4’s in the second barrel with an improved modified or full choke and can take them a long ways out (at least if I aim right).
   I was real confident I could hit better with Ithaca 10-gauge double than the Winchester 12-gauge double so went to the gun club where there was an informal trap shoot and first shot 18 of 25 targets with the 12-gauge and then shot 21 of 25 targets with the 10-gauge. I had not shot a round of trap for more than 30 years so was pleased with the scores and it proved to me that I can really hit better with the 10-gauge.
   Also, either the Auto Mag with its original 32-inch barrels or the NID Double with its original 32-inch barrels handled like an irrigation pipe. However, with their barrels shortened to 26-inches and 28-iches respectively they are both well balanced for me and their weight is not a problem when I usually don’t walk that far with our roadside hunting. Recoil isn’t really that bad as its more like a big shove on the shoulder than a painful jab like from a much lighter 12-gauge with magnum loads. - DON

[streak]

Iowa Don,
Thanks for the reply!
 Interesting that you can shoot the 10 better than the 12. I have been looking and watching for a double in the 10 gauge. I have just now finally getting into reloading for the 10 gauge using RMC solid brass shells! Just this week was able to locate some #209 Shotgun primers. Those things are really getting expensive.
I presently have a single shot and bolt action in the 10 gauge. But really would like a 10 gauge double in the
3.5" chambering. This would be used for long shots on small game and coyotes out to 55-60 yards!Then of course geese if offered a chance!!

[mcwoodduck]

Not sure what you want ot use the 10 ga for .
Most of my SXS 12 ga guns are upland style game guns that weigh about 7 pounds. even the 30" barreld models only weigh 7.5 pounds
But my SXS weighs a bruising 10 pounds when loaded with 2  2oz 3.5" shells. 
I bought mine for a Swam hunt Dad and I were planning in NC one year
I have used it for Ducks and geese and even bought some 2 7/8" shells for upland after the 12 ga adapters I bought were not what I wanted them to be.  But again the gun is heavy to tote around the field with the 32" barrels
I do reload for it in 3.5" with both 2oz and 1 1/4 oz loadings. 
At one point I saw a Beretta SXS 470 in 10 ga in a shop and they were not willing to deal and wanted full retail of a new O/U for a used gun, but it was a 26 or 28" barrel, seemd about 8 poinds maybe a little less and I thought it would be great but was not willing to shell out that much for it. 

[streak]

mcwoodduck
 Yep! They can get a mite heavy!
 As I mentioned earlier, I would use it for long shots on small game ( foxes, bobcats, etc.) and  hopefully get two fast shots when get into the packs of coyotes that we sometimes enounter at close range and sometimes they are crossing a highline at top speed at anywhere from 45-70 yards out where two fast shots is about all you have a chance for!! We try to keep the coyote population in check to protect the deer herd and also my cousins beef herd!
Every once in awhile we end up with " coydogs" and they can really be a problem and can get to a fairly large size! I have seen some that would probably match a normal size gray wolf!

[mcwoodduck]

Good luck remember with a heavy recoil to shoot the back trigger first, so you do not get a double under the recoil.  Or at least that is what the old english side by side shooters used to say with the Double GA rifles and the Nitro Express rifles. 

[streak]

Good luck remember with a heavy recoil to shoot the back trigger first, so you do not get a double under the recoil.  Or at least that is what the old english side by side shooters used to say with the Double GA rifles and the Nitro Express rifles.

Good advice mcwoodduck!
Once when out hunting with my two brothers, I was riding in the middle of the cab of the truck, my brother on my right side decided to make a shot out of the window with his double barrel 12 gauge. Yep! Both barrels went off and the recoil came through him, through me, and into my other brother in the driver`s seat! So I was like a piece of ham in a sandwich!! I can imagine what a 10 gauge would do with both barrels going off at the same time.

[mcwoodduck]

Doubling is not when you pull both triggers at the same time but when the recoil of the first has you pulling or touching the second trigger by accident and you have one round headed where you want and the other headed at an angle with you already in the middle of the recoil.
I have had a buddy touch off both triggers of 2oz loads in my SXS and he was not happy. 
I was once shooting trap from behind the 30 yard line with my 10 ga and another friend was shooting 3.5" loads through his benelli and a third guy that was trying out some "POT" loads and as soon as I could get one shell out of the chamber and the new one in it was my turn to shoot again.  After 13 rounds of the heavy loads my fingers went numb and I stopped.