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bmcgilvray · May 16th, 2008, 02:22 AM

I read of Elmer Keith shooting ducks at 100 yards on the Snake River in Idaho with his Ithaca 10 gauge Magnum double in articles in the Guns & Ammo Annuals in the early 1970s. As a young duck hunter of 18 I determined that I required a 10 gauge Magnum shotgun so I could do 100 yard pass shooting too. Paid something like $60 for a brand new H&R Model 176 10 gauge shotgun. Anyone whose ever squinted down the barrel of this artillery piece has broken out into laughter at the swollen sewer pipe look. It was advertised to have a weighted stock. It came with a 36-inch full choke barrel and featured a decent cut choke. The restriction begins about 5-inches before the muzzle. The gun actually does throw dense patterns at 40 yards with No. 4 or No. 6 lead shot. I've seen later Model 176 10 gauge shotguns that had the cheapo swagged choke. It's a bit short stocked for me but works well with winter clothing and doesn't kick as badly that way either.

I spent $9.00 per box (of 25) at Gibson's Discount Center for four boxes of Federal 10 gauge 3 1/2-inch shells loaded with 2 oz. of No. 2 shot. Since I was purchasing Remington Express 2 3/4-inch 12 gauge duck loads for half that price per box I felt mightily abused. Sat at the edge of the lake all through the next season and banged away at out to 100 yards (or so I estimated) with the 10 gauge and scratched down a total of 2 ducks for the 100 shells. I recall that one of these ducks had two hits, a pellet that struck beneath the left wing and one in the neck.

I decided that I was not a 100 yard duck shooter and would go broke purchasing those expensive shells. Even if the pattern still provided enough density at such a range, which it likely did not, I wasn't skillful enough to determine proper lead for such stunt shooting.

Only later did I find out that the silly ol' 10 gauge H&R worked well when used with Winchester Super-X copper plated No. 5's or No. 6's. It hammered ducks in an incredibly effective manner at 50 yards. Only my ability to judge lead on fast flying ducks while pass shooting limited my ability to make best use of the gun. On rising shots or going away shots, watch out! When I did connect, the H&R really swatted them out of the sky. Sadly lead shot was later banned and so the ol' 10 gauge was pretty much retired. I still buy a box or two of bismuth every season or two for tradition's sake. Carried the 10 gauge season before last on a tank hopping expedition for ducks in central Texas. The bismuth 4's worked as well as did the old lead loads and I'd get my duck only after my brother-in-law and nephew took first shots.

I even was able to buy Remington Express 10 gauge 2 7/8-inch shells loaded with No. 4 shot in the 1970s. I don't remember the shot weight of this load but it was a duck getter. I used quite a few boxes of this stuff. Perhaps it had been on clearance. I don't recall.

In 1983 our slough at Lake Leon froze to 9 inches thick in an unusual December cold snap for Texas. I used the 10 gauge to find out how thick the ice was, taking two shots to shoot completely through it. High that day was 12F. It was 9F at 9 AM when some ducks actually flew by my end of the solidly frozen lake. I'd placed some decoys out on the ice, leaning crazily on their keels. One hopes. I furiously alternated between high-balls and feeding calls on the Yentzen. The ducks flew past about a hundred yards high, laughing.

Stood on a sidewalk BEHIND the handicap line (27 yards) on a trap range with some friends one afternoon and we all busted targets handily just before they fell in the grass after being thrown from the trap house using some of those Super-X shells with the number 6 shot. We didn't shoot at them as they were thrown but waited until they dropped almost to the ground. None of us could miss including a slightly built woman who was present. I can see why the 10 gauge isn't allowed for trap competition.

Used the 10 gauge H&R on a single occasion for a called-in tom turkey one spring down on the Concho River. As expected it worked like a charm.

My 10 gauge became sort-of a super "varmint rifle", a function I'd not expected of it. I got to buying Winchester Super-X buckshot loads. Now sadly discontinued, these were really nasty, featuring 2 1/4 oz. of No. 4 buckshot. That's 54 .24 caliber round balls per shell. For calling foxes or coyotes at night they couldn't be beat and my 10 gauge rolled 'em up. The gun patterned these very well. I got some 5 gallon rectangular fry-vat oil cans, laid them on their sides along the road out from our lake cabin and tested the buckshot loads out to 75 yards, finding that if I put the bead about a foot over the can I could cover it with holes. One only had to allow for a little drop at that distance. This knowledge stood me in good stead one night when chasing coyotes with a friend. We caught one in the beam of a spotlight, at what looked to be 75 yards, standing in the edge of a dry dusty plowed field, My bud was holding the light and I was holding the mighty H&R. He told me to take the light and he'd shoot the coyote with a scoped .243 that he had handy. Instead I placed the H&R's bead about a foot over the coyote and pulled the trigger. The coyote disappeared in a cloud of dust but as it drifted off he lay in a heap. Examination showed where 12 pellets hit him from stem to stern. I always figured it'd been like being hit with 12 .22 rifle bullets at once. I've still got some few boxes of the No. 4 buckshot loads, just for general principals.

Had a run-in with a vicious pit-bull in our yard when our two sons were very young. Some bikers had moved into a dilapidated farm house down the road from our house. Their dog got to staying in my wife's shady flowerbed in the hot summer weather we were having. He'd made a big wallow in only a day or two. One evening I was carrying my youngest son around the house to the back yard and came around the corner, discovering this dog which growled at us. Our eldest son was only 5 and the youngest was just walking. Our back yard was no place for this type of dog. I made it skedaddle but it returned daily, disputing the flowerbed with me. After a couple of days of this I figured it needed to "go away". I first thought of surgically and quietly placing a standard velocity .22 long rifle bullet in it's brain with my target rifle but it ran and I couldn't line up that Redfield 48 aperture target sight effectively as it high-tailed it across the yard. Next day it was there again and I determined that, whether the neighborhood heard me or not, I was getting the dog. Dropping a 2 1/4 oz. No. 4 buckshot load into the breach of the 10 gauge I headed out the front door of the house and around the side to the back. The dog rose from his wallow and was immediately flattened, so close that the buckshot load only had spread enough to hit him in two clumps, one in the head and one in the neck with a few strays in between.

I've been in the duck blind with the 12 gauge 3 1/2-inch Magnum guns a few times but was disappointed. I'm of the opinion that 2 oz. of steel shot from such a load is inferior to the 10 gauge 3 1/2-inch Magnum, at least back when it could be fed the Winchester Super-X or good ol' Remington Express 3 1/2-inch shells with lead 4's or 6's. Whether the 3 1/2-inch 12 gauge shell would perform with bismuth or with lead if it was still allowed I can't say but the 10 gauge gun really was effective back in the day at the longest reasonable distance one had any business shooting ducks which probably isn't more than 45-50 yards. I've never been on a goose hunt and don't know how the 10 gauge gun could perform there.

I'm a huge fan of the 2 3/4-inch 12 gauge shotgun for everything and the 10 gauge probably isn't worth the expense of the shells, the unwieldiness, the weight, or the recoil. Neither are the 3-inch or 3 1/2-inch Magnum 12 gauge shells in my view. I have hunted with the 10 gauge far fewer times than my favored 12 gauge but I have a lot of affection for my ol' H&R, cheap as it is. I always had a good time when using it in the field. Felt like a bit of a lark to hunt with it.

May 16th, 2008, 02:22 AM	#4
bmcgilvray Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: North Texas Posts: 1,119	I read of Elmer Keith shooting ducks at 100 yards on the Snake River in Idaho with his Ithaca 10 gauge Magnum double in articles in the Guns & Ammo Annuals in the early 1970s. As a young duck hunter of 18 I determined that I required a 10 gauge Magnum shotgun so I could do 100 yard pass shooting too. Paid something like $60 for a brand new H&R Model 176 10 gauge shotgun. Anyone whose ever squinted down the barrel of this artillery piece has broken out into laughter at the swollen sewer pipe look. It was advertised to have a weighted stock. It came with a 36-inch full choke barrel and featured a decent cut choke. The restriction begins about 5-inches before the muzzle. The gun actually does throw dense patterns at 40 yards with No. 4 or No. 6 lead shot. I've seen later Model 176 10 gauge shotguns that had the cheapo swagged choke. It's a bit short stocked for me but works well with winter clothing and doesn't kick as badly that way either. I spent $9.00 per box (of 25) at Gibson's Discount Center for four boxes of Federal 10 gauge 3 1/2-inch shells loaded with 2 oz. of No. 2 shot. Since I was purchasing Remington Express 2 3/4-inch 12 gauge duck loads for half that price per box I felt mightily abused. Sat at the edge of the lake all through the next season and banged away at out to 100 yards (or so I estimated) with the 10 gauge and scratched down a total of 2 ducks for the 100 shells. I recall that one of these ducks had two hits, a pellet that struck beneath the left wing and one in the neck. I decided that I was not a 100 yard duck shooter and would go broke purchasing those expensive shells. Even if the pattern still provided enough density at such a range, which it likely did not, I wasn't skillful enough to determine proper lead for such stunt shooting. Only later did I find out that the silly ol' 10 gauge H&R worked well when used with Winchester Super-X copper plated No. 5's or No. 6's. It hammered ducks in an incredibly effective manner at 50 yards. Only my ability to judge lead on fast flying ducks while pass shooting limited my ability to make best use of the gun. On rising shots or going away shots, watch out! When I did connect, the H&R really swatted them out of the sky. Sadly lead shot was later banned and so the ol' 10 gauge was pretty much retired. I still buy a box or two of bismuth every season or two for tradition's sake. Carried the 10 gauge season before last on a tank hopping expedition for ducks in central Texas. The bismuth 4's worked as well as did the old lead loads and I'd get my duck only after my brother-in-law and nephew took first shots. I even was able to buy Remington Express 10 gauge 2 7/8-inch shells loaded with No. 4 shot in the 1970s. I don't remember the shot weight of this load but it was a duck getter. I used quite a few boxes of this stuff. Perhaps it had been on clearance. I don't recall. In 1983 our slough at Lake Leon froze to 9 inches thick in an unusual December cold snap for Texas. I used the 10 gauge to find out how thick the ice was, taking two shots to shoot completely through it. High that day was 12F. It was 9F at 9 AM when some ducks actually flew by my end of the solidly frozen lake. I'd placed some decoys out on the ice, leaning crazily on their keels. One hopes. I furiously alternated between high-balls and feeding calls on the Yentzen. The ducks flew past about a hundred yards high, laughing. Stood on a sidewalk BEHIND the handicap line (27 yards) on a trap range with some friends one afternoon and we all busted targets handily just before they fell in the grass after being thrown from the trap house using some of those Super-X shells with the number 6 shot. We didn't shoot at them as they were thrown but waited until they dropped almost to the ground. None of us could miss including a slightly built woman who was present. I can see why the 10 gauge isn't allowed for trap competition. Used the 10 gauge H&R on a single occasion for a called-in tom turkey one spring down on the Concho River. As expected it worked like a charm. My 10 gauge became sort-of a super "varmint rifle", a function I'd not expected of it. I got to buying Winchester Super-X buckshot loads. Now sadly discontinued, these were really nasty, featuring 2 1/4 oz. of No. 4 buckshot. That's 54 .24 caliber round balls per shell. For calling foxes or coyotes at night they couldn't be beat and my 10 gauge rolled 'em up. The gun patterned these very well. I got some 5 gallon rectangular fry-vat oil cans, laid them on their sides along the road out from our lake cabin and tested the buckshot loads out to 75 yards, finding that if I put the bead about a foot over the can I could cover it with holes. One only had to allow for a little drop at that distance. This knowledge stood me in good stead one night when chasing coyotes with a friend. We caught one in the beam of a spotlight, at what looked to be 75 yards, standing in the edge of a dry dusty plowed field, My bud was holding the light and I was holding the mighty H&R. He told me to take the light and he'd shoot the coyote with a scoped .243 that he had handy. Instead I placed the H&R's bead about a foot over the coyote and pulled the trigger. The coyote disappeared in a cloud of dust but as it drifted off he lay in a heap. Examination showed where 12 pellets hit him from stem to stern. I always figured it'd been like being hit with 12 .22 rifle bullets at once. I've still got some few boxes of the No. 4 buckshot loads, just for general principals. Had a run-in with a vicious pit-bull in our yard when our two sons were very young. Some bikers had moved into a dilapidated farm house down the road from our house. Their dog got to staying in my wife's shady flowerbed in the hot summer weather we were having. He'd made a big wallow in only a day or two. One evening I was carrying my youngest son around the house to the back yard and came around the corner, discovering this dog which growled at us. Our eldest son was only 5 and the youngest was just walking. Our back yard was no place for this type of dog. I made it skedaddle but it returned daily, disputing the flowerbed with me. After a couple of days of this I figured it needed to "go away". I first thought of surgically and quietly placing a standard velocity .22 long rifle bullet in it's brain with my target rifle but it ran and I couldn't line up that Redfield 48 aperture target sight effectively as it high-tailed it across the yard. Next day it was there again and I determined that, whether the neighborhood heard me or not, I was getting the dog. Dropping a 2 1/4 oz. No. 4 buckshot load into the breach of the 10 gauge I headed out the front door of the house and around the side to the back. The dog rose from his wallow and was immediately flattened, so close that the buckshot load only had spread enough to hit him in two clumps, one in the head and one in the neck with a few strays in between. I've been in the duck blind with the 12 gauge 3 1/2-inch Magnum guns a few times but was disappointed. I'm of the opinion that 2 oz. of steel shot from such a load is inferior to the 10 gauge 3 1/2-inch Magnum, at least back when it could be fed the Winchester Super-X or good ol' Remington Express 3 1/2-inch shells with lead 4's or 6's. Whether the 3 1/2-inch 12 gauge shell would perform with bismuth or with lead if it was still allowed I can't say but the 10 gauge gun really was effective back in the day at the longest reasonable distance one had any business shooting ducks which probably isn't more than 45-50 yards. I've never been on a goose hunt and don't know how the 10 gauge gun could perform there. I'm a huge fan of the 2 3/4-inch 12 gauge shotgun for everything and the 10 gauge probably isn't worth the expense of the shells, the unwieldiness, the weight, or the recoil. Neither are the 3-inch or 3 1/2-inch Magnum 12 gauge shells in my view. I have hunted with the 10 gauge far fewer times than my favored 12 gauge but I have a lot of affection for my ol' H&R, cheap as it is. I always had a good time when using it in the field. Felt like a bit of a lark to hunt with it.