Now no one is making a 10 gauge. Long live the 10 gauge.

10Glocks

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Browning stopped making the Gold in 10 gauge a few years ago. Now the BPS is out of production altogether. As of now, and for the first time in recent history, no one is making a 10 gauge.

Yeah, the advent of the 3 1/2" 12 gauge, as well as TSS, obviated the need for a 10 gauge. But there was nothing else quite like the 10.

I've owned them, and still have a BPS in 10 gauge. They are heavy, but that weight soaks up the recoil. A 10 gauge 3 1/2" is easier on the ears than a 12 gauge 3 1/2". And I've yet to see a 3 1/2" 12 gauge load out-pattern a 3 1/2" 10 gauge with the same shot size and weight. And if you wanted to go really heavy, the 10 gauge was where it was at. Big loads of steel, big loads of buckshot, huge slugs, big loads of turkey shot, and giant loads of TSS. And the guns tended to be built well - overbuiilt even - and would last multiple lifetimes with the right care. How can you not love a 10 gauge?

But for now, it's over. No one is making a 10 gauge. I've heard scuttlebutt that Browning will be replacing the BPS with a new pump. But I'm not an insider, so I don't know for certain. And even if they do, will there be a 10 gauge?

So, what you have is what there is, and maybe all there will be. Anyways, long live the 10 gauge.

In appreciation of size...

10, 12, 20, .410
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10, .410
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10 2 5/8 ounces of #9 TSS. .410 13/16 ounce of #9 TSS.
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Very first shotgun experience I had was a single shot 10gauge. My dad borrowed grandpa's 10gauge so we could go to turkey/card shoots when I was around 6 or 7. My dad was trying help me hold it at the shooting rail but I wanted to do it by myself. So he let me. I lined up and pulled the trigger and ended up about 6 feet back from rail on my rear-end. What a rush. You couldn't have slapped the smile off my face. I've been a shotgun junkie ever since.
 
A friend of mine had a Remington SP 10, he wanted to sell. I should have bought it as they now bring 4 times what he was asking for it. Being a semiauto, the recoil wasn't bad at all, just not very cheap to shoot.
 
A friend of mine had a Remington SP 10, he wanted to sell. I should have bought it as they now bring 4 times what he was asking for it. Being a semiauto, the recoil wasn't bad at all, just not very cheap to shoot.
That was my first 10 gauge. An SP10, blued and walnut, with a 26" barrel. With an XX-full choke, it would pattern Winchester Surpreme #5 incredibly well. My best patterning turkey gun ever. It was heavy but built like a tank. Yet anothger gun I sold in a moment of sheer stupidity.
 
A friend had a Marlin Super Goose 10 ga back in the late 70s. Kicked too much imo. He hunted Canada geese. Back then If you wanted any you had to shoot them as they flew over during migration. Now they are a plague. Go to any park, school, golf course or shopping center and take your pick. They are dirty flockers. Crap all over.
 
I had an SP10 for a long time, finally let it go a couple yrs back. I actually bought it to teach a couple knuckleheads a lesson, what a great day that was. Although I was a much younger man at the time, it still clobbered my shoulder pretty good.
I haven't hunted waterfowl in yrs, and my turkey gun is a 3-1/2 12 Super Magnum. Like @jmorris posted, I got considerably more than I paid for it originally. I actually bought it on a late Sunday afternoon at a gunshow, the dealer gave it to me for his cost so he didn't have to pack it back up. Sold on the broker 2 yrs ago for $2300, thank you very little.....
ETA: That was from an.01 start auction
 
In olden times - before Winchester and Ithaca magnumized the 10 in 1932 - the 10 gauge was a 2 7/8" shell loaded with 1 5/8 oz of shot. I think that a black powder legacy, loads by gauge were over a narrow range to get both velocity and pattern.
We used to hunt ducks with this older gentleman yrs ago, he had an old 10 and a bunch of cardboard shells for it, and an 8 gauge. That 8 was so dang old, Julius Caesar probably owned it at one time. I wanna say this was around 1990. No, he never hunted with em, more or less wall hangers, but he pulled em both out one day we were there. I fired the 10, I passed on the 8 after one of my buddies gave it a whirl. That bruise was on his shoulder a few weeks
 
I acquired my first 10ga and 1870s upland bird, sxs, 28" barrels, straight grip, 7.5 pounds. I hope to use it for coyotes with 1 1/8 oz lead BBs in a brass hull, talk about nostalgia.

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It should be a dandy on ducks with an oz of Bismuth 5's
 
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I had one, a big old F grade LC Smith hammer gun with a really nice set of custom 3.5" barrels. Shot a lot game with it using both 2 7/8ths and 3 1/2 inch shells; when the shoulders started going, the heavy, hard kicking guns followed. I admit, I do wish I still had that one knowing now what it's worth but at the same time I don't miss it.

Mac
 
I had a Damascus barrel external hammer double. Love that old gun. Made a set of inserts for smaller gauges for it. Much more fun for old man to shoot in smaller gauges. The 20 gauge inserts were my favorite. I don't have kids so let younger cousin have it. Getting him into old guns, reloading, muzzleloaders etc. Watching him shoot the old gun with 10 gauge loads and the grin on his face is priceless. He recorder the guns history as it was handed down over the decades. Lot of history in some of the old guns.
 
I still have my Ithaca Mag 10 Deluxe in the safe. Hasn't been fired in many years. I quit hunting geese and waterfowl 30 years ago. I had it out 4-5 years ago trying to pop some coyotes with plated lead BB's, but never got any to call in.
 
I had one of the H&R single shot 10s.
I sold it though and replaced it with an Ithaca Mag 10, that I picked up about 20yrs ago.
I 've taken it out for Turkey a few times, although not lately.

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I'm holding off for Turkeye to start selling these for $399

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At the current rate Turkey is importing shotguns the wait probably won’t be long. Some of them are supposed to be pretty good guns for the money, so I won’t disparage. I might even jump on the bandwagon for one of these $200 tokarev wood stocked riot guns. Pretty good looking rigs, and I want to swap the wood stock to my mossy.
 
At the current rate Turkey is importing shotguns the wait probably won’t be long. Some of them are supposed to be pretty good guns for the money, so I won’t disparage. I might even jump on the bandwagon for one of these $200 tokarev wood stocked riot guns. Pretty good looking rigs, and I want to swap the wood stock to my mossy.

I have the MAC 1014 Turkiye-made knockoff of the Benelli M4.
With pretty wood.
And it works.
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At least some of the Turkish made shotguns are pretty good. I've owned a Stoeger and a Weatherby branded shotgun made in Turkey that have been impressive.

With advances in shotshells I see no place anymore for 10 ga and even 12's are becoming special use guns. Most shooters can do what they need to do with a 20.
 
My first 10 gauge was a Aya Matador 32" double. I used 2 1/4 .oz of lead #2 in it for Turkey and Geese before the Federal lead free ban. After the ban I had it cut to 20" barrels with the hole under the rib poured full of lead. It's still in my bed room with #4 buck Federal loads. I bought an Ithaca 10 ga. Road Blocker used, in the 80 s, and played with the awesome slugs for a few years while I shot at geese and ducks with a 30" Remington 1100 12 ga 3" Magnum with steel shot. Somebody offered me a lot more than I paid for the Road blocker semi auto Ithaca and I used the money to buy An Ithaca 10 gauge BPS pump with 26" barrel and choke tubes for my steel Goose and lead turkey gun . I still have it and use it every year to get limits in turkey most years and the occasional goose. I have a Mec 10 gauge reloader that I build my own loads with. I also bought ten years ago a Pedersoli heavy duck 10 gage Black powder double with barrels cut to 15" :). Talk about fun !!
 
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Had one of those Marlin Super Goose 10s back in the Day for geese in the rice fields. It could reach out there on those clear blue sky days. Gave that water fowl hunting up years ago when my waders sprung a leak and it was below freezing out. I said never again, no duck or goose worth that miserable hunt. Sold that Super Goose a couple of years. People still looking for them...
 
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