# 10ga or 12ga.



## Gooseman678 (Nov 17, 2003)

Starting to hear more and more about how a 12ga 3.5 is mathmatically the same as a 10ga 3.5???? if anyone can help me out on this. Personally i still beleave a 10ga 3.5 has way more knockdown power and range then a 12 ga 3.5. Lets hear your opinions.......


----------



## dogdigger (Jan 26, 2004)

it is very close i think. i shoot a 10 gauge bps, my hunting buddy shoots a browning gold 3.5 12 gauge. they are very close until you get to the longer ranges then we notice a difference between the two. i like shooting a 10 gauge, i hunt with a 10 and a 20 in the blind. i know i could shoot a 12 and only use one gun but i enjoy shooting the 20 for ducks and some geese and for the geese smashing i get out the 10. i think its personal preference, with the ten its not going to be like rambo shoot into the flock and drop 13 geese. i will say last year i folded a goose at 75 yards in one shot. last goose of the year.

mark


----------



## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

I would agree with Dogdigger. It may very well come down to what you have to pay for the shells. They are that close. Having stated that, a 10 ga will have a shorter, denser shot string, when loaded to the same payload as a 12/3.5. Is there an advantage, or disadvantage? Let the debate begin. Burl


----------



## muskat (Mar 5, 2002)

Im not a ballistics expert by any means, but isn't "knock down power" the same as impact energy? 
If you load BB (certain density) to 1450 fps in a 12 gauge 3.5 in shell, that would have the same energy available as a BB (same density) @ 1450 in a 10 gauge shell, following newtons second law (E=1/2mass x velocity squared).
The only difference between a 10ga and 12 3.5 is the size of the payload (pellets).


----------



## zfish87 (Oct 25, 2004)

the main difference is the 10 GA patterns better then the 3.5 in 12 GA, my dads buddy does alot of work with trapshooting guns and he was talking about that one time.The longer skinnier 12 GA 3.5 doesn't pattern as well.


----------



## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

With the 10 having a marginally larger bore, even if the payloads were the same, and the muzzle velocity equal, would the 10 ga load not lose velocity faster at a distance due to the larger frontal area of the shot string? I am not sure this makes scientific sense, so let's hear it from the physics majors. Burl


----------



## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Read the new Delta waterfowl magazine there is a whole article about this debate.


----------



## muskat (Mar 5, 2002)

I look at it as individual pellets. Each individual pellet (in a theoretical world) would exit the barrel with the same velocity and same mass, whether they are tight together and present a frontal area, or spread apart. 
I guess it could be taken even further and the flows across a frontal pattern could be studied against a single pellet. However, this still is only acting in the first few feet out of the barrel, which makes a small percentage of the total travel of the pellets.


----------



## Dave Owens (Nov 11, 2002)

Muskat is right. Same size pellet at same velocity goes same distance and hits with same energy. Bore size makes no measurable difference when talking distance. The larger pellet in the larger bore can be deadly if you hit the bird though as each pellet carry's X amount of energy. Two pellets carry twice the energy and impact as one pellet and thus twice the damage.


----------



## dogdigger (Jan 26, 2004)

if a pellet is behind another one it isnt getting the wind resistance since it is drafting the pellet in front, so in theory pellets in a line would go futher than ones spread out. the front pellet also has less drag on it because the pellet behind is reducing it. for the same reason that a row of nascars can go faster than one lone car. does that mean anything? hell if i know, i jsut like to shoot a 10 gauge :beer: hell until last year i hunted and was very successful goose hunting with a 20 gauge

mark


----------



## cut'em (Oct 23, 2004)

BPS 10 GA.
(enough said) :jammin:


----------



## wtrfwlr (Sep 29, 2004)

personally I think it's the person behind the gun, not the gun itself. Whether it's a 410 or a 10 ga as long as you can make a good clean kill what's it matter?


----------



## Gunner (Oct 30, 2002)

It's all about *effective* range. Since the 10 ga. shell will hold a larger volume of shot, the effective range will increase.


----------



## esox07 (Mar 14, 2005)

Not sure the cost of shells is much different between 3.5" 10ga and 3.5" 12ga. It seems to me they are basically within a buck or so per box of like loads.


----------



## purepower (Sep 11, 2004)

personally guys i love my 10 when it comes to geese, i have had to ring very few necks when it came to shooting with the 10, most birds hit the ground hard after taking a shot from it. but mostly yes u get better dist, better pattern, same price shells, but the only thing is its just a lil heavier and harder to rap off those fast as lightning reloads, like u can shooting ur auto 12, and pump 12s.


----------



## mallardhunter (May 15, 2004)

I'd just buy a 12 that can shoot 3.5 all the way down to 2.75 then you have a bunch of different shells to choose from and the 3.5 isn't much different from a 10ga. Plus the 12 you can use for more things like pheasants without blowing them up.


----------



## esox07 (Mar 14, 2005)

hahaha, that brings up a memory from about 15 years ago. I had a bunch of #2, 2oz lead shells for my Rem SP10 and since I cant hunt geese with them, I decided to burn some of them up on a rare pheasant hunt. We only kicked up one rooster (SE Minnesota) and I got off a shot at the same time as my buddy. He claimed it as did I. Well, he kept the bird and after he got home and cleaned it, he had to admit who really hit it. He said it had about 50 bb's in it and they all went through the back all the way out the breast and it was nothing more than a pile of mush. Yah, for pheasants, I recommend 12ga and 2.75 shells definitely.


----------



## cooter (Jul 16, 2003)

I have a Ithaca MAG 10,a Remington SP-10, Benelli SBE and a Beretta Extrema. If I am just goose hunting I use a 10 and if I am duck and goose hunting I usually use a 3.5 12 ga.

I don't care what the Physics or numbers say. The 10 beats the 12 hands down in killing power. Peroid. I shoot approx 5-6 cases of shells a year and I've had the SBE since '95 and the Ithaca since '96.

They also say that you shouldn't shoot steel through a full choked barrel and I kill big geese all day long at 70 yards+ with steel BBB's through my 32" Full choked Ithaca. Numbers are just that and they don't put birds in the bag. You need to find the choke & shell combination thats best for the gun you shoot.

If you want the more versatile of the guns go with the 12. If you want a specialized killing machine go with the 10. You better work out though, they ain't lightweight.


----------



## DeerScarer (Jul 23, 2005)

cooter said:


> ...They also say that you shouldn't shoot steel through a full choked barrel and I kill big geese all day long at 70 yards+ with steel BBB's through my 32" Full choked Ithaca. Numbers are just that and they don't put birds in the bag. You need to find the choke & shell combination thats best for the gun you shoot.
> 
> If you want the more versatile of the guns go with the 12. If you want a specialized killing machine go with the 10. You better work out though, they ain't lightweight.


Right on cooter. I read somewhere that you can shoot steel BBB and T through a 10-gauge full choke but not 12-gauge full choke. Not sure about that, what I do know is Winchester's biggest 12-3.5" load has 94 BBBs at 1300 fps and their biggest 10-gauge load has 98 at 1350 fps. Remington's big 10 gauge load has 102 BBBs with a muzzle velocity of 1260 fps compared to 93 BBBs at 1300 fps in their biggest 12-3.5" load. Federal is the only company I know of that loads their 12-3.5" and their 10-gauge loads to the same weight. Bottom line is 10-gauge still has more capacity.

In spite of this I'll stick with the 12 cause the barrel's about 2 lbs lighter!


----------



## Mud15 (Sep 24, 2004)

12ga. more load types cheaper and easy to find than 10ga. nuff said


----------

