For what its worth, when the lead shot ban came in the early 90's, I sold my Model 23 Winchester I used for ducks and geese and bought an Eibar made 10 ga for $300 brand new. 32" bbls, wt 9 1/2 lbs, chokes F&F. I also bought two boxes each of Federal 3 1/2 in. steel 1 5/8 oz loads in BB and T shot, then I went to see my local gunsmith George Orndorff who agreed to ream the chokes out 5 thousandths at a time, then I would test them at the pattern board. Took about 5 weeks, I wouid pick up the gun downtown on Friday, pattern over the weekend , then bring it back to him on Monday. Unreamed, the barrels printed a tight oblong pattern that was thin in the middle. Sort of like a figure 8 on a 30 degree axis from the vertical. Not acceptable. 5K cut, rounded out a bit. 10K, same. 15K little rounder, still very tight. 20K (leaving 22 points still in the barrel) gave me a perfectly round 40 inch pattern with 80% of the load of BB's inside 30 inches. I stopped there on the left barrel, and cut the right another 5, leaving 17 in. Perfect round pattern spread over 48 inches with 65% in the 30 inch circle. Stopped there. T's patterned 10% tighter, but with way fewer pellets. I shot greater and lesser Canada's for 10 years with that gun, using only steel BB's. The longest goose I shot was probably 60 yards dead overhead, looking for its mate. The BB's worked. Never had to go to the T's, which still sit in my gunroom. The right barrel was also deadly at 30 yards when they cupped up. Then, I got into vintage doubles and the old Eibar 10 has sat unused for almost 20 years. I now shoot Bismuth 2's out of a Parker lifter with open chokes, which is deadly on cupped birds, and just got a Parker top lever with 32 inch barrels and original full chokes. That gun patterns 130/150 RST No. 2 Nice shot 1 1/4 oz nominal, all within a 36 in circle. I bought 30 of the Nice shot about 10 years ago (at about $3 per shell) and they no longer offer it. My bad. Still, if I wasn't enjoying shooting the hammer guns so much, I would pull out the Eibar to kill geese.
Last edited by limapapa; 12/15/22 11:15 PM.
