I can't comment on the #10 shot from experience but have avoided it for the reasons stated. I have used RST #8s and 7.5s to hunt quail in GA several times and my experience was that they performed very well on both ends of the gun. I tested some RST spreaders against Polywads last year and found the RSTs threw slightly tighter patterns that had less variation between shots and fewer holes in the patterns (at least out of a 12 ga. Vernon-Carron sxs).