Was the #10 shot of 1898 the same size as the #10 shot of today?
That would depend somewhat upon whose shot he was using. I have a copy of a shot chart from the 1890's which lists 9 diferent towers & each had their own sizes. #10 shot varied from a low of 822/oz to a high of 1130/oz. Eventually the sizes of Tateham Bros, New York was settled upon as standard. With this system a size "0" was .170" in diameter & each full size dropped by .010", thus a size 10 would be .070" in dia. In "Drop" shot this would give 848/oz for #10 size.
In the above chart only two towers produced #10 shot larger than Tateham's @ 822/oz while 6 produced shot of a smaller dia, thus there is just as much likely hood his #10's were smaller than todays as that they were larger.
