u/tallen702

I recently came into possession of a pre-1875 W. & C. Scott & Son 10-gauge breech-loading black-powder shotgun that is in beautiful, fireable condition. The top lever and hammers have been blued at some point (they should be color case-hardened), and the 5-iron Crolle Damascus barrels themselves have lost all trace of rust-bluing or browning, all of which will be rectified in the not-too-distant future. I plan to order some 10ga brass hulls to load since the gun predates any standardization of fired shell length, and I know that a standard 10ga brass hull fits the chamber without issue (I have one that was floating around my shop and it fits beautifully).

I know from the barrel flats that the gun can handle up to 4 Dram 1-1/4oz loads, but there is no information on what type of black powder to use (1F, 3F? Who knows?!).

So, I beseech you, r/blackpowder, if you have any experience with loading 10ga BP loads, I would love any instruction, advice, etc. you may have. Especially if you have loads that work well for you for clays or even upland hunting. My goal is to eventually use this gun for some pheasant shoots down the road.

Thank you in advance for reading and offering any advice!

Some quick exposition to help illustrate my view of things:

Late in the season last year, my wife and some of her friends took a spa trip for the weekend. Wanting to have some fun with my (then) 11-year-old son, I grabbed us two tickets behind the visitors' dugout, about halfway up the section in the 100-level. We had a blast. The Nats won, and despite having been to games a few times before at various age levels, he instantly fell in love with the game and our team. I filled out the survey that they sent us after attending the game, and put down that I would like to be contacted about multi-game tickets for the next season, thinking I'd do some 10-game plans or similar. After speaking with the rep, spending some time crunching the numbers, and talking it over with my wife, we signed up for a partial plan (22 games), knowing we could exchange tickets on the two seats we purchased to get all three of us to roughly 14 games this year. I was very conscious of just how bad the team was last year and that we'd likely be just as bad this year. We went into this with our eyes open, expecting to see a few wins, but mostly to see losses.

Now for the hot-take:

Do I get frustrated when we blow big leads late in the game? You bet. Do I think we need to DFA or straight-up dump the current roster of relievers? Abso-freaking-lutely. Do I think Cavalli would make a better reliever than a starting pitcher? Well, he can only pitch a max of 5 innings reliably, so yes, yes, I do. I repeatedly turned the game on and off yesterday (we have set our tickets up for weekend games for the most part, so I follow the home games on mlb.tv), disgusted at the relievers and the fact that we haven't made any significant moves yet. And then, being supremely pissed off, I have to tell myself that I willingly paid for my plan, fully expecting to see us get pounded into the dust and not even hit .500 at any time in the year. I told my son over and over not to expect us to win many games. That we were going to truly be rebuilding this year with a whole new management team, and he accepted that, and still accepts it, probably better than me, a grown man. I think this pseudo-cinderella season makes these losses even harder. The fact that everyone can see that the bullpen is what is keeping us from being a contender, that all it takes is a little more money from the owners, and that we have some great position-player talent and new management that seems to have made good progress fixing some of the big issues that were plaguing the clubhouse is aggravating as hell. Even worse, doing better than expected for me makes all the little things that go wrong seem bigger than they are.

Still, compared to what I expected when I bought our plan, we're doing better than I ever expected. If we don't make any changes before the deadline, then yeah, that's a big mistake. If next year isn't better than this year, I will definitely have a reason to be pissed off. But for now, I'm willing to take the wins we get, hope we can stay above .500 for the rest of the year, and cheer on the team every chance I get. It may be myopic, it may be naive, but that's my take on the current state of affairs as someone who really only became a fan in the past 9 months or so.

Another online auction that I can't properly preview results in another mistaken identity (though this time, it seems to be a bit more in my favor).

I grabbed this W. & C. Scott & Son 11-Bore with crolle barrels in an auction a few weeks ago. The Auction house is 3 hours from me (driving), so I didn't mind doing a bit of blind bidding on it since this particular house does a good job with their descriptions and pictures. What was missing were any pictures of the flats and the water table, but they specified the proofs in the text, so I felt rather comfortable that this was an antique W&C Scott that had some restoration done to it, but not a full job.

Where the error comes in is that the auction house described it as a 10-Gauge. I'm sure they shoved a chamber gauge down it, and not having an 11, the 10 fit the best. My 10-gauge fits it as well, but just barely. The big determining factor is the bore size, which, at the muzzle, is .748, sits just below the .751 nominal bore size for 11-gauge. A modern 10-gauge shell is too wide for the chamber as well. Looks like I'll be begging Larry Potterfield for some 11-gauge brass.

As for the gun itself, I can tell that some of the pieces have been "restored" rather incorrectly. The Scott patent spindle lever should be color case hardened, as should the hammers. That will be rectified by a restoration specialist in the near future. Everything else, however, seems to be in proper shape, with plenty of color case hardening left on the action. The barrels beg to be re-rust blued and lacquered with their beautiful 5 or 6 iron Crolle (true Damascus) pattern. There is a tiny hairline crack running from the wood around the lockplates near the head of the stock backwards toward the wrist. An easy pin repair with the lockplates removed.

This is a true double-bite shotgun featuring the Purdey patent. Circa 1877 or older, thanks to the fact that both the Scott and Purdey patent marks are still on the water table. Despite the "London" address on the barrel, it's a Birmingham gun through and through with Birmingham proofs on the barrels and view marks on the water table. She's a nice-looking old gal, and with only light pitting and erosion in the bores, I think she'll clean up well and be shootable with some handloaded BP shells in the not-too-distant future.

Patent marks. British patents lasted a maxximum of 14 years at this time. Patent number 1104 was issued in 1863. The \"5312\" is the serialization stamp, showing this was the 5,312 gun that W&C Scott made that would require a royalty to Purdey for the use of his locking system.

4 Dram 1-1/4oz Shot sits right in the 11ga - 10ga wheelhouse for BP loads of the time.

Not much in the way of Birmingham proof marks. Black powder proofs and view marks along with a \"crown-over-s\" which is a bit of mystery. Seems like it may be a \"Scott\" mark for barrels. Just my guess since I've only seen it on other Scott guns.

Excellent color case hardening remaining on the frame/receiver for something around 150 years old. Note the blued hammers, this is an anachronism on this gun.

London in the streets, Birmingham in the sheets.

In the foreground with another recent acquisition (though, non-antique) in the rear.