I may get a lashing but 10 gauges are over rated. look at a 3 1/2" 12 gauge and there is no real gain in velocity or payload by owning a 10.
I do have one and the ammo selection is poor and expensive, choke selection is limited.
Mine just stays in the safe. I may get it patterned for turkeys some time but IMO the 12 ga. 3 1/2 is the way to go.
I have a Rem Mag 10 and it's really only practical as a waterfowl gun. The 10 tends to pattern way better than a 12g 3 1/2" loads. You can get far better performace w/ a 10g if you are willing to reload. The 10g factory stuff is notorioulsy under loaded in respect to speed.... I believe because of the number of old 10 g guns out on the market
The faster loads produce more pressure than the old guns can handle. Funny though, less pressure than the 3 1/2" 12s loads. But the 12g 3 1/2" guns are all modern guns made to higher pressure tolerances.
I've shot 3 1/2" 12 in my Mossberg turkey gun. My buddies and I have patterned 3 differenct 3 1/2" waterful guns. I tend to feel the 3 1/2 12g is a bit of a gimmick. One thing you really noticed is the best patterns often come with the lower shot charges... say 2oz vs. 2 1/4oz for lead or 1 1/4oz vs 1 1/2oz in steel. Also, when you start to look at bigger shot, like for waterfowl 1s, 2s in steel for instance, the patterns in the 12g 3 1/2" seem really inconsistant. I've noticed similiar things in 3" 20g loads. My only explanation is that the actual bore can only efficiently choke so much shot. I tend to think with the new tungsten shots a 3" 12 is about all a guy needs anymore. One other thing about the 3 1/2" shells in a 12... depending on your gun they will flat punish with recoil. My Mossberg is absolutely brutal to shoot with 3 1/2" shells.
I tend to agree with advice others have given. The 870 or Nova are going to be hard to beat. Don't waste your $ on a cheap autoloader. I will give some props to the higher end autoloaders. They do tend to operate more reliably and the gas guns really do make a noticeable difference in recoil.
