My goose hunting shotgun

Hopefully, by the time you read this, I will have retrieved my Remington model SP-10, 10-gauge shotgun from the gunsmith where I took it to be refinished. I wanted to have the gun redone using the Cerakote process to waterproof the exterior metal and improve the looks of some areas of the firearm.

A few years back, I began thinking about what I wanted to hunt when my days of backpacking moose quarters were over. I have always enjoyed waterfowl hunting but have limited experience with hunting geese. With all the improvements over recent years in shotshell development, the need for a 10-gauge shotgun to down the big birds isn’t necessarily required. However, when I was buying equipment to begin chasing geese, the 10-gauge was the go-to gauge for pass-shooting Canadian geese.

I started looking around for what was available in the form of a 10-gauge shotgun. The field was fairly limited. I found a side-by-side available at a decent price. This shotgun had interchangeable choke tubes, but only came with a limited selection of chokes. I started looking around at the different gun shows and finally found a vendor who had a full selection of choke tubes specifically made for this model shotgun – a bit of a rarity given the relatively unknown make of the gun. I bought everything I figured I needed.

That same year, I stumbled into a clearance sale held in Anchorage by a company which supplied western Alaska villages with everything from groceries to hunting equipment. Apparently, 10-gauge shotgun shells weren’t a big seller in the Bush. The company had brought all their unsold inventory to this clearance sale to get rid of it. Almost all the shells were of a brand name, steel shot type and I brought everything they had (as I recall, probably a case or more of shells). The price was incredibly inexpensive per twenty-five round box and the shot sizes were perfect for waterfowl hunting. I was thrilled!

I took that double barrel on a few duck hunts out in the Hay Flats area and even managed to harvest a duck or two. I learned a couple of things from these trips. First, the shotgun was heavy to carry around when beating the bush for ducks. And second, having a third shot readily available would have gotten me a few more ducks. I started looking around for a semi or pump-action gun.

Remington had stopped production of the SP-10 by then, so my only choice was the used gun market. I found one listing online from a guy in Tennessee who was selling his gun since he couldn’t use it anymore for health reasons. The gun was obviously used but had been taken carry of. He had spray painted the entire gun in a camo pattern and that helped assure the metal was in good condition. The barrel was 28-inches and was fitted with interchangeable choke tubes.

I was able to locate a 24-inch barrel online (has open sights, designed for turkey hunting) which was in near-new condition. Now I had a complete set of barrels for that shotgun. I located a scope mount for use with the shorter barrel when predator hunting. I found some 10-gauge slug loads I could use for moose hunting if I drew a permit for the “targeted” moose hunt during the winter. I was good to go!

I was able to buy a brand-new name brand shotshell reloading press for 10-gauge, steel shot reloading for half price at a gun show and found the parts and pieces for a shell resizing tool at another show. Sometimes, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn!

My next task was locating some choke tubes to use besides the one tube I got with the semi-auto shotgun. That took a little time, but I finally succeeded. I wasn’t looking for open chokes because my plans for using the gun involved using a modified or tighter choke, except when shooting slugs.

I decided to strip off the camo paint and found both the metal and the stock wood to be in better shape than I had originally thought. The trigger guard looked bad, though, so I wanted the Cerakote refinish to dress up the guard and waterproof the metal.

If this job was done as well as a revolver refinish I had done last year, the shotgun will look brand new. Now I just have to find some places and/or book some trips with a waterfowl guide who hunts geese!