Sunday Gun Day Vol. III Ep. XLIX - The Big, Beautiful Ithaca Mag-10

For this reason, the 10-gauge was mostly favored by waterfowlers, who generally are stationary in a blind and not hiking over hill and dale looking for birds like upland hunters. There’s a good reason for this; geese and even ducks are tough, heavily feathered birds who take some knocking down, and even the old 2 7/8” 10-gauge loads threw big charges of heavy shot idea for this task. But the introduction of the 3” magnum shells for the 12 gauge started to make some inroads, as a pump gun like an 870 Remington can shoot both the big heavy magnums as well as lighter upland loads. But when the United States started mandating non-toxic shot for waterfowl in 1991, the 10-gauge 3 ½” magnum with its huge shot charge made something of a resurgence. Younger waterfowlers wanted something more modern than a big, heavy double. Ithaca Arms had a product already in production that met this need admirably, that being the first-ever semi-automatic 10-gauge. They called it the Mag-10.

Steel Shot and Ithaca’s Mag-10

In 1975, Ithaca brought out the new gun, the very first semi-auto shotgun in 10-gauge. The new gun weighed in at a hefty 11 ½ pounds, with a 32” barrel and a two-shot magazine. The gun was made primarily for waterfowlers, so the weight wasn’t as much of a hindrance as one might think, and the magazine worked fine within the United States government’s migratory game rules, limiting repeating shotguns to a total capacity of three rounds. With the gun, Ithaca also introduced something they called the Counter-Coil system, an arrangement in the gun’s forearm to help tame the big gun’s kick.

Waterfowlers found the big gun with its big shot charge a good way to deal with the lower hitting power of the first generations of non-toxic shot, which in those days was not really steel, but soft iron. The non-toxic shot was lighter than the lead it replaced, and didn’t retain energy the way lead shot does. Waterfowlers dealt with this by launching more shot, and there just wasn’t anything better for that than the big Mag-10. In this moment, Ithaca was in the right place at the right time with the right product.

In addition to the standard version, the Mag-10 was also available with a 22” barrel and rifle sights, intended to shoot slugs; Ithaca called this the DeerSlayer, and one of those would come in handy here in Alaska, where anglers often find they are sharing fishing waters with a grizzly. A big, 2-ounce 10-gauge slug would ruin even the most aggressive grizzly’s whole day.

Brutal Car Stopper: The Roadblocker

Then, in 1978, Ithaca got another idea: The police market, most especially the various states’ highway patrol organizations. For this niche, Ithaca took their Mag-10, lopped off the barrel to 22 inches, leaving a heavy, brutal, cylinder-bore beast firing 2 full ounces of 00 buckshot or a 2-ounce slug.

Bear in mind that two full ounces of 00 buck would make any goblin feel maladjusted, not to mention the chance he will be rendered to ambient temperature by the big load. The Roadblocker, as it became known, didn’t sell a lot of copies, but it was a remarkable piece all the same.

In 1989, sales of the Mag-10 were starting to flag a bit. Later on, after the non-toxic shot rule took effect, new non-toxic shot loads, including things like bismuth instead of iron, were more efficient. Before that, though, came the real deal-breaker: In 1988, Mossberg and Federal Cartridge collaborated on the introduction of the 3 ½” 12-gauge round, sold by Federal and chambered in Mossberg’s new Model 835 Ultra Magnum. Remington Arms Company approached the struggling Ithaca with an offer for the Mag-10; Ithaca agreed, and sold the design to Big Green, who modified the gun only slightly and sold it as the SP-10. Remington made the gun from 1989 to 2010, when they closed the doors on what had been the first 10-gauge semi-auto for good.

For a while, the 10-gauge had an advantage. But loads and new shot materials gradually ate away at the advantage held by those big, heavy guns, and the evolution of guns and loads took their toll; in guns, as in biology, it’s not a good strategy to be too over-specialized.

In the end, about 12,000 of these guns, between the Mag-10 and the SP-10, were made. They were big, heavy, and expensive, great for a determined goose hunter, but too much for most applications. No solid numbers exist on how many of those guns were Roadblocker and DeerSlayer variants.

Now?

In the sporting gun market, the advent of the 3 ½” 12-gauge loads pretty much rendered the 10-gauge obsolete. Guns like my Browning Citori can fire those big 3 ½” roman candles while also handling AA light target loads with no difficulty, and the long 12-gauge loads approximate the 10-gauge load. That pretty much eliminates the reason for having a specialized, big, heavy gun for geese.

Not that I wouldn’t take a hard look at an Ithaca Roadblocker, were one to come up on one of the various online auction sites I frequent. But at present, nobody makes a new 10-gauge of any kind. The Remington SP-10 dropped off in 2010, as noted. Browning still lists the Browning Pump Shotgun (BPS) in 10-gauge, as well as the Gold Light semi-auto, on their website, but notes they are discontinued, with the last examples apparently made in 2024. Used ones are available, but there are, at the moment, no mass-produced 10-gauge guns.

That’s all that’s left of the 10-gauge market.

In guns, as with so many things, the market is an ever-changing landscape. Ithaca, after introducing the Mag-10, was in the right place at the right time, with a big gun that worked better with the non-toxic shot in use at the time. But new 12-gauge loads and improved non-toxic shot alloys, in time, just plain made it irrelevant – but no less awesome.