One other thought, besides checking for chamber length and the forcing cones, if you can find some older Federal paper Purple 16 shells with the older pie crimp and paper wad seal, if not, then I'd try a box of the RST paper 16 shells in the 2.5" length, assuming the crack in the chamber can be repaired and the gun reproofed.
Sometimes plastic hulls can cause chamber problems. An example is a friend, an avid clays shooter with several older Belgium Browning Superposed guns- like me, he reloads Win. AA hulls, and he has to carefully bronze brush the chambers of his Brownings, or they will rust from shooting the AA reloads- Once after a complete cleaning he shot 100 clays at a DU Sporting Clays shoot and used older Federal paper Champion Trap Loads- he then ran a long brushy cleaner from the club house through both barrels and- not one spec of rust- nor three days later when he shot that gun next. I don't own or plan to own a 16, so I can only offer you my experiences with 12 gauges.
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 03/10/09 07:15 PM.
