Thanks Gordon, I sure screwed up there; so let me speak to the pre-13 16-bore 2-E Grade Smith. Basically everything stated above remains the same except that 2-E 16's are not as rare; and that the 16-bore was first manufactured in 1895. The primary feature to remember will be the frame itself; from its introduction in 1895 until 1907, when the Featherweight ("FW") frame came into production, all 16-bores were manufactured on a scaled down version of the standard "R" sized frame. After the introduction of the FW frame in 1907, 16-bore Smith guns were manufactured on both the R and FW frame; and even with the "R" frame, Hunter Arms advertised 16-bore ejector guns as light as 6 lbs and 8 oz. Sometime after 1913, the R frame was dropped from use with the 16-bore; and all 16's were manufactured on the FW frame from that point thru the end of production. But the FW frame was not reserved solely for light weight Smith guns, and it is not difficult to find a 12-bore Smith on an FW frame weighing in at 8 pounds or more. In fact, the same FW frame was used to manufacture every gauge Smith gun manufactured by Hunter, with the exception of 8 and 10 bores; and the only differences between the 12, 16, 20, and 410 FW frames were the size of the breech balls and distances between firing pin holes. Personally, the early 16-bore Smith guns built on the scaled down R frames hold the most appeal to me; these scaled down R frames are much more pleasing esthetically, and rare in the higher grades.
