Originally Posted By: Nigel
Great photos. Great dogs. Great guns.

What single fact sticks out? There's a LOT of 16-bores in these photos.

16s are very popular in Europe, but I had no ideas 16s were so popular your side of the pond.

Nigel.


The 16 arguably is the ideal gun for our upland shooting, what you Brits would call "rough shooting", particularly in the Northeast where wading through thickets after grouse and woodcock is the order of the day. A lot of hunters here will go "yeaaaah", recognizing the 16 as an ideal upland gun even though they never had one. They're really not too common in use here. Go figure.

I went out for a couple hours this afternoon to get in a little more hunting before our grouse season closes Saturday. We had an inch or two of light snow last night and it remained cold, making for ideal tracking conditions. So I was my own dog, walking down the trails looking for bird tracks, then going in after them. I put up two birds but had no shots at either - too thick, too far and/or too fast. But I'm confident my 16 would have done the job, had I been a little less obstructed, closer and/or quicker.

If you want to really get in among a bunch of 16 aficionados, there's 16ga.com.

fiery, dependable, occasionally transcendent