Originally Posted By: mike campbell
Originally Posted By: L. Brown
If you reload, the 12 has significant and unquestionable advantages over the 16.


I reload many thousands of both per annum.

Please list the significant advantages to the 12ga.


Ask and ye shall receive:

1. Better hulls--many of which you can often pick up, once fired, on trap and skeet ranges. A lot of guys buy new Rem Gun Clubs and toss them. They reload about as well as STS . . . both of which reload better than anything I ever used in 16ga. That includes the venerable old Win AA 16's, which were supposedly the gold standard.

2. Readily available and cheaper wads.

3. Easier to work up low pressure recipes using a variety of (again) readily-available components, for those who shoot guns requiring low pressure.

4. Recent appearance of a 3/4 oz wad, which makes working up very light loads quite easy and simple.

Reloading for the 16 requires more tinkering, harder to find (necessary to order) components (which are also more expensive), and there are still no hulls as good as those available in 12ga (which run in cost from cheap to free).