doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Best 16ga. all purpose gun... $500 or under

If you don't mind having the polychoke you can find a 16ga Ithaca 37 with a polychoke on gunbroker from time to time. I have a 1950 16 with the polychoke. I have less than $100 in it. It is extremely ugly and the stock has been repaired but it works great and the polychoke is functional.

No such thing as an all purpose gun.

True enough, but, with enough barrels and an Ithaca 37, you can get close.
Best,
Ted

M12 with Polychoke.

Sam

Where were you a week ago? I just sold a Nitro 16 for under $300.00. It needed some cosmetic TLC but we like doing that right?

Nitro special. Good for those "nasty days". Autos and slides--to many moving parts for snow,ice and rainy times. I drag an Nitro 16 around the property here on my polaris,tractor/PU. Shoots anything and easy clean and maint. Works for geese,duck and cootontail round here. I have a very nice N.Spl. to sell But its 12 ga.-----I am gonna be buried with all my 16's! An Ithaca Western will work for this kinda stuff too.

I have a 16ga Sportsman 48 that balances 4 inches in front of the trigger and weighs under 6.5lbs. I hunt ducks and late-season partrige with it sometimes, usually in really ugly weather well below sub-freezing, and it has never ever had a hiccup. I don't like the idea of an auto, but I can't bear the thought of parting with it...especially since I paid a whopping $250 for it. It cycles both hot 1 1/8 ouncers (heaviest I've tried) and my ultra-light 7/8 oz reloads with aplomb.

Mike Orlen can choke tube it for not much money at all if you want the flexibility and it doesn't have a polychoke already.

I have never owned a nitro, a 32, 37, auto 5, or a model 12, all venerable guns. The $300 nitro would have been hard to pass up. So will the new 16ga bps built on the 20 ga frame when it comes out this year, in an upland model with straight stock no less. Except it is new. The 16ga. site has info on it from the recent shot show.

I'm in no huge hurry, so it will be a fun search. Thanks for all the opinions.

The post mentions rainy day use. 870's, 1100's, 391's, Nova's and other fairly modern guns are easy to pull apart and dry out if soaked. Some of the other guns mentioned take more work to pull apart. Nice as they are, removal of the trigger, carrier, etc. from an A-5 or M37 is more involved than pushing out a couple of pins and popping out the whole trigger assembly.

For those who use the older designs, how do you maintain a very wet gun? Omitting salt sprayed or dropped in the water. Do you have methods of drying them that let you avoid taking them apart much beyond barrel removal?

I have a 16ga Ithaca - Western Arms Corp. (basically a Nitro Special with an iron receiver?) that I've used for snipe, quail, dove, ducks and turkey. It's choked a little too tightly and it's a little too heavy (7lbs.) but it handles 1 1/8oz. loads just fine. I generally use TM through it for ducks. I've put #6 (in your face teal) and #7 steel (snipe) through it, too. It seems to "blow its pattern" with the steel, which is fine with me...as long as it doesn't blow anything else!~)

I must admit that I'm intrigued with the idea of a BPS in 16, since I seem to shoot my straight stocked 12 as well as anything I have and I need as much help with my shooting as I can get!