doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com popularity of 16 guage shotguns

Thanks - it's a Piotti.

16's often handle very well. Some of them, however--mostly American-made guns--were put on 12ga receivers as the gauge began to lose popularity and gun manufacturers were cutting the costs of production. With those, you get a gun that carries like a 12 and hits like a 20.

Expect I've owned and shot more 16's than maybe anyone here, so I don't "dismiss" them at all--but I do point out the gauge's disadvantages from a reloading standpoint. They also cost more than a 12 of the same make and model. And when you can find Brit/Euro 12's that are as light as many 16's, and often as thin in the wrist (if not in the barrels--less can be done about that!), and for which it's a piece of cake to work up low pressure reloads in American hulls, those are factors that merit consideration.

The 28 might very well have disappeared had it not been adopted as one of the official gauges in skeet. The gauge has been heavily touted by outdoor writers, especially for birds like grouse and woodcock, quail, and doves. And with more hunting taking place on preserves these days, the 28 is perfectly fine for put and take pheasants. And gunmakers on the Continent have responded by sending us a lot of quality sxs and OU's, resulting in a far better selection of 28ga game guns (as opposed to target guns) than used to be the case.

Come now, Larry, that is a perfectly logic but sterile assessment of the 16's virtue. Very true that it's hard to argue for it on logical terms, but it's the romance of the gun and it's overall effect that wins the day and the hearts of it's owner. As the late Gene Hill noted of the 16, in Shotgunner's Notebook,

"It makes me wish things were a bit different than they are - and glad to know that here and there is someone carrying a "little gun" as much out of affection, or more so, than a proven belief in its ballistics."

As much power as we need in the uplands, as light as most can shoot well, and an ephemeral quality the late Michael McIntosh described as "dancing with a ghost" - that is the 16. Her fading makes her all the sweeter...

Yessir, the 28 ga is the bees' knees. Lots of cheap, readily available reloading components out there. Heck, I've seen once-fired empties sell for only 20 cents apiece. And the huge volume shot by the skeeters keeps the price of factory ammo way down, too.

And of course, nothing handles 3/4 ounce, 7/8 or 1 ounce loads in a 5.5-6.5 lb doublegun like a 28ga magic wand, sprinkling fairy dust through the uplands. Why, I know any number of upland gunners who could hit one out of 12 grousea they shot at with a 12ga and, believe it or not, those guys do just as well with their 28ga guns. And they don't have to lug all that extra weight around.

They ain't nuthin' like a light 12, though. Ruger came out with a 6.5 12ga SxS and they must be almighty popular. I've seen lots more Rugers in the uplands than I have British light 12's and you just can't seem to find a Ruger in the local gunshop, no matter how many Brit light 12's you sort through. Too bad; them 3" chambered Rugers have a significant and unquestionable advantage over a lot of them Brit light 12's....no need to shop around for them hard-to-find short hulls and NOBODY wants to tinker with shortening hulls. It would be hell to run out of ammo on a pheasant hunt and have to run home to reload some special low pressure ammo. Yep, them Rugers are so popular they can't keep em in stock I reckon.

And those pen raised birds just fall out of the sky stone dead at the report of a 28ga. I can't recommend it for those tough wild pheasants, though. I hunted 'em once in 1994 and I can tell you, they're so tough that I only managed to wound them with a 12ga. And I was shooting #7 shot, too....pure pheasant poison.
Yessir, I learned all there is to know about hunting wild pheasants in 1994 and I'm sure nothing has changed since then.

Yes, Gene Hill, always puts me in mellow mood when I read his essays. A wonderful man and a man that I was blessed to call my friend.

For most of my bird hunting I use a 20bore or my little 28bore but if pheasants may be encountered I opt for my little 16bore Bill Hanus. Just a tad more persuasion

Vern

Pretty mysterious how the 16 carries like a 20 and hits like a 12, but when you add a few ounces it starts to hit like a 20. If anything it becomes more comfortable to shoot heavier loads ... so how does it no longer hit like a 12??

Among my field guns are 4 side-by-sides that weigh within an ounce of 6-3/4 lbs. -- a 12, a 20, and two 16s. That's the weight I shoot best for open country birds, and it's light enough for easy all day carry. Choke and load -- not gauge and not weight -- are the factors that distinguish how they "hit".

Jay

GF, Gene Hill had a brief fling with a 16 bore Greener with 24" barrels. Thought it would be the ultimate grouse and woodcock gun. A few years later, he was touting a 28 with 28" barrels. Not knocking the late Mr. Hill there, but gun writers in particular--because we try out a lot of stuff--tend to bounce around quite a bit. I've flirted with 28's (to much less of a degree than with 16's, however!) and like them a lot for everything up to and including preserve pheasants. But I'm down to 20's and 12's, the 20 doing everything for me a 28 will do--and again, cheaper reloading (especially with the new CB 3/4 oz wad.)

Mike, if you see more Ruger GL's in the field and at sxs shoots than you do Brit 12's, you're hunting different places and going to different shoots than I am. If you go to the Vintagers this year, please count up and report back. I think I may have seen a GL or 2 at the UP SxS Classic, but they didn't go out of production due to overwhelming popularity. And of course there's no need--at least not with the vast majority of Brit/Euro 2 1/2" 12's--to fool around with short hulls, or to shorten hulls. Standard American hulls work just fine. And they cost less and/or last longer than either 16ga or 28ga hulls.

As far as pheasants go, having hunted them since the 50's, I'd say pretty much nothing has changed. Or at least they haven't started wearing Kevlar, as American ammo makers seem to think--based on what they're promoting these days as pheasant loads. The vast majority of pheasant hunters could kill most of their birds with 16's, assuming rational choke and load choices. But of course if you can kill them with a 16, then you can also kill them with a 2 1/2" 12ga.

Larry, we agree on the 20:

"But I'm down to 20's and 12's, the 20 doing everything for me a 28 will do--and again, cheaper reloading (especially with the new CB 3/4 oz wad.)"

I sold my 28s over the last few years...I find that I can't shoot any gun below about 6# well, and if a gun weighs 6# it might as well be a 20 (more efficient w/ 3/4 oz. than the 28 ga.). I'm mighty tempted by some of the 28 gauge offerings, but reality has set in; hence, stick w/ 20s.

On the other hand, the 16s will stay, though I've only hunted with them since the late '60s. I know there are some mighty light 12s that will match the weight of my 16s, but they just don't feel the same.

On the practicality side, I've laid in enough compression formed hulls and WAA16s to last a couple decades, so I'll have ammunition aplenty. I've found an ounce and an eighth of magnum #6s to be a fine 16 ga. pheasant load too...and an ounce of hard #7s is just about the perfect chukar load.

Where I live, and do the majority of my shooting, 16 ga. ammo is a helluva lot easier to come by than 2 1/2" 12s! Sure, I can order anything, via internet or telephone, but I can buy 16s on sale at Bass Pro Shops for half the cost of ordering short 12s, even from Polywad, who is only a couple hours away from me. Jay doesn't run sales on his ammo, excellent as it is, and neither does RST, or the English ammo companies that I am aware of.

I own a beautiful little Hollis sidelock game gun, but never use it. If you want to pay $13-$15 a box for ammo (plus shipping!)so that you can carry a light 12 afield, go for it, but not me. I'm just too practical to get romantic about lightweight 12 ga. game guns.

SRH

Yea, but we just had a big discussion about going to hunt in Africa or some other remote place and I still don't know whether I should bring my 16 gauge or not because I don't know and still don't know whether I can get ammo for it or not. No one will give you a definitive answer yes or no. They usually just say "Don't you have a 12 or 20 to bring" or "Just use one of ours."

I love both of mine but I sure wish one of them was a 12 or 20 because I wouldn't have this problem.