Originally Posted By: L. Brown
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...