Hunting has become obsolete.

All the rational people are getting their Gallinaceans, pre-cooked, at the drive-up window at Colonel Sander's place.

I hunted quail with three friends yesterday. Two of us were carrying sixteen gauges, one a Lefever and the other a Cashmore.

This fall and winter I carried a sixteen gauge sub-six pound Fox A grade with 26" barrels for thirty days or so in Montana and took huns, sharptails, and pheasant with it. I've taken bobs and a few blues with it in Texas and pheasant and bobs in Kansas. I've taken Texas dove with it during our second mini-season. Nothing obsolete about the 16 gauge that I can tell - except in the context of the Kentucky Fried Chicken drive up.

I have five bird dogs, GPS tracking collars, a bird dog club membership, two bird leases, a membership in a field trialing organization, a dedicated hunting vehicle, a dog trailer, and scores more of miscellaneous bird dog gear. So how much more effort and expense does it cost me to round up suitable 16 gauge shells for the shotgun I want to carry? If my sixteen is chambered 2-1/2" I can reload cut down plastic hulls or I can order in RST shells.

Except in the context of the drive through at Kentucky Fried Chicken the 16 gauge is a perfectly viable choice for a game gun.


I am glad to be here.