Straight bull 16's DO feel better balanced to me, especially with heavier wood or laminate stock sets. I can live with 16" tapered barrels on rynite/synthetic stocks, though balance feels better to me with longer barrels.
That's my feeling on them too. I had a tapered 18" 357 Max with a rynite stock and that was about as light as I've had that to my hand anyway still felt like a balanced carbine. Tapered 16's while very light seemed to be a little too much of a good thing and would rather just use a pistol at that point.
Too bad you didn't have a newer 23" to cut down instead. The 21's aren't around as much now as they once were.
