Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns 16 ga popularity

I was always under the impression that the 16 ga was one that enjoyed nostalgic enthusiasm but not a shotgun you'll find a lot of on the shelf.

Was at the local Fleet Farm today - no 30-06, or other common hunting cartridges but they did have Heavy Shot 16ga on the shelf.

Was that an anomaly or is there a real 16 gauge following?

98.9% of my shotgunning has been 12 ga targets. The rest, 410's for rabbits and sub gauges for targets mixed in with some snow goose/ducks and canadians - again 12 gauge.

Anyone here dedicated to the 16? Why? What's it doing that a 12/20 wont?

Like the 16 and use a couple regularly However, I would reverse your question. What will a 20 or 12 do a 16 won’t?

And the answer is nothing….at the ranges most of us can accurately connect. Excepting you may have to look harder for quality factory loadings.

Good flip on the question.

It's just conversation - I'm buying nothing, was just a little shocked to see the 16g on the shelf is all.

I know of no one that uses one but am familiar with the old saying "Sweet 16" for the A-5. Never actually seen one.

I love a 16 ga but I think with the advent of better 20 ga shells that it put the 20 closer to a 12 ga and kind of squeezed the 16 out.
Think the same thing happened with chokes as well. A lot of older guns had full choke barrels on them due to the old wad types and as new plastic wads came on the seen, they patterned better (tighter). For that reason you see/saw fewer full choke barrels because a modified choke with a newer type shell shot about like a full choke barrel with the older shells.

I think the same type thing pushed the 16 to the side lines. I don't think that the fact that back in its hay day that the game of skeet used 12,20,28, and 410 leaving the 16 on the sidelines again.

Purple hulls still hold a place in my heart.

The old school of thought that I have read...10 gauge was for Fox hunters, 12 gauge for waterfowlers, but the 16 gauge was for bird hunters. I think I read this in one of my old books written by someone in the East coast. The 20 gauge was listed as something for the "women and kids". Obviously this was before the advent of modern powders. I can remember well the older fellows I always looked up to as a boy mostly had 16 gauge offices or remingtons. That and pointers. Quail used to be the greatest joy around here but sadly the numbers are really low.

Ithaca not offices. Auto spell always cheeses me off when I don't proofread well enough.

My great-uncle grew up bird hunting and working on his family’s ND Farm, WW1 vet. He moved to Fond du lac WI settled down and raised champion English Setters. He was a very dedicated bird hunter and his gun was a Browning Sweet 16.

I've killed Quail, Turkey, Squirrel and Pheasant with a 16.... Mostly with Model 12's with Modified and Parkers with IC/Modified or Quail 1/Quail 2...(Which most say relates to Skeet1/Skeet2.) And Companies like RST make excellent 16 gauge loadings.

Other than Full or Cylinder, I personally don't worry about chokes all that much..

Currently messing around with a couple 28 Gauges...One Mod and the other Ic/Mod...out to thirty yards or so...I can tell little difference between the 28 and the 16.

I shoot a 16 SxS and an Ithaca 37, dad has a SxS, coworker is seeking a new A5, he’s pissed because his buddy just bought one out from under him, contractir buddy occasionally shoots a 37, contractor buddy’s right hand man shoots a new A5. The last few years 16 ammo could frequently be found on the shelf while nothing else was there.

To me, it’s just another arrow in the quiver. It’s an oddball that not everybody has, so it’s kinda fun to be different. And nostalgic.

The first shotgun that I ever shot was a H&R single shot 16ga more than 60 years ago and I haven't been without one since.....our local Walmart carrys 16 ga ammo in stock.

If your Fleet Farm is anything like the one I worked at or the others I visit regularly, most if not all those Hevishot boxes came in since Christmas. And at ~$50/box, they tend to sit around for a while, especially this late in the year. It also helps that most 16 ga guns in use today were made before non-toxic shot became common so the majority of owners are hesitant to use non-lead shot no matter the type.

My first "real" shotgun was an Iver Johnson single shot which lead to my main upland guns being a 16 ga. I The exceptions are when going to Canada to waterfowl/upland hunt (due to gun permit fees and ammo limits), when primarily waterfowl hunting, or when needing non-toxic pellets in the uplands where a 12 ga is usually preferred. And I'll occasionally carry a 28 ga for ruffed grouse or an early season hunt for prairie grouse.

I was an "acquirer" of 16 ga guns at one time, I've owned 20+ different 16 ga guns with a max of around a dozen at one time. A good number were drillings and one Cape gun so some may not consider them true shotguns. I am down to 6 at the moment and will probably drop 2 for sure, maybe another pair, one of these days.

Though shells have typically been readily available until recently, the options have been relatively meager compared to 12 and 20 ga. The 1 oz field loads are fine for ruffed grouse and rabbits but the 1 1/8 oz load of 5 shot I prefer for pheasants has been tough to find for a while. I can get by with what is out there but reload most of my loads to get what I want and for less as the price of 16 ga ammo comparable to 12 and 20 ga became a few dollars more off the shelf.

Browning has done the most to keep 16 ga guns relevant with Remington having made an attempt. The 16 has been a niche gun for decades and I don't see that ever changing.

I visited a small lgs last week, and asked, "Don't laugh at me now, but do you have any 16 ga. shells?"

The reply: "Sure. How many boxes ya' want?"

I did not expect that!

16 gauge is more about the shotgun than gauge to me. I really like Winchester Model 12 16s. They are the same weight at 20 gauges and have more range. One of the great combinations. I also really like Browning Auto 5 Sweet 16s. The Brownings have 16 gauge specific frames and balance really well if you like Brownings. Ithaca 37s in 16 are nice, too. Remington 870 16s are the same frame as 12. I would far rather go 12 with one those.

Finding good ammo can be a challenge. These days,I like Remington Express in 16 gauge.

16ga shotguns seem to handle better than the 12ga of of the same platform, shoot a sxs 16ga and a 12ga can really feel clunky. A 20 can feel whippy with the 16ga feeling better. I shoot all three, surprisingly I shoot the same 1oz load in all three as it is effective. The 1 oz in the 16ga is very versatile, I use 1oz of NP BB's in my 16ga drillings for coyotes, Ioz of 5's or 6's for upland birds an only 3/4oz of Bismuth 5's for waterfowl. All of my 16ga loads are in 2.5" hulls for my old guns.

Killed my first pheasant with that one, before I could drive. It’s taken me sixty years to circle back. Funny how ones’ views change as one ages. On many things. 😉

One thing a 16 gauge does better than a 12 or 20 is look good in a SxS platform. A 12 gauge SxS looks like a blunderbuss while a 20 looks like a cork gun. The SxS 16 is just right, svelte without looking like a toy.

First pheasant I killed was with a 16ga J.C. Higgins bolt action; one with a tubular magazine, not one of the clumsy detachable boxes that came along later. Those were very common farm guns once upon a time, and worked very well.

If I was looking for a 16, first thing I’d do is secure the shells, then look for a gun. Someone that wants to shoot clays or other high-consumption activity would be better off with a light 12 or 20. Can’t imagine anything more frustrating than having a nice bird gun and no ammo-nition.

I still have one of those old tube fed J.C. Higgins bolts. Inherited it from my FIL. Nobody else in the family hunts or wanted it so it came to me. It was the only gun he ever owned and was used for pest control around the farm.

We had one of those in deer camp when I was a kid but in 12ga and a Mossberg bolt action 12ga.

Here, the various manufacturers never learned how to make light and balanced shotguns. Yet the Germans and Brits knew how to accomplish it 100 years ago. They even made SxS 12’s that were light and balanced.

With few exceptions American shotguns were made to handle our ever increasing desire for more and faster pellets. And it still goes on today.

Federal Prairie Storm 12 gauge: 1500fps and 1350fps.
16 gauge: 1425fps

And when they arrive at around 40 yards, for practical killing efficiency purposes, all are moving about the same as a 1250fps load. And their patterns may not equal the 1250.

Something else the Brits figured out 100 years ago.

The 16 is a great option,,,, the shotguns we put them in, most often are not. Unless we leave the country.