Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns 16 ga popularity

Because purple shells are cool.

Well, not much has changed when considering journalism….

Been buying cases for clays online, about $120 a case, but my club is selling good ones now for $8 a box, for use there only. Good B&P shells too, so I’ll be using those as long as they’re available. Saw 12s there yesterday, didn’t look for 20s.

I knew a man who did exactly that about 40 years ago. A sporting goods shop was discontinuing 16 ga shells and marked them down to get rid of them. Bill bought them all and went shopping for a 16.

I've been hearing about the end of the 16 ga for 60 years at least. Doesn't look like I'll live to see it.

I started in on the 16ga thing several years ago. I simply got tired of lugging a 8 lbs twelve ga around for upland hunting, especially when I started chasing sharptails. Read somewhere about how many of the classic doubles from Europe would build the 16s on their own frame size, or graft the barrels onto a 20ga frame. That coupled with the standard field load being 1 1/8oz, it seemed like carrying a 20 with the thump of a 12. So I opted into a Browning Citori (all I could find then ) and never looked back. Now I have two SxSs (one German, one Spanish) , a Winchester 1897 pump, and a Remington M11 autoloader. About the only time my 12 bores come out is if there is Geese on the menu. For ammo, I mail order Baschieri & Pellagri ammo in the 2 5/8 inch case, #5 shot. My only gripe is the "case" is 8 boxes instead of 10. Works through all my guns though, and will knock a fully plumed ND rooster deader than snot if I do my part right. Fiocchi has good loads too, if you can find them in the store. I got lucky several years back and scored a case of #5s and #4s. They are 2 3/4 inch hulls though, and won't run through my short chambered guns.....If your ancient 16 needs short chambered loads and especially low proof loads, RST is your friend. Both RST and Kent make Bismuth loads for the 16, though only RST loads short hulls.

Kaiser Norton

I should perhaps clarify my views concerning Brownings Citoris. I think they are good guns, even a good value at their prices, for their dependable quality, which is not at all damning with faint praise. I have had two, now gone, and presently have the Superlight Feather 16 mentioned above. I had a Field Grade 12 that I carried successively for years. And then came a Gran Lightening 20, a very attractive gun. And it also shot very well.

The 12 was a bulky gun, and I decided both were heavier than they needed to be. Purely a personal opinion, but that for the walking uplander, they are generally too heavy. At least true at my age now. 🙂

I have a Model 12, a J.P. Sauer drilling, and a Krieghoff drilling, also an old Iver Johnson single shot that belonged to a distant cousin that died when I was very young. Only shot it twice, and it popped open both times I wish it could talk though , and I see it every time I go into that safe I load most of my ammo, 2 1/2 inch for the Sauer. .I also go with the 1 oz NPBB for coyotes. Just always loved 16's

The Superlight Citori 16 sounds nice.

This. So much this.

Purple shells sure are cool .

Smooth, red 16 ga shells by Winchester are the coolest...:)

I've mostly hunted with 20's for the last 50 years, but have had a couple of 16's now for awhile; an old Savage Fox B and a 1916 production 1897 Winchester. When I was a kid roaming/hunting the river behind the house with my buddies down the road, they carried Model 12 16 ga. shotguns.

I've carried the Fox a little, mostly for nostalgia sake and to get rid of some of the old shells I have. One year I guided a turkey hunter on a spring hunt and carried the Fox loaded some old Winchester Mark 5 shells loaded with 1 1/8 oz. of #4's. I figured with the typical presumed MOD/FULL choke combo of these shotguns (this one had no choke designations stamped on it anywhere) and #4's, if I had an opportunity, the rig would be fine to 30-35 yds. As luck would have it the Toms were persistent that morning and the client got one right away, so I decided to call one in for myself. One made haste to my call and I whacked him at around 30 yds. Sometime later I was measuring the bores and muzzles on some of my shotguns to see how they were really choked. I grabbed the old Fox and measured it, expecting a .020 or so constriction in the left barrel and around .030 in the right. They were both right at .005, which is about skeet.

The '97 came to me with a whomper-jawed barrel, looking like it had either fallen a considerable distance or been run over by a vehicle. A few cycles of shooting it at a pattern board then wailing it over a tractor tire corrected the wayward point of impact, but it still looks pretty dreadful.

Gotta agree about the purple Federal hulls, they are pretty sweet looking!

I have a 1913 Winchester model 1912 and a Remington 48 Sportsman auto in 16 gauge . Have owned A5's and a few doubles over the years but they have got gone.

Yes they are and Im always looking for the hulls to reload

At one time in the not so distant past, I owned a Rem 870 and a 31, Ithaca 37, 2 Win model 12’s and 3 Browning A5’s. All at the same time and all in 16 ga, so you might say I’m a fan.

I'm certainly a fan. I own four - a Kettner sxs, an Austrian sxs hammer gun, a Stevens Springfield sxs and a very well worn Winchester Model 12. I've owned a number of others during the years, including a Merkel 200e and an Arietta 558. I've never been disappointed that I chose a 16 rather than a 12 or a 20.

I have hundreds of the Winchester compression formed 16 gauge hulls and an equal number of the Remington black field load hulls, along with thousands of wads, so I'm set for reloading and don't need to worry about finding shells on a dealer's shelf. Makes a huge difference.

"I have hundreds of the Winchester compression formed 16 gauge hulls and an equal number of the Remington black field load hulls, along with thousands of wads, so I'm set for reloading and don't need to worry about finding shells on a dealer's shelf. Makes a huge difference."[/quote]

Same here and federal hulls as well as cheddites. A guy who can't load his own 16's is doomed to limited selection and supply.

I'm a big fan of the 16 gauge it was my dad's only shotgun. I have a couple 94C's a 311A and a Sweet 16. Scored a jackpot of Winchester compression formed SuperX Magnum #4's, and also load Steel at about 1550 FPS. Nothing cooler than a 16.

I'd rather carry my 16s than any other. A Merkel and a Ithaca.

I did a census just now. I have ten guns in 16ga of about any type; four drillings, two good sxs doubles, an 11-48, an 870 corncob, a vintage single shot Savage 220, and a Mossberg bolt action.

I notice that good 16ga sxs doubles go for a premium now. As mentioned before by some here, I prefer the feel of a 16ga double to that of a 20 or 12 and seem to shoot better with the 16s.

Drawback:
I hunt harder for ammo than I do for chukar, quail, and grouse.