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Member Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 41 Location: Houston Tx

The 16 carries like a twenty and hits like 12. Will smoke a high and fast Dove or a super sonic Teal.
Nuff said,
Mike

Member Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 81 Location: Madison, NH

I started as a 12 bore guy, my first, a Browning BPS. Hunted and shot it like mad, till i replaced it with a O/U 12.
Then I had the opportunity to get ahold of an A-5magnum in 20, and hunted that a bit, but never with any great satisfaction.

Till I found my first 16bore on old guns.net. It is a Stevens 530A that swings and shoots like it's part of me. That lead to a 16 bolt, an Ithica 37 pump, and a beaut of an 1148 that I believe i have fallen in love with. this shotgun just becomes an extention of me, as any good shooter knows, and knocks pheasants, grouse and bunnies to the hereafter!

I am truly sold on the sixteen; a throwback to a simpler time. I sometimes marvel at how the elders knew what it could do, but the rest of the world had to make the 20 do it better.

Like most folks, I started out with a 12 years (or is that eons) ago. I next got a very nice 20 O/U and shot everything Florida could toss at me with it. When I moved back to MA, I bought a 28 gauge Miroku Charles Daly 28 O/U, had Hastings inastall their version of Briley chokes on a special for very short money. Mike Orlen lengthened the cones. I killed 90% of my game birds with it including pheasant for a couple of years. However, as the season lengthened and conditions became worse, I found myself occasionally fringing a bird I felt I'd solidly hit. About that time, I found a clean 16 ga. Citori with 28" barrels at KTP for what seemed very low money. I bought it, and the rest is history.

I still prefer the 28 for early season work. I have a Citori Superlight with Invectors and lengthened cones. It is nearly identical to the CD 28 in all but appearance and is just as deadly through the first week of November. I use 3/4, 7/8, and a 1 ounce magnum load.I also use it for most of my smaller bird hunting. I also occasionallly carry my .410 Superlight for stocked quail on the Cape.

However, once the snow comes and the pheasant start getting tougher and smarter, the 16 takes over those duties. Its a rare bird that flies through a well placed pattern of #6 shot. I follow with a 1-1/8 ounce of #5 or a 1-1/4 ounce of #4. I've yet to have any pheasant fly through the 5 or 4 shot and come out the other side anything but dead.

Guest

Although I've had great sucess with both 20 and 12 gauges over the years. I've just come to regard the 16 gauge as the "perfect" package for most of my bird hunting. My 16's just feel good in my hands and they always seem to put the birds in the bag a little better for me.

My first bird hunting was with my grandfathers single shot 16 ga hardware store model 16 gage.

So there's a long term feeling for the gage

i bought a few 12's when i was overseas and hunting there, then started concentrating on the 16's

so i guess i didn't move up or down, but started at the 16 gage

rayb

Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 265

My first 16 gauge was (is) a Garbi. I had 20's and 12's but I just wanted to try something different. I believed at that time that the birds did not know what size shell was used and that 1 ounce was 1 ounce no manner the size of the pipe. I would read Larry Brown drone on and on about the 16 like he was in a cult. (I really do blame Larry for my 16 gauge addiction btw) So I figured I would try one. I ordered my Garbi and waited. The gun came and I couldn't believe how natural it felt. I was in love, not because the gun was well made but instead the gun's size fit my hands, face and body. It wasn't too bulky and not to thin. It's kinda like the momma bear's bed....just right.

After shooting the 16 I really began to question why I need a 12 or a 20. The 16 seemed to be both. The 16 took birds farther than my 20 could and it felt like a small bore. If a man has a 16 he needs only one gun for the uplands. Everything else is disappointing.

Brian Meckler wrote, "...I would read Larry Brown drone on and on about the 16 like he was in a cult. (I really do blame Larry for my 16 gauge addiction btw)...".

Geez Brian, how do you think I feel. Last year, after reading Larry's continous, unrelenting line of drivel about the fine points of SxS guns, I finally was brainwashed into buying one. Low and behold, it is a honey. Now I'm working on number 7, another 28 ga (which I really, really want, but really, really need like another head.) Brown, you are an instigator, pure and simple. Rolling Eyes

I've posted my story before, but...

Sometime in the early '50's my dad decided to get himself a new shotgun. It was after WWII and during Korea and still hard to get guns, but a guy who worked with Dad said he had a line on some Savage autoloaders. Dad assumed they'd be 12ga's, but when they arrived they were 16's, Model 775A. Dad bought two of 'em; my oldest brother got one (his son shoots it now) and Dad kept the other.

Growing up, the only other shotgun in the house was a sigle shot .410; that's what I carried. When we'd go to the gun club Dad would let me shoot his Savage. Later he started letting me carry it, and then when I was 12 or so he got shot in a hunting accident and lost most of the sight in one eye. He never hunted after that, and though there was never a formal declaration, the Savage became mine. For many years it was the only gun I owned or shot. Guys I hunted with found it an oddity and always said "Why don't you get yourself a 12ga?" and I got kinda protective of the old gun without really knowing much about the differences. My dad always said, "That gun will do everything those 12's will do", so I just made my mind up that I was a 16ga shooter.

I got into double guns and haven't shot the Savage in a while, but it sits proudly in my cabinet. That gun and my dad are the reason I'm a member of this elite fraternity. Thanks, Dad.

Fin

Guest

I used to consider myself a rifleman, then after I moved to Arizona and reality set in. If a man still wants to hunt and can't afford to hemorrhage cash for out of state permits, he turns his eye towards the sporting life, time afield with a decent shotgun and if he's lucky a good dog. Actually I blame the 16 gauge on my brother, he gave me this poor old Rode Hard and put away wet Ithaca Flues 16 Gauge. It needed wood it needed some of the lockwork fixed, but I worked it over and danged if it didn't shoot when asked. I tried it out during the coming Dove Season, I found it performed really well if I held up my end of the bargain. This started me on a shotgun acquisition frenzy that has subsided after the latest purchase a sweet little 410 SxS. Now I have all the gauges 12, 16, 20, 28 & 410, I have an O/U and SxS in each Gauge. I use them all, I like the 16 because not everybody and their brother has or hunts with one. I do not feel undergunned in the least with the 16, fast becoming my favorite gauge. The 28 gauge is a close second, the cute little bullet kills way out of porportion to it's size. I just got back from a short expedition into the White Mountains in search of the scarce fall turkey, hunting was good, taking game, sucked a big one. I believe I shall Plagarize one of our own "i own 'em all and love 'em all, the 16 just happens to be a personal favorite. i try to get them all out of the safe for fresh air now and again." thank you 87016ga very well spoken !!!!
My $.02 Worth
Chet

16oct06

fin2feather,

Your story reminds me of my father.. he won his in a raffle at the Harvey County Fair about 1951. We (The 16ga. Society) ran an Ad in 'Shooting Sportman' which said 'Your Grandfather Knew what He was Doing...' maybe it should have said 'Your Father' instead.

Thanks for the story. --Doug

Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 124 Location: Kansas City

I started on with my dad's 16 and tried 12ga for a couple of years. Got tired of hauling a 12ga around in the brush and found a nice little 20ga sxs. I got real good with that shotgun and killed a lot of game. That gun was all I needed for over 20 years but then I got older and had a few to many injuries and I couldn't hit squat. I moved back to the 16ga and I'm back in the game. I couldn't figure out why the 16ga was so much better then my old 20ga until I read an article on a moving pattern board. According to the article it took 1 1/4 oz of shot from a 12ga to equal a 16ga's 1 oz of shot on the moving board. I don't think a 20ga in any loading could come close.

I started with 12ga and like it till after I hurt my back.
1/3 the way through a box of ammo amy back would start to hurt.
Mostly from the guns weight.
I switched to 20 gauge but my scores dropped.

I settled on 16ga with NEF Pardner full choke as my Trap gun.
A 16 ga Baikal IZH-43 SxS as a skeet gun