16ga.com ~ View topic

05sep08

I was in Michigan last week and found a great pre-WWII reference to 16ga. in my in-laws library. This story speaks of the author's first duck hunt near Saginaw.

Circa 1875---" i was taken to a with my uncle to a marshy meadow where they had cut the prairie grass from a portion of it. My first gun was a double barrel 16-gauge muzzle loader of coarse, made by Playfair of Aberdeen, Scotland, a beautiful weapon, and it must have been a good shooting gun, for I used it for years.

My father was an excellent shot. He had a muzzle loading 10-gauge gun that was made by W & C Scott & Sons of Birmingham. A 12-gauge gun was in those days was looked upon with little favor and a 16-gauge was only suitable for a boy. I might say in passing that I have continued to use a 16-gauge gun all my life. I never owned a larger gun. I have have used that gauge for all the wonderful shooting we had around Saginaw for many years--plover, snipe, quail, grouse, ducks, etc., and in the many trips I made to the Northwest after ducks and geese it was my weapon and proved fully as effective as the larger guns that some of the members of the party used.

---Recollections of My Fifty Years Hunting and Fishing, by Wm. B. Mershon. copyright 1923.

If anyone else has a reference of our 16ga. from a favorite old book, lets post it here.

--Doug

From Hunting Trips of a Ranchman by Theodore Roosevelt published in 1885
"I have two double-barreled shotguns; a No. 10 chokebore for ducks and geese made by Thomas of Chicago; and a No. 16 hammerless built for me by Kennedy of St. Paul, for grouse and plover. On regular hunting trips I always carry the Winchester rifle, but in riding round near home, where a man may see a deer and is sure to come across ducks and grouse, it is best to take the little ranch gun, a double-barrel No. 16, with a 40-70 rifle underneath the shotgun barrels."

From the first installment of Robert Ruark's 'The Old Man and the Boy' series in Field & Stream March 1953

When I was eleven, the Old Man stole my little 20-gauge from me. He grinned sort of evilly and announced that he was an Indian giver in the best and stongest sense. I was puzzled, but not very, because the Old Man was a curious cuss and a kind of devious mover. I went back to my bedroom later, and on the bed was a 16-gauge double with a leather case that had my name on it. There were engravings of quail and dogs in silver on the sides and my name on the silver butt-plate.
The Old Man was taking a drink for his nervous stomach when I busted into his room with the new gun clutched in my hands. He grinned over the glass.
"That there's your graduation present," he said. "It's been three years since we started this business, and you ain't shot me, you or the dogs. I figure it's safe to tun you loose now. But I'll take that one away from you if you get too big for your britches and start waving it around careless."

Gene Hill Shotgunner's Notebook "The Sixteen-Still Sweet"

If I were to sit down and make a list of what might be the ideal requirements for an upland gunner's shotgun, my idea would include a few facts and a few fancies. An ounce of shot ought to be enough, and 2 1/2 drams of powder plenty to propel it. That dictates a gun that weighs no more than six or six-and-a-half pounds; light enough to carry, quick enough to swing, yet with enough weight to have an essential momentum for smoothness and to take the bite from the recoil.

Another essential of my upland gun is that it appeal to the eye as well as to the hand. A straight or half-pistol grip, a delicate slimness to the receiver and barrels, and one or two triggers, depending on your preference. No harm in a bit of engraving to relieve the eye and add a touch of distinction, and we could carry this a bit further and checker the end of the buttstock or fit a skeleton bit of metal for protection against wear and handling. And what would we have? That almost-forgotten darling of a few generations past: the 16-gauge.