16ga.com ~ View topic

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 62 Location: Driftwood, TX

I have a 16 ga SxS that I use for dove hunting. I originally purchased it because it was a novelty. However having used it for many seasons I would say it is definitely much more than a novelty.

After looking at the recent posts I was wondering, why do all the members use a 16 ga?

A few reasons:

a) I use my Dad's gun(sweet sixteen). A little silly, I know but it reminds me
of those great times together.

b) I love the way the gun handles, fast, light and so then accurate.

c) Receiving comments: "You're using that?? " then later "Let me see that damn gun".

d) It is just plain cool. Generally the only one in the dove field using a 16,
way, way cool.

Wingnut

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 1545 Location: Michigan

Doug,

You already know the answer to your question.
Why do you keep using the 16 gauge you purchased as a novelty, as your dove gun? Because it works so well?

Member Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 258 Location: Nordern MN

"If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand."

Member Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 1863 Location: Wisconsin

When your shooting skills get to the point that the 16's ballistics will improve your performance, you will truely appreciate the gauge.

Reno

I use mine for upland game because good 16s are lighter and better in feel and handling than most 12s, but still have equal punch. Smile

Joined: 19 Feb 2008 Posts: 443

"Carries like a 20, hits like a 12."

That ages old quote says it best. Very Happy

sv

Member Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 238 Location: Lodi, CA

Why a 16 ga?

1) So you can buy a 16 ga. reloader and have something to do at night.
2) So you can buy a cool pup (read German Shorthair Pointer) to keep you company while you reload.
3) So you then you can say "might as well train that dog..." and buy a bird launcher to train your cool pup with.
4) So after you have the launcher you can build a pigeon coup to have birds to put in the launcher and train that pup with.
5) So once the coup is done and the pup is being trained, you can start going to hunt tests to put a title on the dog and get into the field during the off-season.
6) So now that you have a Junior Hunter title on your, you can start training for the next level and meanwhile be a gunner at the hunt tests and shoot other peoples birds with a cool gun.
7) So once hunting season starts you can take your cool gun, with your cool reloads, and your cool dog and...

Do I need to go on?

Member Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 348 Location: Missouri

I shoot 16 ga. because I inherited three of them. Two SXS's and a Sweet 16.

Then because I had all these shells lying around in an odd gauge I decided to buy a new 16 ga. O/U that would digest them all without any concerns over chamber length or pressure.

So I shoot a Citori Superlight in 16 ga.

Then after I bought the Superlight I discovered much to my delight that it fits me like a glove and i shoot it better than any other gun in my safe.

So I'm stuck reloading 16 ga. Shells. and looking for old stock shells in out of the way stores.

Since I shoot a 16 ga. I had to join the 16 ga. Society and talk about the 16 ga. with everybody else who shoots it.

Not a bad hobby all around for an aging bird hunter!!!

Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 280 Location: Southern Ohio

All shooters have different priorities, thats why God made so many different gauges.. The 12, being the most versatile of all, is not about to change. The 16 bore comes in second.. However, this group was formed out of love for the 16, so why the quetion.. MDC

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 62 Location: Driftwood, TX

Member Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 258 Location: Nordern MN

My dad and I use 16s for ducks and geese.

NR

Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 62 Location: Driftwood, TX

The only thing a 12 does that 16ga. won't... is weigh a pound more.

I pasted this from an earlier post. I found it recently in my father-in-law's library. It should help answer the question.

"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.

Member Joined: 21 Mar 2008 Posts: 48 Location: NJ

I'll answer with a question......why not??