The Rebirth of the 16 Gauge....

[Ringer]

Dang near brought one home today. I'm in Gander Mountain buying some clay targets and of course have to peruse the shotgun racks. I see a standard 870, 28" barrel. As I'm walking past the price tage catches my eye. $199 with a rebate tag ($30?). I do a double take thinking it's mismarked then notice several others. Pick it up, yeah looks new, looks like any other 870 Express.....oh its a 16 gauge. Would have been hard to walk away from a 12 at $169 and even considered the 16 but have no idea what these normally go for.

 

[macFarlaine]

Dave..I thought forum members may help on tracking the other 1,there will be a finders fee.

 

[Superreverb]

Friend of mine has a tough decision to make. Connecticut Shotguns is offering 16 gauge barrels for the O Frame Parker Repro. Said friend has one of them in 20 gauge. While pricey, a 16/20 combo is hard to turn down and will add value as time goes on.

Yep, yep, yep..... Gotta thank you for that one, Dave

I'm definitely considering it, but I would need to move some stuff out before plonking down the dollars on that bbl set. I certainly see buying the 16-ga set as adding value in the long run, not to mention that I really enjoy shooting the 16's I have on hand now.

Both "Sarah Jessica" and "Mary Louise" also have the Parker Repro leather cases with the canvas outer covers and the interior goodies (the oil bottles and the snap-caps...) whicj also add serious value.

Dollar-in/dollar-out, buying that bbl set for $1895 would help to alleviate some of the guilt that I carry around regarding what I paid for this pair of guns....










well.....










almost

 

[Guntalk]

Yeah, I saw that offer of 16-gauge barrels for the Parker repro 20 gauge. That would make a nice package.

Also, they have 28-inch 16-gauge barrels for the Model 21.

Somehow, I ended up with two very nice doubles in 16.

The strange thing is that I'm not really a big fan of the 16 gauge, as a gauge. The guns in 16, though, are just so sweet.

 

[Navy joe]

Got one, a beauty, just need the time to learn to be a shotgunner. Never shot at a bird in my life, I need to change that.

 

[Guntalk]

To learn to be a shotgunner, TAKE LESSONS!

I'm amazed at people who would never think of taking up golf without taking lessons, but they just assume they can learn to shoot a shotgun without help.

Do yourself a favor. Buy a half-dozen lessons with a good wingshooting instructor. It'll pay off for a long time.

 

[PJR]

A 16 gauge was the first shotgun I ever fired. It was over 40 years before I shot another 16. I didn't miss it in the interim.

I don't see the 16 gauge going through a rebirth. I agree with Pete. It's on life support IMO and is being kept alive by nostalgia and a desire to march to a different drummer.

Shells are not as easy to find. Loading components most often require mail order and I cannot recall ever seeing a 16 gauge loader at a local gunstore.

There is nothing a 16 gauge can do that a light 12 can't do as well if not better. I understand however the appeal of the lighter frame and when I ordered a custom sxs in Spain I specified a 12 gauge on a 16 gauge frame. That is the best of both worlds.

I appreciate my views will be denounced as heresy among the 16 gauge aficionados some of whom are in steady rapture over their favorite gauge and can be moved almost to fisticuffs if their views are challenged.

There is nothing wrong with marching to a different drummer or nostalgia but there is nothing magical about the 16 gauge.

 

[Guntalk]

PJR, I agree. When I had a Grulla made, I had it done in 12 gauge. 29-inch barrels. 6 pounds 6 ounces.

I would not buy a NEW gun in 16 gauge, but there are some great old 16s out there that will provide decades of great gunning.

I have two 16-gauge SxS doubles which are nothing short of wonderful.

 

[MCgunner]

Something comes to mind, to me. When all of us gray beards go to the great hunting lodge in the sky and we're all sitting around chatting about hunts of the past, our 16s are going to be down here with our sons and daughters. Do you think they might pick 'em up to hunt with once in a while? When they do, do you think they might figure out for themselves what fine tools they really are?

 

[Oldnamvet]

Maybe for a while at least, there will be a bunch of 20 ga inserts for the old 16 SxSs. I have a friend with a nice 12 that I don't think he has ever shot 12ga shells in -- only 28 using inserts.

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

I love 16 gauges....my first pheasant gun was a hand me down Ward Hercules SXS 16 gauge. What a POS, but I loved it

 

[MCgunner]

Hercules? That's what my single shot has on its receiver. Was it sold by Montgomery Ward???? I was told by a response from NRA to an inquiry about my gun that it was made by Iver Johnson and sold "as a branded product from a hardware store or chain store". They didn't mention Montgomery Wards and I've always wondered what chain sold it.

Yeah, I thought that old thing was gold when I was 15. I was danged proud to own it.

 

[Navy joe]

Guntalk, I know re. lessons. I am a technical type and a pistol shooter to boot. I need to be hit repeatedly with a blunt object to stop looking for the front sight. I can tear things up with a shotgun as long as it is a three gun type of gig(not movin!) I want to learn to do things that don't involve nifty loading tricks and 40 round courses of fire.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Ringer, a 12 for $169 is a great deal. 16 gauge 870s weigh the same as 12 gauges and do less.

Mac, hope you find it. You may want to try the BB over at Shooting Sportsman.com. Some serious doublegun fans there that are into British doubles.

SR, glad to help, heh,heh,heh.And I guess you haven't checked prices on those Repros lately. Asking price on the last 20 I saw setup like yours was close to $5K.

Tom, that's part of it. While the 16 gauge is OK in itself, it has been chambered in some really nice shotguns. Grandad's Elsie is a 16. For a long while folks wanting a good uplander at a decent price went for the 16s. They were often MUCH cheaper than the same make and model in 12 or 20 gauge.

Navy Joe, your pic gave me a case of the covets. After you add to the wear marks, you'll know why. Do get lessons.

Paul, I'm not trading in my shotguns for 16 gauges. I find the resurgence interesting and a little gratifying in that fine old guns are getting used and that something old is now new again.

 

[MCgunner]

I've been shooting shotguns for 46 years, but I consider myself an average wingshot. Now, give me a rifle and I can knock the tick off a deer's back at 200 yards, but I always spent most of my shooting as a youth with a .22 and got to be a better than average shot with a rifle, but never spent any real time other than hunting with a shotgun. When I shoot country doubles with the club, I get outshot. With rifle or handgun, I'm usually winning or top three and I've done okay in other shoots and expert qualified in IDPA when I was doing that.

Most of my hunting, though, has been with the shotgun, and I don't think I'm too old to learn a little better how to use it. There's this guy in Houston that teaches what he calls "shoot where you look". He peppers aspirins he tosses up in the air with a Daizy BB gun that has the sights removed and claims he can teach that in one class. I've often thought I'd like to see if he could teach me how to do that. I wonder if I have too many bad habits he'd have to teach around to get it done in one weekend class, but you never know until you try. Besides, I bet it's a fun deal.

 

[jamesb]

First shotgun I shot was my grandfathers 1953 belgium browning Auto-5 in 16. He used it for deer, turkey, ducks and just about everything else. The shotguns mine now and I use it for trap, skeet and wobble trap. When I go out for turkey in the late season it will be my gun of choice.

 

[Capstick1]

I've never shot a 16. All my life I've shot 12's and just recently bought a Beneli M1 in 20ga to use for teaching kids and shooting doves. I have seen some nice Browning "Sweet 16" Auto fives on the used gun racks. The only issue that I see with the 16ga is the availability of ammo. I don't think I've seen the stuff sold at walmart. The only shotgun ammo you can find at Wallyworld is 12,20 and .410 every once in a while. There also seems to be a lack of popularity with this round. This is the "Jan Brady" of shotgun guages. These days the only rounds people seem to like are the 12 "Marcia Brady" and the 20 "Cindy Brady". The 16 sits somewhere in between the two and just doesn't seem to get noticed much. This is probably a strange analogy but I just got off a night shift and this is all I can think of right now.

 

[Polishrifleman]

I have an old Ithaca in 16 and even if it is on life support and I'm a dying breed, we are going to go to our demise with a smile on our face.

Sportsman's Warehouse sells it if you have one close by.

 

[BridgeWalker]

To me at least part of the appeal is the (foolishly incorrect) perception some of acquaintances have that the 12 gauge is a real Man's Gun, hard-kicking and brutish.

I show up with a 12 and they all think I'm trying to prove something.

I'm not a big fan of the 20. Had one for a while. My first gun, in fact. Seemed a little anemic. Although my Benelli is a great field gun, I'd be more inclined to keep that one for the range and get a 16 gauge A5 for a field gun.

So, yeah, my inclination towards the 16 is partly an emotional reaction, not only to go against the grain, but also to not be perceived as trying to prove something by toting a 12 around. Silly of me. When I can afford the shells, I put 300+ rounds/week through my 12. Getting a 16 to have a slightly milder load *is* silly. Partly it is general nostalgia. I want an A5. 16 just seems like the right gauge for such a historically important shotgun. And partly it is more specific nostalgia: my grandpa shot a 16.

As for ammo, well, I'm picking up a MEC single-stage press to learn on and get started with 12. When I find the funds for a MEC 9000, I'll also get the kit to convert the single-stage over to 16.

And this may be silly, but I jsut like the feel of 16 gauge shells. 12 seem kinda' fat and oversized. 20s seem kinda' small and wimpy. 16 gauge high-brass shells are just the most aesthetically pleasing shotshell it hase ever been my pleasure to handle. Weird? Maybe. Ask me if I care.

I think it'll stay around enough that I'll always be able to find some hulls to load. Of course, I'm talking a big show for someone who has yet to actualy reload a single shotshell, but ya know how that goes. I've been thinking like a reloader for months now, with the saving and the sorting and the prepping, it's just a matter of getting the gear.

 

[mjb]

I also am a fan of the 16 guage. I have a Belgium Browning auto 3 with two barrels, a Stevens sbl and an Ithaca 37 pump with a 18.5 inch barrel I keep next to my bed.
I find that the 16 guage points very well and still throws out enough shot to do the job.

 

[dirty dave]

16 pump

I to have a Ithaca 37 pump ultra light in 16 gauge.It was my grandfathers .He ordered it from the sears catalog.still had the box and brown paper it was wraped in.But he had shot it.Probally just a couple hundred rounds he said.He gave it to me and said he wantedto know somebody would use it and enjoy it .It is now my rabbit gun and a good one at it.sold the box on ebay couple years ago for almost $60.00.I have never takin it apart since I have had it.Great gun.

 

[Mr. 16 gauge]

What's YOUR opinion on the 16?....

Your asking ME?!?!?

I never knew that the 16 gauge was dead and needed a "rebirth"

 

[PJR]

To me at least part of the appeal is the (foolishly incorrect) perception some of acquaintances have that the 12 gauge is a real Man's Gun, hard-kicking and brutish.

I show up with a 12 and they all think I'm trying to prove something.

I know people like that too. One fellow in particular was riding me a bit for using my great big 12 gauge on a preserve pheasant hunt. He declared himself to be much more "sporting" with his 20 gauge.

After he'd downed a bird I picked up one of his hulls. He was definitely shooting 20 gauge -- 1-1/4 ounce 3" magnum 20 gauge.

I was shooting 1 ounce loads in my 12. I took down more birds than him too.