16 gauge coming back?

tokguy

tokguy

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My son is going bird hunting with the local fish cop this morning. Our friendly neighbourhood superhero is using a 16 Gauge. He says that he's seeing a lot more of them now... I guess he would know.
Any thoughts?
 
It's a great shotgun round and famous for it's "square" load where the 1 oz payload height is equal to the diameter of the bore in front of black powder poured with the same dipper as the shot. The only reason not to use it is the lack of available ammo in every store!
 
Been using the 16 ga for close to 20 years. I knew the ammo was hard to find so I soon bought a press so I could reload. I have a couple bags of wads and enough hulls to last awhile. Reloading is the only way to guarantee a steady supply of ammo. I have two Belgium doubles I use. I liked the 16 so much I found an original double muzzle loader.
 
I have two 16g SxS's. A 1929 Geco and a ~1920 F.W. Heym. I have enough 2.5" hunting loads to last me quite some time. I picked up 16g reloading gear, but haven't got started on it yet.
 
Rizzini, Fausti, Browning, and likely others make scaled frame 16 gauge O/Us. I had a Citori Grand Lightening 16, but thought it was still a bit clunky, fat in the hand for an upland gun...despite shooting it very well it went down the road. I like the Rizzii the best of the few I've handled...hunting, not for sporting. That said I like my AYA #2 round body sidelock 16 ga SxS even more. Really an excellent carrying and handling shotgun...and scaled frame
 
I love 16 gauge have rizzini ou browning sweetsixteen and a mossberg 190a I’m in blind with turkey hunting with as I type
 
I had no problem finding 16 ammo at Kent Outdoors and Siwash Sports. My old JCSmith sxs did a number on the grouse while we were hunting last week....
 
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First gun I ever bought was a Win M12 in 16. That was about 1980. Fantastic gun. I’ve since had a multitude of other 16s in SxS and O/U configurations. Would never be without.

As far as ammo being hard to find……it’s not. It’s easy to find. It’s just not in your local, handy gun store. So I plan ahead. And I always take with me the ammo I will need, never ever relying on “picking some up”. Like VictoryXC I now have enough hunting loads to last me 10 years of upland and 1-2 seasons of ducks with non steel no-tox.
 
16 gauges aren’t coming back because they never went away. The have always represented a small but consistent part of the market. 20 gauge is vastly more common because of its official inclusion in the clays games. The only people who want 16 gauge shotguns are idiosyncratic bird hunters.
 
By ammunition sales, 16 gauge is not coming back.
16 gauge guns are a niche market, that modern flexible manufacturers are catering to.
16 gauge still does what it did 70 years ago with lead shot. 16 gauge performance can be modernized with tungsten alloy shot, but old guns, and even some new manufacture guns are not suitable for hard tungsten alloys.
I suspect that 16 gauge will hang around for a long time to use interesting old guns, and to satisfy the curious trying out a different cartridge than the ubiquitous 12 and 20 gauge.
 
Ive often thought about buying a 16ga as its the only common gauge i dont have. The problem lies in the fact that if i buy one id want a nice double. Nice double 16s carry a price high enough to weigh the expense vs experience scale and i just havent found the right gun. Owning twenty five 12s and three 20s i have plenty of options. Another detractor is if im going strictly for upland birds or small game i rarely use an ounce of shot so a smaller framed lighter sub gauge has more appeal. Or a older 12ga double which doesnt get used for waterfowl.
That said ill end up with a 16. Likely a drilling.
I already have some ammo for a 16 incase one does just show up i can head straight out and use it

I have seen a surge in new models in 16ga but they are all spanish and Italian
 
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