What about the 16 gauge?

I shoot 5 16ga guns, like them all. I think a properly proportioned double built on a 16 or 20 ga frame is the ultimate upland gun. A 16 ga built on a 12 ga frame may as well be a 12, they don't offer the improved handling or weight savings. I mostly shoot a Citori White Lightning, but also a Merkel, Krieghoff drilling, a Sauer and a Heym. Availability of shells is no problem if you buy by the case. An ounce of #6 from IC or Mod will handle 90% of upland birds with aplomb. For ducks and geese I generally use a 12, but sometimes shoot my 16's with hand-loaded Bismuth, but the Federal and Remington steel loads also work reasonably well.
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OK ... The discussion doesn't have to stop, but you CGNers are a bad bunch! Thanks to your encouragement I'm in the midst of closing a deal on a 16 ga. Ithaca 37.
I do appreciate all the informative comments answering my questions about the 16.
 
P.S. to Longwalker ...

Great photo. It's been many years since I had the opportunity to drop one of those out of the sky ... beautiful!
 
The 16 gauge is far from dead!
Here's one that was purchased a few years back, one of 40 made in each gauge, but they did not make a 12.:>)
40th Anniversary FAIR with deep relief engraving
Special ordered with fixed chokes ( IC/MOD and double trigger with the back one firing the open IC barrel
Cat



This one is turn of the century Sauer and Sohns 16 hammer gun- really well made and very light!
Cat


This one was owned by my Grand Dad and I brought it back to life quite a few years back- slays birds with 65 grains of FFG and 7/8 oz of shot!
It's a Lafeauchaux underlever

The only thing dead in that pic is the birds , I'd say!!
 
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I am a huge 16g fan .started with a 16 for deer and bunnys and always had my limit of both ,I still see 16g ammo in almost every store and slugs as well as steel can be found without to much searching ,the 16g slug is still my all time fav .Dutch
 
Great choice on the Feather Light ice dog. Don't be swayed by any mall ninjas telling you it can be "slam fired" that 37 deserves better than that. What barrel length and choking are you looking at?

Darryl
 
I have shot my uncles side by side 16G and I still have so much ammo for it I don't know what to do. But I hated his gun because it kicks harder than a 12. Last ammo I saw was double the price of a 12G. I think it was even more than a 10G.
 
It's a 28" barrel, modified choke. One of my sons, who happens to live near the seller, is picking it up for me. He'll likely have a chance to try it out before I lay my hands on it, as I will probably not collect it from him 'til late spring/early summer. I'll fuss over the cleaning and cosmetics prior to any fieldtrips with it come fall ... cause that's just the way I am. My first 16, and my first Ithaca 37, though both have been on my mind for some time now. Certainly looking forward to it.
 
icedog said:
It's a 28" barrel, modified choke. One of my sons, who happens to live near the seller, is picking it up for me. He'll likely have a chance to try it out before I lay my hands on it, as I will probably not collect it from him 'til late spring/early summer. I'll fuss over the cleaning and cosmetics prior to any fieldtrips with it come fall ... cause that's just the way I am. My first 16, and my first Ithaca 37, though both have been on my mind for some time now. Certainly looking forward to it.
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That's a nice barrel length and a practical choking. Should be a joy to hunt with :)

Cory
 
Les Hovencamp (a well known Ithaca specialist gunsmith) advises that any Model 37 choked Modified or more open is safe to shoot steel shot in. Your fine choice will make a duck gun for the marsh.

Darryl
 
FromTheNorth said:
I'm always curios about the 16 or even a 410. i kinda want one to do a little dove hunting and small bird, and I'm a little worried using my 20 because it may obliterate the bird.
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This confuses me, the 16 being larger than a 20....the only time I've ever seen birds 'obliterated' by shot they were very, very close...

I still have the Winchester 37 in 16 gauge my grandfather gave me when I wrote my hunter's safety. It accompanied me on dozens of goose, duck and partridge hunts until I got a job and could buy a pump. I find lead shot loads easy to locate, steel seems tougher to come by but the gun is full choked anyways, so I doubt steel would perform well without modifying the muzzle. And feeding my .410 can be pricier than buying a box for the 16. It's become a sort of nostalgia thing with me, humping that gun across the bluffs looking for birds takes me straight back to being 12 or 13. Still knocks them just as dead, kicks a hair less than a 12 in a similar gun....
 
I love the 16g. I have had several of them and I presently use an older AYA sxs choked in modified and improved. It works great on upland birds and I usually have some steel waterfowl loads with me just in case I get a chance to jumpshoot some ponds. For dedicated waterfowling I usually use a 12 but that's just because of the availability and lower cost of better shells.
 
I have 2 16ga shotguns aswell. I have a Remington 870 Wingmaster with a custom barrel with rifle sights for slug use and a 28 inch full chock barrel. Currently looking for a mod choke barrel for steel shot. Second is a Winchester Model 12 16ga that I am building into a trap gun.
 
Speaking of the 16 gauge Model 12. I have owned 5 of these guns over the years. The first was a 1914 built model 12 with a 2 9/16" chamber. I had it converted to shoot 2 3/4" 16 ga shells. That gun never failed. The four since all have been late 1950's versions ( my favourite version of the model 12) each and every one has caused me grief. Each one did the exact same thing load the gun, fire at a bird, pump the gun and it jams. The typical jam is the extracted cartridge jammed in place above the round on the carrier. Each was cured by removing material from the rear of the carrier to allow the shell from the magazine to sit lower and allow ejection of the fired round. Some experts have told me that the 20 ga frame (of which the 16 ga is built on) is just a little too small in dimension to handle the 16 bore cartridges. That seems true for the late models 12 I had but that did not explain why the very early gun worked great. Before anyone wonders it was not the fired length of the cartridge that caused the problem. Any model 12 gurus care to elaborate? Struff?

Darryl
 
The 16 gauge isn't dying but it's popularity has waned over the years and currently enjoys what could be referred to as a cult following.

But there's enough ammo around that if it's an itch that needs scratching you would not be left with a gun you can't shoot.

The 16 gauge was the first shotgun gauge I ever fired. It was over 30 years before I fired another and I don't feel that I've missed all that much. YMMV.
 
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