Who Still Uses The 16 Gauge For Hunting
- Thread starter Northshore
- Start date
Turkeyslayer 1300
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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- Russell, Ontario
The 16ga BPS is actually the lightest in their lineup of memory serves. I had a 26” with English stock and it was a nice gun to carry and shoot. No recoil to speak of and can toss up to 1 1/4 of shot.
what Turkeyslayer said + they give you the advantages of both the 12ga and the 20ga, They are light and manouverable like the 20, yet powerful and knock bird flat like a 12. The recoil on them isn't at all harsh, like on a lot of older 12 gauges. Also find they give the best pattern on 1 oz. loads of #5.
Don't know about that. Take an old model 21 16ga SXS out in the fall with a few old imperial no. 6 paper in it and pop a few birds. Sit down, smile and smell those rounds and if that is not magic I don't know what is
Bought my first new one in 65 and never looked back. Will shoot and enjoy the 16ga until I die
Cheers
We all grew up being told this which I believe
The 16 is the most logical of all the gauges. Its bore diameter is .662-inch, almost exactly two-thirds of an inch. A 16-gauge lead ball weighs exactly an ounce. An ounce of shot in a true 16-gauge bore creates a shot column of perfect dimensions for a good pattern.
In the United States, in the early years of the twentieth century, the 16 was known as the “gentleman’s gauge.” This differentiated it from the down-market 12, which was used by market gunners, farmers, and deer hunters. The romantic ideal of a 16 was a sleek double—a Parker, perhaps, or an Ansley Fox—intended for hunting upland birds like bobwhite quail and ruffed grouse.
The 16 comes by this patrician image honestly. Its antecedents go back centuries. In the era of blackpowder cartridge shotguns and rifles, 16-bores were made for hunting big game with solid ball, as well as for fowling. As we have already noted, on paper, the 16 is the perfect shotgun, the right size load creating the optimum shot column for delivering the perfect pattern from a gun weighing exactly six pounds.
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Don't know about that. Take an old model 21 16ga SXS out in the fall with a few old imperial no. 6 paper in it and pop a few birds. Sit down, smile and smell those rounds and if that is not magic I don't know what is
Bought my first new one in 65 and never looked back. Will shoot and enjoy the 16ga until I die
Cheers
We all grew up being told this which I believe
The 16 is the most logical of all the gauges. Its bore diameter is .662-inch, almost exactly two-thirds of an inch. A 16-gauge lead ball weighs exactly an ounce. An ounce of shot in a true 16-gauge bore creates a shot column of perfect dimensions for a good pattern.
In the United States, in the early years of the twentieth century, the 16 was known as the “gentleman’s gauge.” This differentiated it from the down-market 12, which was used by market gunners, farmers, and deer hunters. The romantic ideal of a 16 was a sleek double—a Parker, perhaps, or an Ansley Fox—intended for hunting upland birds like bobwhite quail and ruffed grouse.
The 16 comes by this patrician image honestly. Its antecedents go back centuries. In the era of blackpowder cartridge shotguns and rifles, 16-bores were made for hunting big game with solid ball, as well as for fowling. As we have already noted, on paper, the 16 is the perfect shotgun, the right size load creating the optimum shot column for delivering the perfect pattern from a gun weighing exactly six pounds.
And absolutely everything you have written is the same old stuff. Bore size,square load, perfect shotgun, perfect patterns, all “romantic” nonsense intending to make shotgunning way more complicated that it actually is. The old time writers somehow came to the conclusion it made them sound more sophisticated if they spoke at great length about imagined characteristics or properties like it was factual science rather than subjective interpretation.
You nailed it in your first paragraph though. It is all about the magic of the moment. And the dogs, guns, location, family and friends that are there when it happens.
Question. Do you reload shotgun? If so what gauges , 16ga ???? .Do you pattern your loads in shotgun
Have you ever compared a 1 oz 16ga load against a 1 , 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 oz 12ga load size by side
The answer is no which is has to be to make the statement you did since an experienced 16ga reloader knows better
Your comments on the 16ga are based on nothing but what you think which is worthless
Do you even own a 16ga ?? of any make??? or model
Cheers
I guess Federal was full of bs also
The pattern tests at Federal’s underground tunnel compared the 12, 16, 20, 28 and .410 for pattern efficiency with typical loads: 9/16 ounces with the .410; ¾ ounces with the 28; an ounce in 20; 1 1/8 and 1 1 /4 ounces in 16 and 12 gauge. In theory, the larger the bore, the more efficiently it patterns, and that theory held totally true – almost. We saw an improvement in efficiency as bore size increased and it plotted a neat line on a graph of bore diameter vs pattern efficiency. The only outlier was the 16 gauge, which outperformed the 12 gauge.
Now, that was one test, with one load per shell, and I doubt the 16 beats the 12 gauge every time, but the test does suggest there is something to the 16 gauge’s mystique after all, and that it does, when matched up in the right gun, live up to the “carries like a 20, hits like a 12” reputation
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I own 16's. My father only ever shot a 16. I've owned 16's since 1976. I like them a lot. I like 12's a lot too. Both work extremely well when the right load is selected. Nothing magical about 16's. I have 12 gauges that are as light as my lightest 16. The gauge isn't as important as the gun itself. My round action MF Ideal 12 gauge carries as well as any 16 I've carried. It weights less than 6 1/2 pounds. Its the way the rounded action fits in my hand. It's the balance of the gun.
What is way more important than some "magic" about 16's is where you are, who you are with, the dogs, the day and your attitude. Those are what creates the magic. Not a square load.
No I don't agree. Many factory patterns even when centered has holes in the pattern a full clay can pass right through you know that. They have to be tested and I think brownings were the worst for me. I have seen some pattern oval vs round for god sake
Cheers
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Don't know about that. Take an old model 21 16ga SXS out in the fall with a few old imperial no. 6 paper in it and pop a few birds. Sit down, smile and smell those rounds and if that is not magic I don't know what is
Bought my first new one in 65 and never looked back. Will shoot and enjoy the 16ga until I die
Cheers
We all grew up being told this which I believe
The 16 is the most logical of all the gauges. Its bore diameter is .662-inch, almost exactly two-thirds of an inch. A 16-gauge lead ball weighs exactly an ounce. An ounce of shot in a true 16-gauge bore creates a shot column of perfect dimensions for a good pattern.
In the United States, in the early years of the twentieth century, the 16 was known as the “gentleman’s gauge.” This differentiated it from the down-market 12, which was used by market gunners, farmers, and deer hunters. The romantic ideal of a 16 was a sleek double—a Parker, perhaps, or an Ansley Fox—intended for hunting upland birds like bobwhite quail and ruffed grouse.
The 16 comes by this patrician image honestly. Its antecedents go back centuries. In the era of blackpowder cartridge shotguns and rifles, 16-bores were made for hunting big game with solid ball, as well as for fowling. As we have already noted, on paper, the 16 is the perfect shotgun, the right size load creating the optimum shot column for delivering the perfect pattern from a gun weighing exactly six pounds.
While 16's were more popular "back in the good old days" they were never "popular" here. You have to go to Continental Europe for that. You just have to get into the production numbers from companies like Fox, Parker, Ithaca, Remington, LC Smith etc. to know the truth.
Even in the higher grades, guns definitely not being bought by market hunters, farmers and deer hunters, 12 gauges were produced in far higher quantities. 5, 6 or 7 to 1. As an example, in their better quality graded guns, A.H. Fox made roughly 27, 500 12 gauge guns, roughly 3900 16 gauge and roughly 4000 20 gauge between 1907 and 1939. In Sterlingworths, the closest they came to a "farmer's" gun, they made 108,000 12 gauge, 27,500 16 gauge and 21,500 20 gauge. As you will note the ratio of 16 to 12 goes down in the higher end guns, directly contradicting the 16 gauge mythology you stated.
These kinds of numbers are replicated by those other classic vintage American makers. Remington, who made about 42,000 graded versions of the model 1894 in 10, 12 and 16 gauge between 1894 and 1910 when they ceased production of classic SxS made less than 1000 graded 16 gauges. Easier to find a 10 gauge M1894 than a 16 gauge.
Now don't get me wrong. I love my 16's. I'm an active poster on the 16 Gauge Society forums. But even better than 16's, I like truth over hearsay and myth. BTW, dropped a few pheasant last week using a 16 SxS with paper shells, shooting over a pair of Llewellin setters. With good friends. Pure magic!
Edit to add: Regarding patterns.....that's a complicated relationship between the load, the barrels and the chokes. It's not the gauge. What is interesting to me is that Bert Becker, the barrel "consultant" Fox hired to develop the Super Fox long range waterfowl gun, as well as to personally craft the barrels of special guns for special clients like "Bo Whoop" for Nash Buckingham, did little work on 16 gauges, that we know of. He worked mostly with 12's and 20's.
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Guess it depends on what part of canada you were in. Almost the entire town I grew up in came over from some part of europe to work the coal mines There were as many 16ga as 12ga in the woods and duck blinds here
My first new shotgun was a 16ga as was all of my brothers and friends
LOL must be why I still have more than I have fingers
I will have to look but seem to recall the 16ga made 24% of all shotgun sales in North america at one time
Cheers
here it is
Remington, Winchester, Browning, Savage and others around 1953, about 52 percent of the shotguns sold in the United States during that year were in 12 gauge, while 16 gauge guns accounted for 24 percent of sales. In other words, 24 out of every 100 guns sold were sixteens.
Due to the popularity of 16 gauge guns, every hardware store and farm supply store in rural America stocked a plentiful supply of 16 gauge shells. In case you are wondering, the remaining 24 percent of guns sold consisted of 20s, 10s, 28s and .410s. Back then, the .410 was more popular than the 28 and 10 and almost as popular as the 20 gauge.
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the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
No I don't agree. Many factory patterns even when centered has holes in the pattern a full clay can pass right through you know that. They have to be tested and I think brownings were the worst for me. I have seen some pattern oval vs round for god sake
Cheers
I guess I needed to clarify better where I stated within their effective range which has variables such as chokes, loads etc.
