Shotgunners and Riflemen
There’s an old saying in the shooting community, “Shotgun shooters have money – riflemen are usually broke.” The saying doesn’t take in handgun shooters, but we can speculate about the reason for that another time.
What I think this saying doesn’t consider is the size of the game involved in shotgun versus rifle shooters, at least in the game fields. Shoot an elk or a moose and you have a few days of backbreaking work involved – dressing, quartering, packing, processing. But you can shoot a grouse, a quail, or a pheasant (unless you’re Tim Walz, in which case you’ll likely strike out), drop it in your game bag, and go find another one. That – as I can tell you from personal experience – appeals to us older guys.
And older guys tend to have more money.
I’ve come around to this way of thinking myself. While I love a good moose roast or elk steak, I’m fond of hunting grouse. And I favor light, handy shotguns for so doing – and, I’ve become fond of the 16-gauge for those pursuits.
Over the last decade or so I've become a big fan of the Sweet 16. Here’s why.
The Lost Gauge
The 16-gauge shotgun round fell out of favor with American shooters a few decades ago now. The advent of high-performance loads for the 20-gauge, especially the 3-inch magnum loads, meant that the 20 and 12 overlapped in performance, while the 16 never gained a 3-inch magnum version. I do have two, 20-gauge guns in the safe myself; one an ancient Mossberg pump my parents gave me for my 14th birthday (and which I will not part with under any circumstances) and the other a Savage 24D combo gun, with a .22 WMR barrel over a 20-gauge shotgun barrel.
My oldest buddy, though, picked up a fondness for the 16 in his youth, mostly from borrowing his father’s 16-gauge Model 12 for pheasant hunting excursions. He still has his Dad’s gun – as well as a lovely Pigeon Grade Model 12 in 16-gauge, which has me looking for a similar piece. Collectors can be oddly competitive about things like that.
After picking up a couple of 16-gauge guns myself, I can see the appeal of the long-lost shotgun round. It’s very nearly the perfect gauge. Shotgun gauges are measured, after all, by the number of round lead balls of bore diameter that add up to a weight of one pound. A 1-ounce or 1 1/8-ounce charge is nearly perfect in the sweet 16, without stringing out the same charge by funneling it through a smaller bore. Shot charges of this weight pattern well, and the 16 can be had in the smaller 20-gauge frame guns.
The problem with the 16 these days is the fact that there just aren’t very many good loads available. Fiocchi makes a decent target load that works well for grouse and quail. Federal makes a couple of upland loads, and a 16-gauge load with a 1 1/8-ounce load of #5 shot is very nearly perfect for pheasants.
The gold standard was, for many years, the Winchester AA load, but that company hasn’t made an AA load in 16-gauge since the mid-70s. Some years ago as I was passing through the Minneapolis airport, I happened across two guys, one of whom was carrying a laptop case with the Federal ammunition company logo. So I asked him why Federal didn’t make a really good 16-gauge trap load. He looked at his companion and told him, “What have I been telling you for 10 years now?”
Even so, the variety of 16-gauge loads is a little on the lean side. That may be changing; more on that later. First, let’s talk about the guns.
Guns
The 16 has one great feature; it has the capability to give nearly 12-gauge performance in a small-frame gun. In my safe are two Browning Auto-5s, one a 12-gauge, one a Belgian-made Sweet Sixteen. Both are of the high quality you expect from old Brownings. Pick one up, pull the bolt back, and let it go forward, and you can feel the action is as smooth as two panes of oiled glass sliding past each other, with none of the grittiness you sometimes find in newer guns.
See Related: Sunday Gun Day Vol. II Ep. XII - John Browning's 'Other' Shotgun
But the 12-gauge is around a pound heavier than the Sweet Sixteen. I can regularly turn in 22-23 trap scores with both guns, but the 16 is a lot easier on the swing.
The same considerations apply to the two Model 12 field-grade guns in the safe. Both shoot well; both are great in the game fields, but the 16 is again lighter, handier, and easier to carry around all day. My 16-gauge Winchester Model 12, made in 1940, is a light, handy piece that's just the ticket for spruce grouse in the black spruce woods.
A few years back Browning made a special run of the Citori White Lightning in 16-gauge, and after looking at one in a sporting goods store, it took my wife about 10 seconds to decide to buy it; cut down for her 4’11” frame, it’s now her favorite scattergun, although she has a similarly modified Ithaca 37 in 16-gauge that she likes a lot, too.
And that’s one of the advantages of a firearms road less traveled; 16-gauge guns don’t always attract the attention that 12- and 20-gauge guns do, and with that being the case, they don’t always command the same prices. Oh, a Pigeon grade Model 12 or a similarly gussied-up scattergun will still go for a tidy few shekels, collectors being what they are. (I should know.) But field-grade guns? A quick surf through the online auction sites would indicate that one can get a pretty good field gun, a Model 12, an Ithaca 37, or a Remington 870 for $5-600.
That’s a pretty good price for a good field gun. But, best of all, your options concerning the 16 may be expanding.
Is the 16 Making a Comeback?
There are many new 16-gauge guns on the market, in a surprising variety. Browning has resurrected the Sweet 16 moniker for a version of the new A5, as well as the Citori over-under. CZ; and the new Stevens likewise offer over-under 16s. A company called Tristar offers a side-by-side 16, although I have not had the chance to examine one. Franchi, a long-standing manufacturer of fine scatterguns, also offers a new over-under 16.
See Related: Sunday Gun Day XLI - Five Guns That Just Don't Make Sense
For many years, the 16-gauge was largely considered a European load. Americans were all in for the 12 and the 20. But improvements in loads and a wide variety of new guns from new manufacturers are bringing the Sweet 16 back, and it’s a pleasing development. The 16 is nearly the perfect upland load, and with new non-toxic loads, improvements over the old steel (actually, soft iron) shot loads have brought it back in as a waterfowling round as well.
Sometimes, history does reverse itself. I’m glad this is one of those times.
