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Although I always thought it was kinda cool it really was filling a need that didn't exist between 12 and 20.
Sales reflected that and gun makers slowed / stopped production of the gun and ammo followed.
I have my Grandfathers 16Ga SxS. Stevens. Beautiful gun. In its time the 'Sweet Sixteen' was the upland gun to have.I’m an old boomer. When I was young, the old men all had 16 gauge doubles for small game hunting ( pot hunting). They felt the sixteen gauge was a good compromise where it wouldn’t over kill rabbits and woodcocks or squirrels and they wouldn’t be under gunned if the jumped some puddle ducks or pheasants.
They tended to not have gun collection beyond one rifle one shot gun one .22 rifle and one handgun. So the 16 gauge was a do it all compromise.
I still have my grand dads sixteen and try to take a day each fall to walk around and go pot hunt dinner with it. I’ve had grouse, duck, turkey, and rabbit. I haven’t resorted to squirrel yet.
Actually, WalMart has 16 ga pretty often.My bird guns are both 16ga - an Ithaca 37 Featherlight and a Marlin 90. As much as I like them both, I don't believe there's anything a 16 can do that a current 20 or 12 can't, and there are certainly things a 12 can do that a 16 can't. In my case I've found two hunting guns I like, and will keep - but I'm under no illusions that they're magic.
Until I need to find ammo - then 16ga becomes a pain in the ass compared to 20 and 12. Reloading helps, like a lot of other uncommon calibers.
16's were first made for 2.5" shells. They started falling out of favor when 2.75" became the norm. As an aside, always check the chamber length on Browning A5's, I've found a couple that I was considering to be chambered in 2.5"
True, but Europe held on a bit longer.Winchester introduced the 2.75" 16-gauge chamber on guns in 1931
I have a few boxes of Hevi Shot 12g 3” #2 that certainly get the job done. But I haven’t noticed a difference in how they perform against the cheaper non-tox shells like Kent. For the most part I just stick with Black Cloud 3” #2 these days as it’s the easiest to find and it patterns well in my SX4.My understanding is that the adoption of non-toxic shot killed the 16 ga. Over decoys, a 2 3/4"16 ga with #6 lead shot is ideal for ducks, though obviously not for the environment. When that became illegal, waterfowl shells instantly demanded more volume for the lower density steel pellets. I'm glad to keep the birds and wetlands healthy, and I'm too cheap to fire strategic metals at game birds, so I lob 1 1/2 oz of BBs from a 3.5" 12 ga shell at whatever duck is foolish enough to flap too close. My Cynergy is basically the SA-2 of waterfowling.