Originally Posted By: L. Brown
Originally Posted By: mike campbell
Originally Posted By: L. Brown
If you reload, the 12 has significant and unquestionable advantages over the 16.


I reload many thousands of both per annum.

Please list the significant advantages to the 12ga.


Ask and ye shall receive:

1. Better hulls--many of which you can often pick up, once fired, on trap and skeet ranges. A lot of guys buy new Rem Gun Clubs and toss them. They reload about as well as STS . . . both of which reload better than anything I ever used in 16ga. That includes the venerable old Win AA 16's, which were supposedly the gold standard.

2. Readily available and cheaper wads.

3. Easier to work up low pressure recipes using a variety of (again) readily-available components, for those who shoot guns requiring low pressure.

4. Recent appearance of a 3/4 oz wad, which makes working up very light loads quite easy and simple.

Reloading for the 16 requires more tinkering, harder to find (necessary to order) components (which are also more expensive), and there are still no hulls as good as those available in 12ga (which run in cost from cheap to free).


1) What is "better?" I'll only concede the 12ga hulls are "better" if one insists on loading a hull more than 5 times. I don't load any hull more than 4 times...not even STS's. With a little effort, both 16ga and 12ga hulls are available free. Otherwise, they can both be bought for 5 cents each.

2) This is 2012. ANYTHING that can be purchased is "readily available." If you're capable of posting in this thread, you're only a few mouse clicks away from buying wads. There is ZERO practical difference in availability of 16ga and 12ga wads.

The 12ga wads ARE cheaper. The Claybuster AA16 costs 0.6 cents more than the Claybuster AA12. That's 15 cents more for a box of 25. I feel really badly for any reloader who invests hundreds of dollars in equipment and supplies and finds 15 cents/box to be cost prohibitive.

3) Easier to work up? Not for people who are still willing to learn something new. Google is your friend. There is a dedicated coterie of 16ga reloaders that has amassed a wealth of tested, "low pressure" recipes for 16ga reloaders.

4) There is a 16ga wad that will add 40 cents to the cost of a box of reloads relative to 12ga. Is $4.25 significantly more than $3.85 for a box of shells that matches the quality (and perhaps exceeds the utility) of $8/box premium target or $12/box premium field loads? That one wad, in conjunction with a Remington hull and any one of 4 or 5 other available 16g hulls, can be used to load anywhere from 5/8 to 1 ounce, with excellent crimps and NO filler. IME, there is no 12ga wad of comparable versatility.

Any contention that 16ga reloading components are not readily available is ludicrous. And most 16ga reloaders are by nature "tinkerers," not only willing but eager to learn something new. That mindset, like the 16ga, is not for everybody.