doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com popularity of 16 guage shotguns

Re-read McReynolds� article this morning after breakfast. We�ve all heard the various reasons for the 16�s decline. Most of them have been touched on in this thread. McReynolds has a different take that I�d never thought of but rings true.

�It is a gauge built for the field and nothing else.

The near demise of the 16 gauge is what helped it become the perfect upland gun. When it fell out of favor during the second half of the 20th Century, it became just unpopular enough that no one tried to turn it into something it wasn�t.

The fact that it never became a popular target round meant that the 16 remained light and ready for the field. Its unpopularity during the rise of steel shot meant that no one bothered to lengthen its chambers.�

I can see that but after 60+ years of shooting the gauge I didn�t need any convincing.