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Any of you old codgers still stick with a 16? I like my '54 vintage 870 16.
Rex

Yes, Rex, my Sweet 16 has been my "go to" upland gun for years, especially when pheasants are on the agenda. My best freind from childhood often shoots his 16 ga. M-12.

My go to gun is a 16 gauge 11-48 with Briley choke tubes installed. have a few more 16's, but the ii-48 is the one I use the most. Been shooting 16's since I was in High school, and that's a while back.

I have been hunting uplands with a Sweet 16 that my Dad bought for me in 1966. It had a plain full choke barrel (back then if you did not have a full choke, you could not kill anything).I looked for years for a I/C vent rib barrel with no luck. Finally found a plain barrel I/C and sent it to Simmons to have a rib put on it. The rib cost $30 more than the gun when bought new. But talk about a first class job.

I started out many years ago 1950 using a Ithaca Flues 1923 SxS 16ga choked full & mod for grouse & small game in Pa. I still have the gun,I don't use it much anymore I now use a 1949 Remington Model 31 16ga Mod choke for my grouse & small game hunting.


A500R

I bought a 16 Ga Ithaca NID as a dedicated dove gun. It's my favorite shotgun.

I was 69 when I bought my first (and only) 16 ga. A Merkel 1620EEL.

Absolutely love it.

My Dad bought me a Stevens 16 ga. SxS in 1947. It cost him $55.00 NIB and my mother had a fit. It was my one and only shotgun until 1950 when I bought an Ithaca 12 ga. Model 37. I parted ways with the Stevens sometime in the 1970's in a Chinese Drill mix-up and haven't seen it since. I'm still kicking myself.

That Stevens was a fine gun. I shot just about anything with fur or feathers with it and it never let me down. Great memories! I guess i didn't know ( or didn't realize) that it was "too heavy", "built like a club", or "slow and cumbersome". Funny how things work out, isn't it?

R.

I am the keeper of an old Stevens Cycle works single barrel 16 gauge,a sears 16 gauge bolt action shotgun. These belonged to my wife's Father. When the time comes i will give them to his great grandchildren.
I own a 1969 Sweet 16 that hasn't been shot very much, (shoots and looks almost new) that i will pass on to mt grandchildren if i have any. If not i'll will them to other young people who can't afford a shotgun of his or her own.
I love the 16 gauge. Shells are getting harder to find in this area. Like the 410 16 gauge shells cost almost twice 12, and 20 gauge.

LONG LIVE THE 16 GAUGE

I'm 41 and have a 1971 Mossberg 390KB 16ga bolt action. My 10 year old daughter loves her 16ga single shot 1946 Stevens 94C.

Long live the sweet sixteen!

Right now I'm owning and using an A5, A model 12, A Marlin pump, A Marlin O/U, A Beretta 409, A Baikal, & A Remington 11-48 for 16ga guns........not using 16ga only but shootin a few hundred rounds a week with em......Art

When my dad's health declined, he gave his 1930s Stevens Westernfield SXS 16 to my oldest brother. When declined in health, he gave it to me.

The best shot I ever made was with that gun at a quartering away rooster at 45 yds. The left full barrel dropped him like a rock.

Four or five years ago, one of my dad's great grandsons got his first phez with the gun. It's kind of rough and beat up from many years of hunting, but I wouldn't even think of a refinish!

What a great old double with a wonderful history!
Rex

Model 37 sixteen for me. I'm so old that I've seen dirt younger than me. When I was a kid we used to wile away the long Winter days by painting on the stone walls of our cave.

Patriot, I have a Stevens 520 16ga choked full, and it has that same Redhead pad on it that yours does. Next to the takedown design, that pad is my favorite thing about the gun.

I started out hunting with a single barrel 16 gauge my Dad bought me in 1966 or 67; don't have that one anymore but I have several old 16 gauge shotguns now, my favorites are a M12 and an Auto 5, both equipped with Poly's.

In Elmer Keith's 1967 book on Shotguns, he states that the 16 ga is the best for upland shooting. Too bad the gauge has fallen into low popularity and the availability of shells is limited. I have a 1947 A-5 (not a sweet sixteen) and I do enjoy taking it to the field once in a while. I can still drop birds with it. You gotta like a gun that takes purple shell.

Although I do not shoot/own a 16 anymore,, it was my first real shotgun, read as grew out of the 410 and into an adult gun. (doves-quail-ducks-geese) .. I am looking for a Remington 11-48 in 16 gauge, in great shape for bird hunting again. Something about the 16 was magical!!

Best Regards

I have 5 16 Ga shotguns, the oldest being the 16 Ga my grandfather taught me to hunt & shoot with, Harrington & Richardson 1908 single shot. I still have that gun, I retired it this past September, and it now resides in a place of honor on the wall. My others are an 870 Wingmaster from 1965, an 870 Express from 2000, an 1100 from 2004, and a Citori from 1997.



cdb

They don't call the 16 ga sweet for no reason.