The best hull currently available that I have found for the 16 gauge is the Remington Field or black hull. You can get Remington Field loads in 6s and 8s at Dick's Sporting Goods for about $3.67. The ones I have cut open are single piece construction, not two piece as in the Cheddite, Federal, etc. I use a lot of Cheddite hulls but their quality control as far as primer pocket depth is sometimes lacking. I have a Citori 16 that misfires regularly with some lots of Cheddites, not so with others. No misfires of any kind with other hulls. Likewise, some lots of Cheddite hulls have shown a distressing habit of the tube separating from the head when de-priming. The Remington black will usually give 5-6 reloads, then the folds split, probably because the mouths are no skivved as are STS hulls. For many years I have loaded 5-7,000 rounds of 16 gauge ( I shoot trap, skeet, and five-stand with the 16) annually and have, over the 40 years or so I have reloaded for the 16, tried, I guess, everything that came along. The best 16 gauge hull ever for the 16 was the Winchester CF, sold as the "Xpert", etc., along with the Winchester blue (one ounce) wad. Both of these are now history but the people who write the loading manuals apparently are totally unaware of this fact because they still receommend using these two components, neither of which have been produced for five years. I have never had any trouble with any make of hull until the mouths split and they won't hold a crimp.
There are no really good one-ounce wads available. The BP seems to be made of stiffer material than the Remington SP as I have experienced a lot of hang-ups in getting the wad to enter the case, this on four different 16 gauge loaders I have had or have. I have settled on the SP16 with either one or two .125" 28 gauge OP cards seated in the bottom of the wad, which converts the wad from 1 1/8 oz. of shot to 1 ounce. These card wads can be obtained from Precision Reloading and it takes about a half hour to stuff a bag a of 250 SP16. I use Solo 1250 exclusively no matter what make of hull I am using, match the primer to the case, and the loaded cases turn out beautifully. Recoil is minimal with 1250 and the loads through my Oehler 35 inidcate that velocities do not exceed, and usually are slighty less, than published loads. You can use Universal, HS 6 (Win 540) or HS 7 (Win 570) with good results but my experience with Longshot was not good. You use a lot of it, recoil seemed to be noticeably more than any other powder, and the report seemed to be much "Boomier" than other powders.
If you want to go to 1 1/4 ounce loads, I have had a lot good patterns and velocities using Blue Dot. My pet load for 1 1/4 ounce loads is one from the late Don Zutz, using the old style card and fiber wad system. I used it on ducks for many years until steel shot was mandated so now I use it for turkey with #4 shot and deer with #1 buckshot. No, I am not a nostalgia buff hankering for the days when there were no plastic one-piece wads. The card and fiber wad columns were a pain in the butt and you always were tinkering with wad pressure.
