newbie here
I carry a 16 O/U. It handles all upland and some waterfowling duties very well. It weighs 6-1/2 lbs. I can reload any weight shot load from 3/4 oz. to 1-1/4 oz. with #4 thru #9 shot. The gauge will launch a 1-1/4 oz load at 1290 FPS. or anything under that velocity. I can do anything with a 16 that 28ga through high velocity 12ga. express loads can do. I've taken every size bird from sora rail to turkey including pheasant, ducks and geese with it. My gun is lighter to carry than most 20 gauge guns yet will outshoot the twenty anytime, anywhere, and with any size shot or load weight.
the 16 ga was once as popular as 12 gauge. Annie Oakley set her famous doubles trap record with a 16 gauge gun when she beat the best English shooter at his own game. He was using a 12 ga. He lost. Now the shooting industry says 16 ga is an obsolete gauge. They started saying that right after WWII. They stopped making light weight loads for it and then stopped making 16 ga. guns. You ever wonder why your grandpa loved his 16 and why you don't find them anymore? I don't think it just happened. The gauge is too useful and makes 20 and 28 gauge guns unnecessary. I don't think Remington, Winchester, or the other ammo companies like what the 16 can and would do to the other smaller gauge gun and ammo sales if it became popular again. Yet it is coming back and they are fighting to keep it out by limiting the ammo and reloading wads for it.
Remington refuses to make nice light weight guns in the gauge. They used to. Why not now? Remington recently made a run of 870 and 1100 shotguns in 16. However, they were all built on 12 ga. frames. The guns didn't sell well and shop owners were further convinced the 16 ga is dead. Do you think it was an unfortunate mistake? Think again.
Browning built its 16 ga. citori O/U on their 20 ga. frame. Merkel makes their 16 SXS on a 20 frame. Ithaca has made 16 ga. guns on light frames too. Those folks who were smart enough to buy these light carrying 16 ga guns absolutely love them. Remington can build a 16 ga. gun on their present LT-20 frame but won't. Why? Because both they and Winchester also market ammo. Browning, Merkel, Ithaca, and other gun makers don't. Ammo is much more profitable than guns. Always has been since breech loading guns became popular.
Try and find a nice light kicking 7/8 ounce, 1200 fps factory sport load for 16 gauge. That load kicks less in a 16 gun than in a 20 of equal weight, because the 16 gauge barrel has better ballistic qualities and the force is directed up barrel easier with less back pressure. Hence, less kick for equal velocity.
The 16 barrel also throws a shorter shot string than a 20 if both shot loads are of equal weight too. The shorter shot string crushes clay targets and downs game birds better, because more of the shot hits as the target or bird as they fly through the shot string. Annie Oakley knew this and used a 7/8 oz. 16 ga. load to set her record. She beat the Englishman who was shooting a 1-1/6 oz load. She simply wore his butt down, because her gun kicked less and broke targets as well as his heavier kicking one. Every good trap or skeet shooter knows this fact and demands ammo with the shortest shot strings possible. It is also why they all shoot overbored or backbored guns. Many top skeet shooters don't even use 12 ga ammo anymore. They use their 20 ga tubes in their 12 gauge carrier barrels for the 12 ga. event. it is perfectly legal, so why put up with the kick of a 12 when an overbored 20 ga tube does the same thing with less fatigue.
Yet Remington and Winchester will not offer such a light, enjoyable load for 16 ga. and keep saying the 16 ga. is obsolete. Do you now believe everything these two companies tell you? Whose interests do you think they have in mind, yours or theirs? If you haven't tried a nice light carrying 16 yet, perhaps you should. Your eyes will fly open with surprize. You will learn what Grandpa always knew.
If you can't kill it with a 16, then perhaps you need to run it down and club it to death. We have all heard the saying "beware the man with only one gun." you can bet your boots it was probably a 16 ga. he was carrying until Remington and Winchester convinced him it was an obsolete gauge.