Stan, the only thing I'm sure about lately is my name.
Took me a minute to find the gun, but it's marked 16/65 in an oval, which I take to mean 2.5". Double checking with the gauge, it measures 2.5" to the bottom of the rim recess.

Edgar, I'd be happy to take those shells off your hands.

The story of the 16 Ga Society is actually kind of sad. I joined sometime around 2000 (I believe; not sure exactly). They had started the Low Pressure group at that time, and you had to joint it separately. Somehow in the process, I recieved a black cartridge carrier bag made to fit the 16 boxes with a beautiful embroideried log on the top in multicolors. I am convinced that the Society was very influential in helping to resurrect the gauge. The Low Pressure group was probably the most influential group I was ever involved with.

I had always been a 16 gauge fan. My first shotgun was a BayState 16 single, my second an Ithaca 37 16 and my first quality double a late production (1948) Ithaca NID. Right now I own 15 to a little north or south of 20.

I was active in the group until around until about 2015 when I was 65 and got pulled over into BenchRest and devoted most of my time to this. When I next became reinvolved, I found that my membership was not working and nothing worked. The signup, shopping area and contact sectio were not working.

After most of a year, I got in touch with a person that was able to hack be back into the system. I found the whole org was a shamble. The low pressure group had moved to, I think, a Google group. They then moved to become a subset of one of the shotgun boards and the useage was way down. Apparently the man that started the whole thing was a regular kind of guy that got help from different people and ran it as an act of lovel deeply committed to the idea. He died suddenly, and his family was devastated. They apparently knew nothing themselves about the subject or bulletin boards but wanted to maintain control and keep it running as a tribute to the founder. They apparently had no expertise, contacts or resources to do this but refused all offers to take it over and run it. Their one concession was to allow one of the members limited access to watch over user credentials. He works full time and has limited time to work on membership. I have no idea who does the website work and solves their operating problems. I am amazed it is still operational every time I log in occasionalluy.

We’ve probably all read Allen Newell’s description of his inherited 16 gauge VH that his grandfather ordered new.
Granddad ordered it with so much drop that Allen could hardly shoot it, and the fact that it was so well worn Allen made the decision to send it to DelGrego’s for a complete restoration, including a new stock.
Allen sent me these pictures asking me to post them so that everyone could see the beautiful VH 16 that he cherishes so much.

With Allen’s permission…


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Del Grego?????

Doug Oliver started the 16ga Society in 2004; I joined that same year as soon as I was aware of it; I'm member #47. Doug was a fellow Kansan and he and I had numerous conversations early on. I volunteered to help and he said he's keep than in mind, but he really wanted it to be his baby and keep it a one-man show. Since Doug's passing a person who goes by s_long (listed as member #3; the first two are Doug himself) who I understand is a good friend of Doug's and the family has been keeping it going, such as it is.

Some folks there are frustrated about the way it's being run currently and there seems to be a push by some current members to expand the administration; a couple of them have been pretty vocal about it. As is typical, the loudest complainers want someone else to do something about it. It was suggested that a complainer start his/her own site if they are so dissatisfied but of course no one is willing to put in the time, effort and money to do that.

I have no inside info but I expect that it is the way it is because that's the way Doug wanted it. Frankly I find the site to be rather unwelcoming to some of us early members; in looking at the membership rolls I see only one or possibly two members who joined earlier than I who even post there anymore. I do check in regularly but rarely post; most of those are ignored, and if I'm honest I don't care much for most of the current posts.

Sites seem to come and go unless there's a strong organization (like this one :)) behind them. Sorry of this sounds petty but knowing Doug's vision for the 16ga Society and the site, it might be best to just let it fade away. JMHO.

My hat with the original society logo...

https://i.imgur.com/aLmlAiMl.jpg

???????? isn’t that what I wrote, sans the space?

At least I didn’t say Delgrecko…:shock:



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I had the black cordura 16GA Society bag but one day while shooting Skeet at my club I left it on a shelf inside the clubhouse like a lot of members do. When I finished shooting my round I came back inside and it was gone. It had measuring tools, cleaning equipment, four different size bore snakes and three boxes of RST shells in it.
That was one of the reasons I stopped shooting there. How could I ever leave one of my Parkers in the rack to go to the men’s room if there’s a thief lurking about?!?





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My go to Grouse and Woodcock gun is my Dads 1912 Ithaca Flues 16 gauge gun. 26" barrels factory choked Cyl/full. Weighs 5.9 Lbs. Gun is original and a joy to carry and shoot.

Craig, your opening post should have been saved for a Parker Pages article. It perfectly represents what has happened to that favored gauge and wasn’t too wordy at all, as one commenter indicated.
I love each and every 16 gauge Parker I have ever had. Sadly, and for no sane reason, I sold some that I never should have… *kicks self in ass* for a couple of them served me very well and brought the game to the ground when I did my part.

Thanks for that great lead-in to a topic that most all of us can relate to.





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