Skeet and 16 gauges

[B. Dudley]

My guess would be that the dropping of the 16g. from the skeet format, might coincide with when manufacturers stopped offering 16g. guns new. Not sure of the time frame of that though.

[Bill Murphy]

Without going through my complete research file, here is the quick answer from some early rule and average books. In the beginning, skeet was not classified by gauge or skill classification, (up to and including the January 1, 1933 rules). The first step was to classify by shot weight, (January 1, 1934 rule and average book). The heaviest weight was 1 1/4 ounces. Any gauge could be used. The next weights or categories were 1 ounce, then 7/8, then 3/4, then 1/2. Oddly NSSA allowed any gun to be shot if the load was adhered to, except that no 1 ounce 12 gauge load was mentioned on the "shot load table". The 1934 shot load table addressed shells by brand and type, reloads were not addressed. The next several steps, don't know exactly when, were changes in shot weight to 1 1/8 ounces, and the change of the heaviest shot weight class from 1 1/4 ounce class to "All Bore", which meant any gun but limited to 1 1/8 ounces. All-Bore class takes us all the way to post war times. The 16 never had a named class and the 16 gauge gun was shot in the All-Bore class, and the 12 gauge class today, because no gun bigger than the 20 can be shot in the 20 gauge class. Dick Shaughnessy actually won the All Gauge National Championship with a 16 gauge Model 21 in that era. In my years of collecting skeet memorabilia, I have not owned or seen a 1935 or 1936 average or rule book, so on to 1937. By 1937, shot load named classes 1 through 5 have been changed to All-Gauge, Twenty Gauge, Smallgauge, and Sub-Smallgauge. Shot loads are assumed to be 1 1/8, 7/8, 3/4, and 1/2. Yes, I said "assumed" because the rule book does not say a thing about shot weights. By this time, our friend William Harnden Foster has had his name removed from the NSSA masthead, but NSSA still works out of Foster's offices in Boston. Nothing much happens in the years leading up to and immediately following the war. No letter classifications by average or skill level are mentioned until the 1954 average book, and then only the All Gauge class was mentioned. The average books were very difficult to decipher because after the mid thirties, the rules were not included. Even in 1954, the first mention of letter classes by average, the class table, if it existed, was not posted in the book. All information I have included is from official NSSA publications, but is not assumed to be complete. In my experience, the missing years of 1935 and 1936 can be explained by the inclusion of the monthly NSSA news in the National Sportsman magazine, William Harnden Foster's outdoor publication. However, it is just too difficult to search all of the thirties National Sportsman magazines for tidbits of NSSA rules information. Go for it if you want. I hope this helps with your research.