Dove hunting - What gun are you taking?

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Todd Poer

I am sure there will be plenty of argument to this statement and I love variety as well in gauges of shotguns and enjoy shooting them all. However, read this statement the other day and it made perfect sense. "If we were starting from scratch to design the shotgun and its cartridges, it would be the 16 gauge with a 1 ounce load." Add to that I think a Parker 16 gauge on a 1 Frame is the ultimate in firearm congress.

Todd, if your statement was about grouse guns, I would totally agree. The 16 bore with an ounce of 9's was my standard grouse load for years. Now I just use 20 and 28 bores. But my best shooting at grouse was probably done with the 16 bore ounce loads.

Sorry, but I believe the 16 bore falls short as an all around gun. My patterning tests with the 16 bore showed, at least with my guns, that the 16 doesn't handle shot larger than 6's that well. You can get away with 5's, but anything larger falls short of even and consistent patterns. Likewise, I've never got decent patterns from my 12 bore guns with shot sizes larger than the old St. Louis 3's. I wish I could get size 3 again. It was my favorite size for geese. I used to get it from Herters of old. I still have a partial bag that Destry gave me that I will be loading in a 10 bore. Leave it to Destry to find St. Louis 3's.