16-bore — A Gauge For All Reasons

Recent years have seen a revival of the 16-bore, as people appreciate the combination of light weight and firepower, says Diggory Hadoke

- Diggory Hadoke

In any article about 16-bores, one should do one’s best to avoid the standard cliche of using ‘sweet’ and ‘16’ together. Most writersfind it impossible. Perhaps the best-known example was penned back in 1995 by American gun writer Michael McIntosh in his book Shotguns and Shooting. A chapter, called almost inevitably Who Killed Sweet Sixteen?, is a heartfelt lament for the demise in popularity of the gauge.

Despite its then unfashionable status, McIntosh asserted, quite correctly, that, “Ballistically, the 16 can do almost everything a 12 can do and it does everything better than a 20”. The 16-bore had been widespread in the US until the 1960s but then went into a steep decline.

A couple of years after this opinion was published, I remember turning up at my shoot with a newly purchased Holland & Holland 16-bore hammergun. As people had a look and passed comment (my hammerguns were always amusing to my fellow Guns who, to a man, shot foreign over-and-unders) the shoot captain said, “Shame it’s a 16, that kills the value, doesn’t it?” At the time he was right.

The 16-bore is one of relatively few gauges that made the transition from muzzle-loader to breech-loader and stayed the course. Muzzle-loaders could be made any size you wanted because you were custom-loading the charge in the barrel. When ammunition has to be bought from supplies made in a factory, a degree of standardisation is to be expected.