[skeet]

Didn't mean to rain on your parade. Not saying the 16 is dead..just not a LOT of use for it. You can't find much in the way of good ammo in the 16. And as for it being so much better than the 20..Not even close. I can do just as much with a 7/8 oz load in a good 20 ga shell as you can do with an ounce in the 16...mainly cause you can't find GOOD 16 ga shells anymore. I've had 16's when there was good ammo available. Used one for a year or 2 when we had to go to this useless excuse steel shot. We still lose more birds from steel use than would have died from lead JMHO. It killed birds ok with lead but the 3" 20 killed 'em just as well if not better. Win Super XX shells worked even in the 20. And except for maybe some pheasant shooting the 1 oz 20 is all that is usually needed. They DO make GOOD 20 ga loads that are better than the average 16 ga shells you can buy. Not the fault of the gauge...the fault lies with the non popularity of the 16. A few years ago Remington made a run of 16 ga 870s and I think even 1100's in a nice trim sized frame. Lasted a whole year or so..In fact they sold so poorly that Remington closed them out really cheap to the wholesalers. They even had Rem chokes. You can still find some new in the box guns. So my predictions The 10 ga...especially with the gummit making us use steel still has a viable place in the waterfowl haunts. the 12 will be king for years to come.. the 16 will slowly fade even more and probably ...after our generations are gone..may fade away(in the US) permanently...the 20 will stay with us strongly especially in the upland coverts...the 28 ga will disappear for the most part except on the skeet fields...and the 410?? Well it'll stay with us for skeet and there is a larger number of people using that 410 in the field than there are using the 16 I think...so it'll stay with us. The 16 24 and 32 gauges are going to continue in use in Europe but hunting and shooting is dwindling over there more all the time..mainly due to numbers of people and restrictions on firearms...So they will probably be lost in the future even over there.. More's the pity. How many here remember the 9mm Shotshell?? Only place to find ammo for them anymore is an occassional run made by Fiocchi. Luckily I found 10 boxes at a gun show a few years ago. I'll be able to shoot my ol Winchester M-36 for a while anyway... I've actually shot a few doves with the little feller. But for all intents and purposes..if IS a dead gauge.