As with most things these days I can’t decide if I’m
ahead of the game, or running trying to play catch up. It’s certainly true when
it comes to technology, I’m definitely at the back of the pack, at the back. I still
have a main line telephone, although I do have a portable walk about phone
linked into the same line. I do have a mobile, which I purchased when the model
was being discontinued, to be superseded by the latest thing. This mobile is so
old, it is actually a phone with text facilities and nothing else. I was
recently spotted using it by some 20 something, who exclaimed “wow, that’s so
cool. I wish I still had mine. It was my first phone in junior school. Do you
want to sell it?” why would I sell it, it still does what I want it to do, and
even with its original tired battery, still lasts longer than my sons latest,
all singing and dancing phone.
Anyway I digress, what I wanted to find out was if I was
a trend setter or otherwise. You see in recent years and months there has been
an explosion in small gauge/bore shotguns. It started with the 20g 3” cartridge
being made more widely available. This in turn led to an interest in all things
20g, so new side by sides, over and unders, pumps and semi-autos all began to
appear from makers for this relatively new cartridge. Since then there has been
a surfeit of 28g and .410, again on a range of platforms. I myself recently acquired
an as new Marlin lever action .410, what a marvellous little gun to shoot, and
such fun too.
However, in all of these new, and resurrected guns, in
all of the aforementioned sizes, there is one missing, the sweet 16. The 16g,
is almost the perfect, and in some eyes, it is the perfect gauge, and it appears
to have been overlooked. All the big makers are producing new models and
variations each year, but it appears not in 16g. Smaller makers to produce many
fine guns, some in 16g, but these are out of reach of many, including me. Sure
there are a number of second hand 16’s out there, but these are, pretty much
without fail, side by sides. What I would like is either a moderately priced
over and under or a semi auto.
It’s said that the market dictates what you get to buy,
but how do you get to buy something if no-one makes it. So next time you go
into your local gun shop, and are looking around at all the nice new 12g and
20g shotguns, just ask if they have any 16g’s.
Until you have used the 16g you won’t understand; it has
all the cartridge you will need, but without the wallop. It has the lines and
grace of a 12g, but without the weight. In other words, it’s all the things you
like about a 12g but dislike in a 20g, and all the things you like in 20g but dislike
in a 12g. There are very few things in life that are perfect, but the 16g, in
whatever format you find one in, is as close as you will get on this side of
the mortal coil.
