Who loads 16 ga. regularly?

[firebyprolong]

I load and shoot a fair amount of 16 almost exclusively for upland. 1oz loads of 8s, 6s, 4s and duck and 2s for the late season roosters that act like their wearing Kevlar. I scored a couple cases of the sp-16 wads last year. However hulls are a pain to find, Walmart here doesn't stock 16, so it can be rough. I bought a case of the Herters brand 16 gauge 1oz field loads from cabelas this year to replace my rapidly deteriorating supply of hulls. The are made by Cheddite so I'll see how they load after I empty some of them at doves next weekend. At 65 a flat I'm not really loosing much even if they turn out to be one and done hulls.

[Sam Casey]

I am a big but aging 16ga fan. Guns, reloading, hunt & clays. Been downsizing due to age. Lots of hulls, wads, loaders etc I no longer need due to many flats of new stuff to use. Have minty M12 F/S (SOLD) on 16 Forum. Let me know if I can help.

[bikerbeans]

Any dinosaurs left out there?

What did you buy and does the Mrs. know about it?

BB

[jdfoxinc]

I'm trading for an Ithaca pump. Don't know the model yet.

[megasupermagnum]

I'm trading for an Ithaca pump. Don't know the model yet.

The model 37 featherweight in 16 gauge is on my bucket list. I don't think I've ever handled a more lively shotgun. I don't know about the newer ones with vent ribs and threaded chokes, I'd get the older plain barrel.

[6pt-sika]

The model 37 featherweight in 16 gauge is on my bucket list. I don't think I've ever handled a more lively shotgun. I don't know about the newer ones with vent ribs and threaded chokes, I'd get the older plain barrel.

I’m a double guy whether horizontal or vertical . However I played with a little Ithaca 37 28 gauge that was quite nice .

[6pt-sika]

Where did you get those remington loads? I have been saving up the federal hulls, but am starting to think the Remington's might be better with their plastic basewad, and a little more volume. The thicker walls seem to fit most wads better too. Every wad seems a little loose in the federal hull.

Got them from Jerrys one of our distributors but again bear in mind the prices I said were dealer cost .

[MOA]

HT, been doing 16's for 37 years. Running mec 600, pacific DL-155, and a Ponsness-Warren. Do paper and plastic, although paper is my favorite. Had a member friend sell me the ponsness and the Pacific he came across at an estate sale, so I can set up the three loaders for different loads, one for shot, one for slugs, and one for buckshot. Can't have enough loaders in my book. I guess I am set for all I need in the 16 gauge for a long time. Hope I got enough years left in me to shoot it all up. They say that the 16 is the true field shotgun. I think they got it right too. Just love the smell of fired paper hulls.

Attachment 226026

[6pt-sika]

HT, been doing 16's for 37 years. Running mec 600, pacific DL-155, and a Ponsness-Warren. Do paper and plastic, although paper is my favorite. Had a member friend sell me the ponsness and the Pacific he came across at an estate sale, so I can set up the three loaders for different loads, one for shot, one for slugs, and one for buckshot. Can't have enough loaders in my book. I guess I am set for all I need in the 16 gauge for a long time. Hope I got enough years left in me to shoot it all up. They say that the 16 is the true field shotgun. I think they got it right too. Just love the smell of fired paper hulls.

Attachment 226026

I had a PW 375C with heads for the 16 and 10 years ago . At the time I was using PW 800C's for the 12 , 20 , 28 and 410 but I was younger then and eat up with the skeet/trap bug .

Now I can make do with the used MEC 9000's for the skeet/trap/bird loads and 600 JR or Size/Steelmasters for buck and slugs .

[megasupermagnum]

That has got to be some history there. Federal cartridge in Minneapolis, MN? I don't think I've seen that before, they've been in Anoka my short lifetime.

[MOA]

Funny, the head on my Ponsness 375 has the 12 and 16 ga dies, I plan on ordering the 10 ga head with the 20 ga dies with it. I'll have all my bases covered then on the Ponsness, and my Mec's in 10,12,16, and 20 will become my back up or speciality load presses.

[Kielbasa]

The model 37 featherweight in 16 gauge is on my bucket list. I don't think I've ever handled a more lively shotgun. I don't know about the newer ones with vent ribs and threaded chokes, I'd get the older plain barrel.

I have an Ithaca mod 37 16g I've been trying to sell or trade for some time now. No one is interested in this area, I only know one other shotshell reloader and he is only interested in 12g skeet guns. I haven't shot much skeet myself since I discovered casting. Now I shoot slugs quite a bit. Just got into casting for 9mm too, so that is fun. Most folks around here seem to consider casting as a dark art or alchemy. I'm told how dangerous it is frequently. At least the girlfriend supports my new hobby, so there's that.

[megasupermagnum]

They are a lot more popular here, lots of older pheasant hunters love them. Where do you live?

[MOA]

That has got to be some history there. Federal cartridge in Minneapolis, MN? I don't think I've seen that before, they've been in Anoka my short lifetime.

[megasupermagnum]

What year did you buy them?

[sharps4590]

MOA's post prompted the memory that 16 bore was the very first thing I loaded, with Dad's help, back in 1961 when I was 8. I still have the Lee "whack-a-mole" loader we used. Never stopped loading something since I started those 57 years ago.

rking, I certainly appreciate the invite but I'm also pretty much out of the loop until about January when my chemo finishes. Sounds like a heck of a good time!! Is it an annual event or did you say that and I forgot already?

[AggieEE]

Seeing those paper hulls brought back memories of how they smelled after you fired them. I have my Grandmother's Marlin 1894 pump. Got a Pacific press from a buddy of mine. Have a couple of boxes of card and fiber wads. They don't fit right in plastic, +1 on the claybuster 16 ga wads. I need to find some paper hulls just for the memories.

[MOA]

Megasupermagnum, these were part of an estate sale a friend got for me, richhodg66, here on this forum was talking about sixteen gauge and an estate sale (the words estate sale and sixteen gauge in the same sentence always causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand straight up), so I got with him and these seven boxes were part of the sale along with two loaders I picked up also. I'm going to say based on the alcan over shot wads, and the Pacific dl 155 loader late sixties and early seventies for the PW that he must of got them (if he was the original purchaser) in the sixties, if he got them from a friend or relative heck they could be in the forties or fifties, just look at the way the brass was profiled and grooved on the shells. Sometime between the mid forties and the mid sixties is my guess.

[MOA]

I'm with you Aggie, the smell of a fired paper shotshell is a powerful stimulus to the ole brain cells long term memory vault. I first smelled them when my Dad took me on my first Pheasant hunt when I was 7. He was shooting a 1950 Remington Sportsman 48 that Mom had bought him for his birthday seven years earlier. Now THAT shotgun has been handed down to me and it is part of my upland shotgun battery that I take out every so often so I can think of that day with him shooting the paper shotshell and bringing home birds for dinner.

Aggie, have you been visiting BPI for shotgun supplies, I have been using them for years, I get all my fiber, felt, cork and other assorted wads from them along with some paper hulls too. If you have not tried them you should visit their website.

https://www.ballisticproducts.com

[ole_270]

Loading for 3 different 16s. Load 7/8, 1oz and 1 1/8 loads depending on what we're hunting. I buy components from Precission Reloading, Grafs and Sons, and sometimes BPI depending on who has what in stock and how proud of it they are. I buy a lot of the primed empty Cheddite hulls, they reload several times more than the Herters from Cabelas.