Jess Essex, known as "The Undertaker" of DeWitt, has suggested an excellent idea for 16-gauge devotees.
Essex, also a noted duck hunter and a living map of Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area, would like to see a special hunting season for 16-gauge shotguns only.
"I think we 16-gauge enthusiasts need a special season like the kids get," Essex said.
Count me in!
The Undertaker is amped because he recently found a Stevens 311 in 16-gauge. That's a sweet little side-by-side by that was a staple among working-man hunters in America's bird- and small game-hunting heyday. It was a budget gun that you could buy from hardware stores and other unassuming outlets. Its wood has no checkering, and there is no decorative engraving on the metal. It was inexpensive when it was new, but it has a cult of collectors that make prices highly variable, especially for uncommon chamberings such as 16- and 28-gauges and .410 bore.
In the case of the Stevens 311, inexpensive does not equate to "cheap." It is the economy version of the Savage/Fox 311. It is a sturdy boxlock with double triggers and extractors. It is also a bulky gun that's made to be used and abused, if necessary.
If you want to glide across a pheasant field with grace and style, you might consider something like my 16-gauge CZ Ringneck, a Turkish made side-by-side that points like a laser and swings like a saber.
CZ offered a 16-gauge Ringneck for one year only. It was a noncatalog item for the 2006 SHOT Show. While fancier than the Stevens 311, it is still meant to be used. Mine has plenty of nicks and scratches that identify it as a bona fide field gun. My only complaint is that, unlike other Ringnecks, the 16-gauge came with fixed modified and improved cylinder bores. I would rather have interchangeable tubes, but I will not desecrate the gun by retrofitting it.
The Undertaker asked my preferences for 16-gauge ammunition. I like it all. My least favorites are Estate and Fiocchi because they are so dirty, but I have a case of No. 4 Fiocchi that I would love to try for turkey.
I like all things Remington, and its 16-gauge Express and Long Range loads are excellent. Those are heavy, hard-kicking loads, though. They might give your chin a few good jolts in a side-by-side, so I recommend downloading to the 1-ounce Sportsman loads.
Gun writers insist that 1-ounce is the benchmark for the 16-gauge because it's supposedly a perfect balance of payload weight and shot column size compared to gauge. I am not doctrinaire about that kind of thing. If I find a great deal on ammo, I buy it. A little extra lead in the air never did any real harm on the giving end.
I am, however, dogmatic about shell color. There is something fundamentally right about 16-gauge purple hulls, in the same way that yellow is synonymous with 20-gauge. Federal and Fiocchi make purple hulls. Herters shells are purple, too. Cheddite makes them in Italy, and they cost about $60 per case.
My "purple passion" delighted The Undertaker, who referred me to YouTube.
"There is a video of Phil Robertson and Go-Devil Bobo hunting in a cypress break in southwest Louisiana," The Undertaker said. "It may be the first video Robertson ever made. Phil is carrying a Browning Sweet 16. It's a bright sunshiny day, and I've rewatched that video several times just to see that Browning kick those purple hulls out into the sunlight."
Browning Sweet 16? Now you're talking. Preach on about the moral superiority of the Belgian-made Brownings, but my Japanese Sweet 16 is one of my prized possessions, and one of the most lethal field pieces I've ever owned. Unlike the Belgian Brownings, my Miroku has choke tubes.
Regardless of its origin, there has never been a gun that looks more cool or as distinctive.
Browning announced some time ago that it would introduce a new Sweet 16 version of its popular A5 shotgun.
The new A5 has nothing in common with the old Auto-5, the real A5. Randy Wakeman, one of my favorite gun writers, calls the new A5 one of the worst ideas ever devised. It is a short-recoil design, like the Benelli Super Eagle II, compared to the long recoil action Auto-5.
I don't care what Wakeman says in this case. If it's 16-gauge, I want one.
It's still not available, and retailers don't know when to expect it. It took Remington a year to ship its new V3 after announcing it, and I expect the same from Browning.
That's fine. The delay will give me extra time to save up for one.
Sports on 07/14/2016