And I thought that the Washington had 16 inch guns. Silly me!
When Democrat Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear recently vetoed two pro-gun measures, lawful gun owners in the Bluegrass State were hopeful that pro-gun lawmakers in the state legislature could garner enough votes for an override.
Gov. Beshear vetoed House Bill 78, which would provide critical liability protections for firearm industry members against third-party misuse of the products they manufacture and sell, and House Bill 312, which would create a provisional concealed carry permit for lawful young adults ages 18, 19, and 20.
On April 14, the state legislature convened for a veto override session and successfully overrode both measures. The override vote totals for HB 78 were 80-19 in the House and 31-6 in the Senate, while HB 312 was overridden by 81-to-18 and 28-to-9 margins.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) had earlier lambasted Gov. Beshear for his veto of HB 312, saying he was “following an anti-gun-rights party line rather than principle.” After the veto votes were counted, however, CCRKBA quickly applauded the legislators’ efforts.
“We are both delighted and proud of the Kentucky legislators who returned to Frankfort for these important votes,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in a news release announcing the override.
“By overriding Gov. Beshear’s vetoes, lawmakers in the Bluegrass State have exercised common sense by rejecting political nonsense, which prefers to penalize a lawful industry for criminal misuse of its products, while also practicing age discrimination against young adults by denying them their full rights of citizenship.
Gottlieb added that gun-ban activists around the country should take note of this important victory in Kentucky.
“What happened in Kentucky should be considered a signal to the anti-rights extremists to stop blaming an entire industry for the country’s violent crime problem,” he continued, “and to also stop restricting the rights of an entire age class, which can serve in the military, start businesses, get married, and run for office.”
Ultimately, Gottlieb said that after his organization chastised Gov. Beshear earlier this month for vetoing HB 312, he’s grateful the legislature responded to that call to action.
While the governor has opposed a ban on so-called ‘assault weapons’ and believes in reforming current law to allow medical marijuana users to retain their Second Amendment rights, he was wrong on these vetoes. We congratulate Kentucky legislators for making things right.”
In a news report about the Kentucky veto, NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) also praised pro-gun legislators for seeing the bills through to the end.
“NRA thanks lead sponsors TJ Roberts, Wade Williams, Savannah Maddox, and Josh Bray, all legislators who supported these bills throughout the session, and all NRA Members and fellow Second Amendment advocates who engaged with legislators this session,” the report stated.
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Krag-Jorgensen Model 1898
When I was a kid growing up around marshes in the northeast, I used to pick up empty shotgun shells whenever I found them in the weeds, left there in duck season. 12 gauge was the norm, with the occasional 10 gauge hull spotted. I never found 20 gauge shells back then, but I did find my fair share of 16 gauge empties—but if I searched those same marshes today, I doubt I’d find any. What happened to the 16 gauge, and will it ever come back to popularity?
Why did people love 16 gauge shotguns?
Like we’ve told you before, the diameter of a shotgun gauge, or bore, gets larger as the gauge number gets smaller. A 10 gauge has a larger-diameter barrel than a 28 gauge. And since the 16 gauge is therefore larger than a 20 gauge but smaller than a 12 gauge, it was long favored by hunters and shooters who wanted a gun that “hit like a 12, but carried like a 20.”
In other words, the 16 gauge was a compromise, with a heavier payload than a 20 gauge, but a lighter frame and barrel than a 12 gauge. Or at least, that was the theory.
With older shotgun designs, this theory was indeed valid. One of the most famous examples would be the Browning Auto Five Sweet Sixteen (as used by Phil Robertson in some of his earlier videos). This shotgun was built on a dedicated frame matched to the 16 gauge cartridge, so it was indeed lighter than a 12 gauge but could put more pellets downrange than a 20 gauge—at least, that was the case before magnum shells became popular.
This wasn’t the case for all vintage repeater shotguns, but you could find a quality double or semi-auto with specific 16 gauge frames for much of the 20th century.
Interestingly, I remember watching a hunting show filmed in the Amazon jungle, and despite never being exposed to a gun magazine, the natives there were using 16 gauge shotguns for that same reason; they wanted a light gun that still had decent hitting power. Maybe it wasn’t all in North American and European shooters’ imaginations.
There was one other good reason to go with 16 gauge—supposedly, it put out a superior shot column when compared to other cartridges.
We don’t have time for an in-depth look at shot columns here, but the basic, oversimplified outline is this: Your pattern spread tells how big an area your shotgun’s pellets cover at a specific distance. Your pattern density tells how the pellets are distributed inside that area. And the length of your shot column determines at what time the pellets reach the target—ideally, you want all pellets to be arriving at the same time, but in reality, that doesn’t happen.
Your pellets don’t exit the barrel at the same time; your shot column (the shape of all your pellets as they exit the barrel) is a 3D shape, not a 2D shape. Physics interferes further with the shot column once your payload is hurtling towards the target.
Theoretically, the physics of bore sizing and cartridge performance mean a 16 gauge is able to produce a superior shot column, getting more clay-breaking or bird-busting pellets on target at the same time, which means better scores on the range or more birds in your bag.
Admittedly, only true shotgun nerds care about this. I never hear talk about shot columns among other waterfowl hunters. And yet, I’ve seen first-hand that it matters. My old 10 gauge killed far better at long distance than any 3.5-inch 12 gauge I’ve owned. Most crusty old goose shooters would claim that is because of the superior shot columns from the 10 gauge.
If you’d like to learn more about how shot columns matter, check out Bob Brister’s book Shotgunning: The Art And Science. Brister based his research on actual field research, shooting at targets his wife towed behind a car.
Decline of the 16 gauge
For decades, the 16 gauge was a respectable cartridge for ducks and upland game, so what happened? To put it bluntly: The 16 gauge was killed by money.
In the decades after World War II, the American manufacturers emphasized cheap guns over nice guns. Most mass-produced shotguns never came out in a specific 16 gauge frame; they were 12 gauge guns with a 16 gauge barrel, and the 16 gauge’s superior handling was repressed.
The 16 gauge might still have survived, but when Winchester developed the 3-inch magnum 20 gauge load in the 1950s, shooters could now have a shotgun that “hit like a 16, carried like a 20.” Or so they thought, at least. That mid-range between the 20 gauge and 12 gauge loads had now been taken up by a more powerful 20 gauge. The 16 gauge never came in a 3-inch load, because that would be silly with the 12 gauge already in existence, and interest withered.
Finally, the 16 gauge was also mostly ignored by clay shooters, who increasingly opted for 12 gauge or 20 gauge to fit into the rulebook and to find cheaper bulk-priced shells.
The 16 gauge today
You can still buy brand-new 16 gauge shotguns, but they’re harder to find, especially in North America. The only 16 gauges in Mossberg’s lineup are over/unders. It’s the same for Savage Arms. Remington’s website will trick you into thinking you can buy a 16 gauge Wingmaster, but they have no SKUs for such a gun. Winchester doesn’t sell a 16 gauge either. At least Browning has 10 different 16 gauge models in its lineup right now; take your choice of the new A5 platform or a Citori over/under.
I haven’t owned a 16 gauge for a long time myself. The last one I had was a bolt-action Mossberg that I gave away to a friend so he’d be set for deer season. I will confess that I’ve been looking for another one lately, though, especially a Cooey Model 84. They’re an old-fashioned gun, but the 16 gauge is now an old-fashioned cartridge, and I think it would be a perfect match.
John Buhmiller checking out a Zulu warrior’s spear point in Africa.
Imagine getting a letter from a farmer looking for someone to handle varmint duties halfway around the world in Tanganyika in exchange for room and board. In 1954, John Buhmiller did just that. At the time, he was 62 years old, recently widowed and seeking adventure to fill his loneliness.
The varmints weren’t the type you and I think of when hearing the word — these varmints were elephants and Cape buffalo! Buhmiller, a barrel maker from Kalispell, Mont. was up for the challenge.
When he arrived, he learned he was only allowed to buy two permits for elephant, costing $490, but that was all he needed to become fascinated hunting the large pachyderms.
An abundance of rogue elephants were destroying his farmer friend’s crops, the only food source for the many surrounding villages. Not having the proper guns needed to kill such large crop raiders, the farmer friend wrote a letter to Buhmiller asking for help.
New Beginnings
Buhmiller arrived in Africa in 1955. The real purpose of the trip for him was to test the killing power of rifles he made. Just as now, there was much controversy regarding the proper rifles for African use. Buhmiller wanted to obtain firsthand knowledge on the subject and he did so by hunting by himself while having no experience with the dangerous African game.
Over his eight trips to Africa, from 1955 to 1964, Buhmiller killed 183 elephants, 18 rhinoceros, 71 Cape buffalo and one hippopotamus. Talk about experience!
His hunts lasted anywhere from 2–4 months. After filling his first two tags on his first hunt, Buhmiller had his farmer friend contact the Game Commission asking for more tags. The Commission told him they were too busy to eradicate the elephant but allowed Buhmiller to do the task — but without pay. This was fine for Buhmiller. Room and board for his services was enough. Most of us would agree!
Another nuisance tusker down for the count.
Action!
Buhmiller built experimental guns using large Brevex Magnum Mauser actions for most of his rifles. Later, he switched to Enfield 1917 actions after a close call with an elephant. Running his Brevex-actioned rifle nearly dry, he dropped a round in the chamber with a wounded elephant in pursuit but couldn’t close the action since the cartridge wasn’t fed from the magazine.
The Enfield action held up to six of Buhmiller’s cartridges after magazine modification and the action allowed him to drop a cartridge in the chamber and close the bolt when a fast load was needed.
Big Bores Galore
Buhmiller liked cartridges in the 0.45″ to 0.51″ range. He stated, “The .510 is a very satisfactory gun when loaded with 85–90 grains of 3031 and 570-grain Kynoch bullet. I never needed more than 90 grains of 3031. It killed better than the .505 Gibbs because of the better bullet. Solids are okay, they have steel jackets and heavy points and will go through an elephant’s head.”
Buhmiller’s best day in the field included killing 10 elephants with 10 shots. Remember, these were rogue, nuisance elephants destroying the entire food source for local villages. If the elephants weren’t killed, it would indeed be tough times for the area natives to survive.
On his first safari, Buhmiller took his .375 Magnum and .505 Gibbs. On the second, he brought his .458 Winchester, a .450 Buhmiller wildcat and another magnum wildcat made from a necked-up .378 Weatherby Magnum to .458 caliber, essentially a .460 Weatherby. On his third trip, Buhmiller used his .450 Magnum and .458 Winchester. On his fourth he brought his .470 Magnum and .500 Magnum.
Buhmiller says, “The bullet is a big factor in this shooting. These .470 and .510 bullets have a tendency to tumble after heavy bones are struck and this makes them even more deadly than a slug that drills straight through, especially on shoulder shots.”
Primed
Powder ignition could be futile at times with such heavy loads. These were the days before Magnum primers. Buhmiller’s solution was to load half his powder charge, drop a live primer in the case and finish dumping the rest of the charge. Innovative indeed!
Standing at just over 5 feet and weighing 127 lbs., Buhmiller wasn’t the biggest of men. He was a big believer in muzzle brakes and stated his “ears had calluses” from using them. He was a respected barrel maker, making barrels for men such as Elmer Keith, Jack O’Connor, Charlie O’Neil and Iver Henrikson. They thought highly of his barrels and used them on custom builds.
Times were certainly different back then, but not so different that overpopulation of elephants is still occurring in certain parts of Africa. Game management is always a useful tool to remedy the problem.
Hunting is game management. Buhmiller made his first trip to Africa at age 62 and continued until he was 70, showing it’s never too late to achieve your dreams, learn firsthand what works and lend a helping hand all at the same time.
=============================================== What a STUD!! I’m 67 and I can barely make it to the bathroom in time!!! Grumpy
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