I just joined the 16 bore club!

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A friend dropped by with something to show me. She left and now there is an 1880s Prussian built Charles Daly 16 bore double with 26" Damascus barrels sitting on my dining room table awaiting a good cleaning. The old red rubber butt pad needs to be replaced. The bores are bright. Haven't measured for choke yet.

So, who shoots 16 here? Anybody got favorite loads? Anybody (Hi Joel) load black powder shotshells?

Some preliminary snaps in a moment.

Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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I have an old 16 guage Iver Johnson single shot. Back during the MLK riots I was an LEO and had to leave my pregnant wife home alone near what was then called the ghetto. I traded my 303 Enfield to a friend for this shotgun. It was painted with model airplane dope for some reason. Stripped it to find nice walnut finish.

Haven't been able to find any 16 guage ammo but still have a few around from back then. Might work...
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I just joined the 16 bore club!

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Riverkilt wrote:Now there's an occupation. What do you do for a living? "I'm a Butt Pad installer."
Isn't that a cosmetic surgeon?

In re the 16 gauge ammo, I have a couple boxes of old Fiocchi birdshot that my wife's father probably bought thirty years ago. It still makes a serious bang. I have seen some 16 gauge ammo at Gander Mountain but have not bought any since I rarely, if ever, shoot the gun. It's a pretty Remington 1100 from the early 1960s, not nearly as classy as Fukshot's new piece.
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Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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Gah, that's a beauty. Makes me even more jealous than the brace of S&W's from dogngun...

Sweet 16 remains the best all around gauge to me. 3" 20's come close and are what mostly replaced it but if you want a bird gun that has a bit more reach but is not as hard on the shoulder, nothing beats a 16. I love my Ithaca 37 in 16 gauge.

First, you'll want to spend some time here: http://www.16ga.com/

Second: Damascus barrels are BLACK POWDER ONLY. They can not stand the pressures from smokeless - the initial pressure spike is very different from black powder and will cause the welds to separate, often at the breech end first. Not good for hands or eyes. Only use fluid steel barrels for smokeless.

Third, this is purely aesthetic, but I love the look of all brass shot shells with black powder shotguns. I think I have some issues of Handloader that went into loading them; might have been double gun journal too. Anyway, you might want to look into finding some to load for it.
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Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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A preliminary wipedown shows a little case color remaining, and aside from a few inches near the breeches (where monkeys get their fingerprints on things) the twist pattern and original brown look quite good.

This will definitely be a black powder piece. I like the brass shells and will likely get some, but I've always wanted a good excuse for one of these

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Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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Fukshot wrote:A preliminary wipedown shows a little case color remaining, and aside from a few inches near the breeches (where monkeys get their fingerprints on things) the twist pattern and original brown look quite good.

This will definitely be a black powder piece. I like the brass shells and will likely get some, but I've always wanted a good excuse for one of these

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Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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I got home from work tonight, and after thinking all day about how I would approach the problem, I took some mineral spirits and steel wool to the black gunk on the stock. Just did one side of the butt and then wiped a little oil on the results so I could see past the surface clouding. I was very nervous about touching the finish at all, but there was so much black and some significant mold spots (I think that's what they are). It seemed worth the risk. The metal has enough finish damage that this will never be a perfect piece by any gauge anyway.

So, I found this!

Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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You can still see a bunch of dark round spots, remnants of colonies of whatever fungus seems to have sprouted on either the linseed oil or the human oil on top of it. I expect I'm about half way done cleaning this side of the butt.

Anybody have any experience cleaning very fine checkering? I haven't decided how I'm attacking that yet.

Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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It might be a standard checkering spacing, if you can figure out what it is then there are checkering files available. Lacking that, I'd start with a small or even swiss pattern triangular. Anything people normally use for stocks would just hit the high points.

It'd be pretty fascinating to see if there are Pyrodex or 777 loads for it. Check the chambers, they might very well be 2½" not 2¾".
Last edited by Antiquus on Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
When only cops have guns, it's called a police state.
I carry due to toxic masculinity.......just other people's.

Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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Oh, no files. I'm not taking anywhere near that much off. I'm contemplating things like brushes and wooden toothpicks.

Since my pictures suck, I'll explain that the checkering is still pretty sharp, but I'm looking to lift a bit of the black off, so it doesn't stand out too badly from the rest of the cleaned stock when I'm done.

Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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I wasn't suggesting muscling it, just getting into the valleys. A good burr knife might do it.

Also, I'd bet those are 2½" chambers. Lots of fun figuring out a load for it, go shopping for Pyrodex or 777.
When only cops have guns, it's called a police state.
I carry due to toxic masculinity.......just other people's.

Re: I just joined the 16 bore club!

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Now the black powder time frame seems off. 2¾" chambers suggests modern powder. You sure they aren't 2 9/16"?

Edit: It would be 2 11/16" to accommodate the case opening.

Also finally found a reference that dates a 2¾" chamber to about 1930.

More edit: Can that - looks like WWI is more likely,
Last edited by Antiquus on Wed Feb 20, 2013 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
When only cops have guns, it's called a police state.
I carry due to toxic masculinity.......just other people's.

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