16ga.com ~ View topic - Shopped for 16 gauge shells today, a humbling experience

I will be getting a new gun next week so I thought in order to use it I needed to run down to the store and pick up a couple of boxes of shells. Boy was I wrong. We have one gun store in town. They had 1 1/8 ounce loads in sizes 4 & 7 1/2. Not really what I am looking to shoot in an eighty year old gun and far more than I need for the four ounce birds I will be shooting next week. No problem, I'll just go to Wal-Mart. They didn't have the first box, zero. What a pain.

Its a fact of life for quite a number of 16 gauge owners that " simply running down to the store for a few boxes" is not in the equation. You were smart enough to pick a 16. I'll bet you are smart enough to figure out how and where to get your ammo. It just takes a bit of planning and effort. Worth it too in my opinion.

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

Try the local farm supply stores ---if they don't have any mabey they can point you in the right direction.Look for the Remmy game loads if possible Wink

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

SH,

If that new gal is 80+ yrs old maybe you should check out the RST ammo in 2.5". Works great in all chamber lengths and is top shelf ammo. Order on line and you will most likely have it in a week. Wink

Just a thought.

Joined: 02 Jun 2007 Posts: 107 Location: N.W. Iowa

+1 regarding RST.I really need to reorder a couple more cases.
Great product regardless of chamber length

Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 311

If walking into a store and having a wide variety of ammo is important to you then trade your 16 for a 12 or 20. I order ammo by the flat from my LGS or internet.

I can walk into one of the stores I was at yesterday and buy any other shotgun cartridges imaginable including a wide variety of loads for both 28 gauge and .410. I can even have several different choices of each of those at Wal-Mart. I was surprised Kevin's didn't have more than one 16 gauge load in two sizes. That is a large outfit with two stores plus an internet and catalog business.

I was hoping to get some Fiocchi GT. That is the hull I am currently loading trimmed down to 2 1/2". I don't have that many and I was hoping to stockpile more, but I would have taken anything. Because the new gun I am getting has long chambers is why I was expecting to find something to feed it. If I was looking for short shells I wouldn't have been surprised and would have called before making a trip. A flat of anything with shipping is just not worth the cost to me with over $20 added for shipping. The same is true of new hulls from BP. I was at their site yesterday and I just can't justify the price plus shipping when 100 is more than enough to last me several seasons.

I appreciate everyone allowing me to vent a little bit over my frusrtration.

Skip

I can deliver 300 once fired Fiocchi hulls to you for $38. See my listing under guns etc. for sale or email me--wdavis8679@aol.com

Member Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 1975

Your experience at Wall Mart is the same as I've had too. A couple of weeks ago I went to one of the few small stores we have left in our area. I ended up buying some 20ga shells as they had only one box of 16 ga 1 1/8 oz #6 on the shelf. I asked the young man why he didn't carry more 16 ga shells and he said he seldom sold them. I told him why he didn't sell many and that he needed to stock some 1oz #8's. He really wasn't interested.
Last week I was in one of the bigger stores and the few 16's they had were only in #6 shot. I got to talking with the manager and she said she didn't sell enough 16 ga shells to stock many. She said 16's and 28's were obsolete. She did offer to order some for me but she had to order a minimum of five cases. We looked togeather at catalog and it was interesting to see that it didn't list 16 ga Federals in anything but #6. It did list Remington game loads in #8's but I didn't want five cases at this time.
So I guess you can order from Wall Mart but only at least five cases.