16ga.com ~ View topic - Finally decided to Purchase the 16 gauge Bristol Silver.

Gentlemen,

Purchased the 16 gauge Bristol Silver from Midway for a decent price.
We will see what the actual weight of the Bristol Silver is when it gets here some time this coming week end. I wanted a 16 gauge double gun that could shoot steel shot, if need be. This gives me 3 guns for shooting steel shot, I am hoping the weight of this gun turns out to be between 6.6 - 6.8lbs, so it will be good for Grouse hunting. I have very few modern guns so I hope this one fits the bill. Have read a lot of reviews on this Bristol gun and the only negative was the weight on some of the guns, the weight seems to vary all over the place on these 16 Bristol guns unfortunately.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Click on the Midway picture below to see the gun.
https://media.mwstatic.com/product-images/src/Primary/429/429340.jpg?imwidth=680

Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 196

Nice looking sxs Dave ,let us know how you like it.

AC,
Thanks for the come back, I definitely will let you know whether I recommend the gun or not.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 13 Apr 2017 Posts: 150

Please let us know the weight!

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2012 Posts: 1114

Welcome to the Bristol club. I'll be very interested in the weight of your gun to see if my 7+ pound Bristol is just an anomaly, or they all are on the chubby side.

Gentlemen,

When I receive the gun and weigh it, I will post the weight right here.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Gentlemen,
My Bristol Silver 16 gauge guns has arrived at our FFL dealer, will pick it up later today or sometime tomorrow. I have to admit Midway is a great company to deal with, Larry the owned is a big time NRA Supporter and does a great job for us who purchase from his gun inventory.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 14 Apr 2020 Posts: 144 Location: Boise,Idaho

Dave, agree about Midway.
I am very curious as to the actual weight.
Thanks, Bob

Gentlemen,

Actual weight of my Bristol Silver 16 gauge double gun without Snap Caps is 6.9lbs, and this makes me very happy compared to the heavier Bristol Silver guns I have been told about.
Still a might heavy for what my good 16 gauge guns are, this will be my heaviest 16 gauge double gun at 6.9 lbs. The gun is tight and needs to be worked in, not real fond of ejectors on my Grouse guns, the gun ejects my Silver Snap Caps to far in my opinion, but the ejectors seem to be timed well. Trigger pull is 5.2 and 5.9, a might heavy for my standards, however no creep at all which is good. I do believe the coil springs in this gun will loosen up after the guns been used a little bit, and the Trigger Pull will become lighter and better. Turkish Walnut Wood is decent with nice Walnut coloring, but nothing special, 14 1/4" LOP with the recoil Pad. I will need to remove the recoil pad for my needed 14" LOP. 5 Screw in Chokes that come in and out with no problem, I will like the SK1 & IC Chokes with my RST & Poly SpredR shells. Now I will need to pattern the gun for my Grouse hunting. I do wish these Turkish gun builders told the truth about their actual gun weights, further the gun balance and handling will never match my L.C. Smith double guns, course nothing much really does. The SST works perfectly, it does not reset automatically, further a hunter must know which barrel/choke he wants to shoot before the safety is taken off, once pushed forward the SST will not let the hunter change barrels/chokes, typical of a Beretta engineered SST.

For the $870.00 I gave Midway, its a nice modern gun so far, with nice Chrome lined Barrels.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 196

Let us know how it pattens ,regulation of the barrels.Enjoy your new gun.

AC,

Thanks buddy.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2012 Posts: 1114

Thanks for the update concerning the weight of your Bristol. It sounds like you got lighter wood than my gun. I hunted for years with a CZ Ringneck 16 ga that weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and never complained, but I was young man in my early 70's then and a lot tougher than now. I have shot clays off my wobble trap with the Bristol and it performed well and I fully intend to use it occasionally for preserve birds, but I'm not going to try lugging it up and down those Idaho hills chasing chukars and Huns.

Riflemeister,

Appreciate all your input on helping me decide to purchase this Bristol Silver 16 gauge gun. For a modern gun it is a nice gun, not really fair to compare it to my Smiths or J.P. guns, the cost is like paying for a 1960's Classic American or an entry level German double gun. The only 7lb gun I carry is my 12 gauge #5 or Pigeon gun for Pheasant hunting, being use to my light 28, 20 and 16 gauge guns, its hard for me to rationalize carrying this 16 gauge gun for more than 1/2 a day, and it will be on the lower more flat grouse coverts. I do not really want to bad mouth this gun, if it weighed in at 6.0lbs I would like it a lot more. For a young sportsman who needs a steel compatible 16 gauge gun, its a winner. After reading the Tristar directions I now believe the gun was made heavy on purpose, they say the guns are made more like a competition gun, at a Field Grade price. This to me explains the heavy 16 gauge Bristol gun for Midways cost.

As far as recommending the gun, I need to see how it handles in the Grouse woods & the Pheasant fields before I decide whether the gun is a keeper or not.

Thanks again for the help,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Gentlemen,

After running about 100 shells thru the Bristol 16 gauge gun, the weight of the gun makes the recoil of most all the different shells I tried a soft recoil, making it a soft shooting double gun. I have to admit no doubling, smoothly ejected shells and timed correctly when only shooting one shell. When shooting both shells, the both eject properly for the same distance, definitely to far to be looking for them while Grouse hunting a snow covered mountain. The gun shoots nice patterns with all the different screw in chokes, using both lead & steel shot. I noticed right away that the gun is a might front heavy, not bad mind you, a little front heavy. However it will never be the balanced fine shooting gun my L.C. Smith or J.P. Sauer guns happen to be. The gun is regulated perfectly for bird shooting, comes around nicely for an unbalanced double gun, patterns well at 25, 35 & 45 yards. I also shot what I had left of my Bismuth #6 shells, real nice patterns with the Bismuth shells for sure, especially at 35 yards. The skeet #1 and IC screw in chokes makes this a real nice shooting double gun, it will probably make a fine Pheasant gun, using all different kinds of #6 shells. IMO this is a little higher quality gun than most Turkish entry level guns, IMO the CZ Bob White G2 and this gun are about the same quality. However the Bob White G2 28 gauge is a better handling double gun. It would be nice to see how the Bristol 28 gauge stacks up against the CZ Bob White G2 28 gauge quality and handling wise.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 196

Thanks for a great review.