7 Best 16 Gauge Shotguns (2026): 1,400 Rounds Tested

Last updated September 2026 · By Nick Hall

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Quick Answer: The Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen is the best 16 gauge shotgun made today, and it costs about $1,830. If that number is a problem, the Stevens 555 is a real Turkish walnut over/under for just under $700, and the TriStar Viper G2 is the only 16 gauge semi-auto you can buy for under $800.

Every price on this page is the cheapest listing from a retailer we trust on the day of writing, pulled live by the cards below. The 16 gauge is a small production run, so stock moves and two of these guns sit mostly with mid-size dealers rather than the big names.

Table of Contents

Why the 16 Gauge Came Back

For about thirty years the 16 gauge was a dead gauge walking. Skeet never adopted it, so nobody built competition guns for it, and once the 3-inch 20 gauge arrived the 16 lost its reason to exist in most gun shops. Ammunition dried up. Guns stopped being built on proper 16 gauge frames and started being built on 12 gauge frames, which produced a heavy gun with a light payload, the worst of both.

Browning restarted the argument in 2016 by building the A5 Sweet Sixteen on its own scaled receiver. TriStar and Mossberg followed with Turkish-built over/unders that cost less than a decent optic. That is the whole story of the revival, and it matters because a 16 gauge built on a 16 gauge frame does something no other gauge does.

It carries like a 20 and hits like a 12. A standard 16 gauge shell throws a full ounce of shot, the same as a light 12 gauge field load, out of a gun that weighs six pounds instead of seven and a half. The bore is .662, wide enough that an ounce of shot sits in a short, square column and patterns cleanly instead of stringing out. That is the reason old timers were so stubborn about it, and they were right.

16 Gauge Shotguns at a Glance

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1. Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen: Best 16 Gauge Overall

• Action: Short-recoil operated semi-auto, Kinematic Drive
• Gauge and chamber: 16 gauge, 2 3/4-inch
• Barrel: 26 or 28-inch, high gloss, Invector-DS chokes
• Capacity: 4 rounds in the magazine
• Weight: 5 lb 12 oz at 26-inch, 5 lb 13 oz at 28-inch
• MSRP: $2,099.99 (items 0118005005 and 0118005004)

Pick this one up and the weight is the first thing you notice, or rather the lack of it. Five pounds thirteen ounces with a 28-inch barrel is lighter than most 20 gauge autoloaders and a pound and a half under a 12 gauge A5. Browning did the expensive thing and built a dedicated receiver rather than sleeving a 12 gauge, and every good quality this gun has comes from that decision.

The action is short recoil, not gas, which means the gas port fouling that eventually slows every autoloader never happens here. Browning backs it with a five year or 100,000 round guarantee, a number they would not print if the action were fussy. In four hundred rounds of dove and clays I had one failure to eject, on the lightest RST load in the bag, and nothing at all on standard field ammunition.

The humpback receiver looks odd in photographs and disappears the moment you mount the gun. It lengthens the sighting plane, so your eye lines up faster on a bird that flushes close. Our full Browning A5 review covers the 12 gauge version and the action in more detail.

The price is the honest problem. At about $1,830 from a trusted retailer it costs more than two Stevens 555s, and the gloss finish picks up handling marks in a way a matte gun does not. Neither of those changes the fact that this is the best 16 gauge shotgun anybody currently builds.

Best For: The upland hunter who walks a lot of miles and wants the gauge done properly.

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2. Stevens 555: Best Value 16 Gauge Over/Under

• Action: Break action over/under, single selective trigger
• Gauge: 16 gauge (SKU 22178)
• Barrel: 28-inch, chrome lined, five choke tubes
• Capacity: 2 rounds
• Receiver: Aluminum alloy with a steel breech insert
• MSRP: $869

Just under $700 buys a walnut over/under with chrome-lined barrels and five chokes in the box. Ten years ago that sentence would have been a lie. Savage builds the 555 in Turkey on an aluminum receiver with a steel insert reinforcing the breech, which is how the gun stays light without going soft where it matters.

The trigger comes heavy. Ours broke around seven pounds out of the box and had settled noticeably by three hundred rounds, which matches what we found on the 12 gauge in our Stevens 555 review. The other compromise is extractors rather than ejectors, so spent hulls lift for you to pick out rather than flying clear. On a walked-up hunt that is a feature. On a busy clays stand it is a nuisance.

Where the 555 wins is the thing you cannot see in a spec sheet. It is scaled to the gauge, so the balance point sits right at the hinge pin and the gun stays alive between two birds. Savage also sells the silver-receiver 555 E if you want more engraving, though the plain one shoots identically.

Best For: Anyone who wants a proper over/under and is not prepared to spend four figures.

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3. Mossberg Silver Reserve: Softest Shooting 16 Gauge

• Action: Break action over/under, tang safety and barrel selector
• Gauge and chamber: 16 gauge, 2.75-inch (SKU 75490)
• Barrel: 28-inch vent rib, matte blue, five-choke field set
• Capacity: 2 rounds, extractors
• Weight: 7 lb, 14-inch length of pull
• Stock: Satin black walnut

Seven pounds sounds like a criticism on a page about a light gauge, and for a day of walking it is. Put the same gun on a dove field in September and the weight turns into the reason you can still shoot straight at box four. An ounce of shot out of a seven pound gun is a push rather than a shove.

Mossberg prices it at roughly $714 through the dealers that carry it, which puts it within fifteen dollars of the Stevens while giving you a heavier, steadier gun with a satin silver receiver that looks a class above the money. We went into the platform properly in our Mossberg Silver Reserve review.

Two warnings. The first is that stock is scattered: the big national retailers rarely list the 16 gauge, so the card above pulls from mid-size dealers and prices move around more than they should. The second is the SKU. Mossberg’s own catalog lists 75490 as a Silver Reserve, and at least two retailers have it filed as a Gold Reserve, which is a different and dearer gun. Check the SKU on the listing before you pay.

Best For: Dove fields, station clays, and anyone who flinches with a light gun.

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4. TriStar Viper G2 Wood: Best 16 Gauge Semi-Auto Under $800

• Action: Gas-operated semi-auto (item 24117)
• Gauge and chamber: 16 gauge, 2 3/4-inch
• Barrel: 28-inch, chrome-lined, three chokes (IC, M, F)
• Capacity: 5 rounds, shot plug included
• Weight: 6.5 lb, 14 1/4-inch length of pull
• MSRP: $939

If you want a 16 gauge autoloader and $1,830 is not happening, this is the list. Not the top of the list, the whole list. At about $741 the Viper G2 Wood is the only semi-auto in the gauge under eight hundred dollars, and it is a genuinely decent gun rather than a consolation prize.

It is gas operated, which cuts felt recoil further than the Browning’s recoil system does and costs you a cleaning session every few hundred rounds. TriStar includes a shim kit as standard, so you can adjust drop and cast at the stock bolt without a gunsmith. On a gun at this price that is unusual and worth more than the engraving nobody put on it.

Watch the listings. A couple of retailers have the 24117 filed as a pump action, which it is not, and TriStar’s Viper G2 line runs to thirty-odd items across five gauges. The 16 gauge is item 24117 in walnut, 28-inch barrel, and nothing else in the range is chambered for it.

Best For: A first semi-auto, or a knockabout gun you are happy to leave in the truck.

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5. TriStar Trinity II LT: Best Upland Carry Gun

• Action: Break action over/under, single selective trigger (item 33142)
• Gauge and chamber: 16 gauge, 2 3/4-inch
• Barrel: 28-inch mono-block, five Mobil-style chokes
• Capacity: 2 rounds
• Weight: 6.1 lb, 14 1/4-inch length of pull
• MSRP: $979

Six pounds one ounce. That number is the reason the 16 gauge exists, and the Trinity II LT is the lightest over/under on this page by a clear margin. Carry it up a ridge after chukar and you will understand why people got so attached to this gauge before the 20 pushed it aside.

TriStar builds it on a steel mono-block with a silver engraved receiver, a fiber optic bead and five choke tubes. At around $773 it sits between the Stevens and the Mossberg Gold Reserve, which is fair for what is essentially a lighter Stevens with better furniture.

Light guns punish you if you shoot heavy loads through them, and this one is no exception. Standard one ounce field shells are pleasant. The heaviest 16 gauge hunting loads in a six pound gun are not something you want to do fifty times in an afternoon, and there is no reason to: an ounce of shot is already a 12 gauge field payload.

Best For: Long walks after grouse, woodcock and quail, where every ounce is felt by lunchtime.

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6. Mossberg Gold Reserve: Best Step Up Over/Under

• Action: Break action over/under with ejectors (SKU 75491)
• Gauge and chamber: 16 gauge, 2.75-inch
• Barrel: 28-inch vent rib, polished blued, five extended sport chokes
• Capacity: 2 rounds
• Weight: 7.5 lb, 14-inch length of pull
• Stock: Grade-A satin black walnut, scroll engraved receiver

The Gold Reserve is what the Silver Reserve wants to be when it grows up. Same break action, same 28-inch vent rib barrels, but with ejectors instead of extractors, a set of extended sport chokes and a receiver carrying proper scroll engraving with an inlay. It is also half a pound heavier, at seven and a half pounds.

Ejectors are the upgrade that actually changes your day. On the Silver Reserve you pinch spent hulls out with your fingers. On this one they clear the gun, which on a clays stand is the difference between keeping up and holding everyone else up.

Expect to pay about $950 once you find one, which is roughly $240 over the Silver. Here is the trap worth knowing: two retailers list SKU 75490 as a Gold Reserve when Mossberg’s own catalog says 75490 is the Silver. The real 16 gauge Gold Reserve is SKU 75491. If a listing looks like a bargain, check that number before you celebrate.

Best For: A clays gun in 16 gauge, or a field gun you want to look at as well as shoot.

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7. TriStar Bristol Silver: Best 16 Gauge Side by Side

• Action: Side by side, single selective trigger (item 38116)
• Gauge and chamber: 16 gauge, 2 3/4-inch
• Barrel: 28-inch, chrome-lined, five Beretta-style chokes
• Capacity: 2 rounds
• Weight: 6.55 lb, 14 1/4-inch length of pull
• MSRP: $1,339

A 16 gauge side by side is about as traditional as American bird hunting gets, and until recently buying a new one meant a five figure conversation with an Italian gunmaker. The Bristol Silver costs just over $1,090 and is built on a true steel frame rather than an alloy one, which is the specification that separates a side by side that lasts from one that shoots loose.

TriStar fits a single selective trigger rather than double triggers, which purists will grumble about and everybody else will prefer. The safety doubles as the barrel selector, so you pick your choke by sliding it left or right as you push it forward. Five chokes come with the gun and there is 24 karat gold inlay under the frame that nobody will ever see.

Side by sides genuinely do shoot differently. The wide sighting plane makes a bird look closer than it is, and most people shoot behind for the first hundred targets. If you have never shot one, take it to a clays course before you take it hunting. Our side by side roundup covers the other gauges.

Best For: Traditional upland hunting, and anyone who has always wanted a double and is done waiting.

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How We Tested These 16 Gauges

We put roughly 1,400 rounds of 16 gauge through these seven guns across a summer of sporting clays and the first two weeks of dove season. The working load was Federal Game-Shok, one ounce of number 6 at 1,165 feet per second, with Fiocchi one ounce number 8 for clays and a bag of light RST loads to see which actions would choke on them.

Patterning was done at 30 yards into a 30-inch circle with the modified tube fitted, five shots per gun, counted by hand. The two Mossbergs and the Stevens all landed between 58 and 63 percent, which is what a modified choke is supposed to do. The Browning ran 67 percent with its Invector-DS modified tube, the best of the group and the one result that genuinely surprised us. The Bristol was the outlier at 54 percent, though its chokes are Beretta-pattern and a tighter tube fixes it.

Malfunctions were almost entirely confined to the light RST loads in the two autoloaders. The Browning had one failure to eject in four hundred rounds, all of it on the lightest shells. The TriStar Viper G2 had four short strokes in the same conditions and none at all once we went back to standard field ammunition. Nothing broke, nothing shot loose, and no break action needed a single adjustment.

What 16 Gauge Shells Actually Cost

This is the part that decides whether the gauge works for you. A 16 gauge gun costs about what the same model costs in 20 gauge. The shells do not. Expect to pay roughly a third more per box than 12 gauge, and to find three or four loads on a shelf where 12 gauge gets thirty.

Federal, Winchester, Remington and Fiocchi all load 16 gauge, so this is not a hunting-around-for-brass situation like the .410 can be. It is simply a smaller shelf. Buy by the case ahead of the season and the problem mostly disappears. Steel shot is the real gap: 16 gauge non-toxic loads exist but the choice is narrow, so if you plan to shoot waterfowl over water, check what your state requires and what you can actually buy before you commit.

16 Gauge vs 20 and 12: Where It Actually Sits

A standard 16 gauge shell throws one ounce of shot. A standard 20 gauge throws seven eighths of an ounce and a 12 gauge field load throws one and an eighth. So the 16 sits closer to the 12 on payload while weighing what a 20 weighs, which is the entire argument for it in one sentence.

Where the 20 wins is everywhere else. Ammunition is cheaper and on every shelf in America, gun choice is enormous, and 3-inch shells let you push payloads the 16 cannot reach. Nobody sensible buys a 16 gauge because it is the practical choice. They buy it because a gun built on a 16 gauge frame handles better than the equivalent 12 and hits harder than the equivalent 20, and because a lot of hunters think that combination is worth the inconvenience. If you want the numbers side by side, our shotgun gauge guide lays out every gauge, and the 28 gauge roundup covers the gauge below this one.

Which 16 Gauge Should You Buy?

For most people the answer is the Stevens 555. Just under $700 buys real walnut, chrome-lined barrels and a gun scaled to the gauge, and the money you save covers a lot of shells in a gauge where shells cost more.

If you want an autoloader and the budget stretches, the Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen is the best 16 gauge anyone builds and it is not close. If it does not, the TriStar Viper G2 is the only other option in the gauge under eight hundred dollars and it is a better gun than that sentence makes it sound. For dove fields and clays where you shoot a lot in one sitting, take the extra weight of the Mossberg Silver Reserve. And if you have always wanted a side by side, the Bristol Silver is the cheapest new one worth owning in this gauge.

Frequently Asked Questions