Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/769056
swing or stop. I certainly never expected to say this about a repeater of any kind, but its handling characteristics equaled those of a fine double! Our itinerary called for us to give all the new guns a workout on pheasants for three days, and the first morning found me first in line to grab one of the Sixteens. We were hunting in a group, using the traditional drive-and-block method. We had perfect conditions—a bluebird sky, cool temperatures, and a slight breeze. On the first drive I found myself working the downwind flank on a half-mile strip of standing corn. We hadn't gone more than a hundred yards when the dogs put up a big, gaudy rooster a few yards inside the corn on my side. The bird climbed almost straight up and tried to catch the wind, but never made it because the little Browning ended his career in mid-turn. Bang! Flop! Simple as that. Just a little farther down the strip, somebody put up a pair of birds out front, and by the time they passed me, they were riding the wind and really totin' the mail. No problem. The snake-quick Sixteen easily caught up with them. Crash, tumble, and roll. The two roosters left two dusty clouds hanging in the air. For the next two days I grabbed one of the little guns every time I could beat the rest of our crew to them, and the result was the same every time. The sweet, easy-carrying gun was totally reliable, and absolutely lethal. Browning's new offering is clearly well made, with good attention to detail. It is, after all, a Browning, and I wouldn't expect less. Will the new Sweet Sixteen prove to be as durable as its namesake? Don't know! It'll take a good 30 or 40 years to determine that, and you'll probably have to check with my grandson to find out. I can tell you this: It's a better, sweeter gun than the original. And that's saying something! Most of the writers at the confab put in their order for one. You should be able to get one pretty soon, since the first production guns are scheduled to be on the shelves about the time you read this. As for me, mine's on the way. n too. Again, my assumptions proved wrong, because I thought that its scant weight would make it flighty and hard to control. To the contrary, the little gun is perhaps the best-balanced repeater I've ever handled. The gun I shot was equipped with a 28-inch barrel and had an incredibly smooth swing with no tendency to stop prematurely as you might expect. On the other hand, the paltry weight made it lightning quick. The gun is exquisitely balanced, with no tendency to over- generally weighs in at 7 to 7¾ pounds. It's slim and trim because it's built on a dedicated "true sixteen-gauge" receiver. Look at it this way: if the old gun reminds you of a sturdy Kansas farm girl, the new one is a prima ballerina. I would guess that most of the weight savings are due to its new short-recoil operating system and a lightweight alloy receiver, but I'd have to defer to the more technically oriented types for a conclusive answer. What I can tell you is that it moves like a ballerina, 98 • S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S