I can't attest to the ballistic superiority of the 16 ga. but a couple of years ago I bought a Citori Featherlite in 16 ga and love it. It is extremely lite even considering it has a 28" barrel. This year while hunting in So Dakota some of the guys had trouble putting birds down with two & even three hits (12 ga). The birds I shot, I hammered (#4 lead) & they went down, I have to admit most of them were under points but were going away shots. There was one long shot I made on public ground using #2 steel that made me happy because although it looked as though the rooster would fly away unscathed he eventually took a nosedive & was dead upon hitting the ground.