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For a number of years I've had my heart set on carrying a 16 gauge for upland birds. It's still considered a nostalgic bore, a gun that brings to mind old black-and-white photos of quail hunters wearing fedoras, corduroy-collared field jackets and tall lace-up boots. Setting aside the nostalgia and aesthetics, there is strong evidence to suggest that the 16 gauge is an extremely effective bore and I've always been puzzled as to why you don't see more of them afield. With its bore diameter of .662", it falls nearly smack dab in the middle of the 12 gauge (.730") and 20 gauge (.615") and, to my way of thinking, represents the best of both worlds and the most versatile gun to handle just about anything that flies.

There was always one hurdle that prevented me from thinking too seriously about owning a 16, and that was the price. It was never a mystery to me why 16 gauge guns were typically far more expensive than their 12 and 20 gauge counterparts. The fact of the matter is that there's a fairly limited demand for this bore, and gun manufacturers spend quite a bit of money to create and calibrate the machinery necessary to turn out a relative few number of them.

Another compelling reason to carry a 16 gauge has to do with its inherent ballistics. In my never-ending on-line quest for information about 16s, I found a great website - The 16 Gauge Society - that devotes all of its energies to the discussion of 16 gauge guns, manufacturers, ammunition, ballistics and wing-shooting. At this site, I found the following explanation of the 16s ballistics and how they uniquely throw shot: "A larger shot charge does not make a small bore better. The advantages of a 16 gauge over a 20 bore are more about ballistics than weight, although they are close in weight also. A 16 gauge, at a .662-inch bore, is ballistically pure with a 1-ounce shot charge. This means that 1-ounce of shot pours down a bore of that size with minimal 'shot stringing.' This results in the shot swarm arriving at the target at virtually the same time. Forcing too large a charge down a smaller bore-the same 1-ounce or more in a 20 gauge for instance-can result in a shot string of several feet or more and limits the number of pellets with a chance of intercepting a fast moving target. A 16 gauge with 1-ounce of shot has plenty of pellets and a near perfect pattern." I agree that was a bit wordy, but I couldn't explain it any better than that.

My dream of owning a 16 gauge remained just that until fairly recently. Late in the spring I discovered that the Browning Arms Company offered special below-dealer price discounts to members of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. As a card-carrying member of that organization, I was pleased to know this fact. However, I knew enough (or so I thought) about Browning's line of shotguns to know that they didn't manufacture a 16 gauge. One trip to their website proved I was wrong. Browning did manufacture a very limited number of BPS (Browning Pump Shotgun) 16s for the shotgun industry's 2007 Shot Show. They produced a 16 gauge Hunter and a 16 gauge Upland Special. I came to discover that only 265 Upland Specials (differentiated from the Hunter by its straight English stock) were produced with a 26" barrel.

Of course, the Upland Special with the 26" barrel was the gun I wanted to get my hands on in the worst way.

Back in May I talked with a Browning representative at their corporate headquarters about the possibility of finding and purchasing this gun. He informed me that all of the Uplands were sold at the Shot Show to a very select number of dealers, but he also said that anything can happen and he would keep an eye out for any dealer that'd be willing to cancel their order.

I'm happy to say that my Browning rep kept me in mind during those interim months and called me just a couple of days ago. He informed me that the impossible happened - he found a dealer with an extra BPS 16 Upland Special. And if that wasn't enough good news for one day, he told me that my OWAA discount could be applied to the sale of this gun.

Now all I have to do is wait for it to be delivered to my local FFL dealer. The rep told me delivery could take a couple of weeks or possibly as long as a month. To be honest, I can barely wait to put that 16 gauge to use in the woods and fields.

I wonder if I still have that old musty corduroy-collared field jacket down in the basement somewhere?

Dan Brown's weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankie's Bait and Marine, in Chisago City, and St. Croix Outdoors, in St. Croix Falls, Wis.

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