Ripp,
thanks for sharing, good article!

Lancaster,
I have seen this trend in my own family, in then Western Germany in the last 50 yearss:
Granddad was strictly a 16 gauge man, used both in side-by-side doubles and combination guns.
My father had some interest in clay shooting and soon settled for 12 gauge over-unders.

At that time "payload" was limited to 36 gram - 1 1/4 ounces of shot in most competitions, so a heavy 12 gauge made sense.

Nowadays classic game shooting is history in Germany, and so are the old-time game shots (Granddad hardly ever shot at a clay target!) and the 16 gauge.

Today we shoot mostly clays with a 12 gauge - the irony is that max. shot charges in competitions are now set to 24 grams or 28 grams (7/8 or 1 ounce) - which would be better suited to 16 or even 20 gauge....

I started out with a 16 gauge side-by-side from Granddad, but switched to a 12 gauge O/U soon.
This worked fine for me, but now I might be tempted again with a handy 16 gauge shotgun!
And anyway for combination guns, IMO there is no other choice than a 16 shotgun barrel

fuhrmann