My father and I hunt crows together with shotguns. He shoots a 16 in an 870. I have a Mossberg 500 in 12 gauge.

In my opinion, I have a longer range with the 12, and as someone else said, I save money when buying shells. Also, he can't always find 16 gauge ammo, even at Wal-mart. Many times he has to go to a gunshop to get it, then pay even higher prices.

Another thing that I noticed is since his gun is lighter to carry, it seems to kick just as hard as my 12.