Smith & Wesson’s Model 916 Shotgun

Smith & Wesson Model 916 Shotgun

Smith & Wesson aren’t known for their shotguns. Revolvers, yep. Automatics? Sure. Rifles? Yeah, they’re popular for those too. Shotguns? They have one, and it’s the rather interesting S&W M&P12. Still, they aren’t a shotgun company…but they’ve tried to be. Their first attempt came in the early 1970s with the Smith & Wesson Model 916, aka the Eastridge 916.

S&W’s attempt to enter the shotgun market starts with another company’s failure. Perhaps that’s not the best way to enter a market. Noble Manufacturing Company produced shotguns and .22 caliber rifles and has done so since 1943. By 1973, they declared bankruptcy. In 1972, S&W purchased the tooling and patents for the Noble Model 66, a pump action shotgun.

The S&W Model 916 is a basic pump shotgun, but it has a rough reputation. (Travis Pike for SNW)

This put S&W into the modern shotgun game, and they began producing the S&W Model 916, aka the Eastridge 916. S&W produced three variants: the standard sportsman version, the 916; the tactical version, the 916A; and a takedown variant, the 916T. Mine is marked 916, but it features a fairly short barrel.

Does anyone know anything about these ring mounted beads? I’d love to know more. (Travis Pike for SNW)

My guess is that mine was chopped at one point. The work was done cleanly and clearly by a talented gunsmith. The evidence is no short barrel 916 in any catalog I can find, and the way the bead are attached via a ring around the barrel rather than directly to the barrel. Barrels were fitted at the factory, and you’d need special tools to remove the barrel so it wasn’t swapped.

The Model 916 – Not Much of A Legacy

The S&W Model 916 isn’t well known today. If I shouted S&W Model 916 at a gun show, I’d watch people whip out their S&W decoder rings to figure out if it’s a revolver or a second-generation auto of some sort. Most wouldn’t realize it’s a shotgun. The Model 916 was never super successful.

The hand carved forend is nice, but likely drove the gun’s price higher. (Travis Pike for SNW)

The 916T, the takedown variant, had an issue with barrels rupturing and faced a safety recall. Additionally, the gun came out in the 1970s and featured a single-action bar. The 870 had been rocking dual-action bars since 1951. Plenty of single-action bar shotguns remained popular after the 870 premiered, but they were guns like the Winchester Model 12, aka the perfect repeater.

S&W didn’t have the same shotgun provenance as Winchester, and the Model 12 was painstakingly machined and built. The Model 916 was more akin to the 870’s easy to build assembly line design.

The stock is comfy and useable, and looks great. (Travis Pike for SNW)

However, taking it apart is a nightmare. It’s not intuitive, and removing the bolt requires a lot of work and effort. Stripping the receiver required detailed photos and tools. So much so that I’ll just leave it be. There also seemed to be an issue with parts breakage, especially with the two-piece action bar.

Money Money Money

What likely didn’t help was the price. According to the Standard Catalog of S&W, the 916 cost between $136 to $163 from 1972 to 1978. According to a Remington 870 ad from 1970, the Remington 870 with a plain barrel cost 109.95, and the ventilated barrel cost 134.95. The Wingmaster Magnum 870 cost 154.95.

S&W didn’t design the gun, they simply remade a Noble shotgun. (Travis Pike for SNW)

The math mathed a little better for the Remington than it did for S&W. Plus, Remington had a history of producing shotguns and producing nice shotguns. My century-old Model 10 still functions to this day.

How the Model 916 Handles

The 916 gets a bad rap due to the barrel ruptures of the 916T? The gun really isn’t all that bad. It seemed to be the wrong place, the wrong time for S&W to introduce a shotgun, especially at the price point they wanted.

The gun has a number of nice features. It’s capable of firing steel shots, as long as it’s to SAAMI specifications according to a vintage ad for the 916 in popular mechanics. That same ad brags about the receiver being machined from a solid block of ordnance-grade steel. It’s hardened for added strength. Additionally, according to that same ad the stock and forend were hand sculpted.

The Model 916 worked well. It’s a basic pump shotgun and not much more. (Travis Pike for SNW)

It seems like S&W wanted to make a fine impression with the 916 but fell a little short when it hit the market. It was a tough market to compete in with a shotgun from a company not known for shotguns. I got one for a mere 75 dollars, and I hit the buy-now simply to have a S&W marked shotgun from the ’70s.

I did zero research, but I vaguely remember hearing these guns were garbage. They bound all the time and were unsafe to shoot! Inside every rumor is a hint of truth, but I quickly found the rumors were unfounded. First, it’s not a T model, and there don’t seem to be any recalls for any other model. Additionally, any single-arm shotgun can bind a lot easier than a dual-arm shotgun.

Throwing Lead With the 916

The S&W 916 handles like most other pump shotguns. The gun’s pump is smooth, but feels a little sluggish, that’s where the binding occurs. If you apply any rotation force while pumping,g you’ll feel it. It’s easy to apply that rotation force when shooting fast. If you slowly operate the pump it’s quite smooth.

The action is forceful and ejects the shells nicely. The elevator is very 870-like and provides a bit of dust and dirt protection to the inside of the gun. The stock is surprisingly short and comfortable. The wood stock and forend both look and feel nice but are devoid of grip checkering of any kind. Two scalloped trenches on the pump allow you to get a decent grip.

The single action bar was old by the time the 916 premiered and it makes the action sluggish (Travis Pike for SNW)

The tang safety at the top is reminiscent of Mossberg. It’s ambidextrous, and I’m a tang safety fan. It’s nice and has a solid click when moved in and out of place.

I didn’t torture-test the gun, but it ran nicely without any hiccups. I fired about 100 rounds of mixed bird and buckshot. I even tried mini shells, and like most guns, it doesn’t care for them. The 916 does have that old gun smell like years of Hoppes No. 9 baths. It’s got the blued steel look, and real wood that kind of intoxicates me enough to keep from having too bad of an opinion on the gun.

If you can find one for less than a 100 bucks it’s a solid shotgun. (Travis Pike for SNW)

If you can find one for 75 bucks, it’s a fun piece of S&W history. It’s not a bad shotgun, but there is a reason it costs 75 bucks. I think a lot of the hoopla is tied to the 916T, and the other models are just a bit dated but functional and ultimately an interesting collectible.

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