You have some regrets like that too, Ted?
Lighter loads can indeed be appropriate for pheasants. It's just that they're not very popular. The "premium" stuff has gotten either faster or heavier, or both. We're swimming against the tide. I'm sure that I've shot more pheasants with a 16 than I ever will with a 12, and in many cases my 12's were Brit guns and my heavy load (only in the L barrel) was a 1 1/8 oz reload at about 7,000 psi and mid-1100 range velocity. But I've been unable to convince the masses that anything less than 1 1/4 oz makes sense. I'm pretty sure McIntosh felt the same way. But the best he could do when it came to a blanket recommendation for a pheasant load--on which subject both Brister and Hill agreed with him--was the old 1 1/4 oz Super Pigeon load. 100 fps slower than the Super X, but still 1 1/4 oz shot. A very good load, but hard to find in top quality factory shells.
