If you miss clean, fine. Problem is, a lot of "misses"--especially on pheasants, because they're both hard to bring down and hard to recover if brought down with 2 good legs--aren't clean. So you're crippling, not killing . . . and may very well not recover the bird, especially without a good dog.

Personally, while you cannot eliminate all birds knocked down and lost, losing a bird--at least to me--is the least "fun" part of hunting. That's why I shoot quite a few clay birds for practice, and why I try to shoot within my capability. I very seldom shoot at birds beyond 40 yards, unless they've already been hit but not brought down. And I hunt with dogs that are pretty good at retrieving cripples. If I'm hunting a young or inexperienced dog, I'm even more selective about the shots I take. I'm certainly not shooting for food; nor, however, am I shooting to feed the predators and scavengers.