To my knowledge, ALL the "promotional" 1 oz 16ga loads from Rem/Fed/Win are 1165 fps. Given that the velocity and shot charge are the same, I never found much of a difference in recoil. I agree that the Wins seem the lightest-recoiling of the bunch, but not by a whole lot. But 7/8 is definitely the way you want to go in a light 16. RST's are absolutely great, but pricey if you shoot a lot. And economics is one reason to reload 7/8 oz 16's . . . but the DR wads are also on the pricey side. And not as readily available as 12ga or 20ga components.
The reason I went away from the 16, after shooting a lot of them for a lot of years, is that I got tired of tinkering around with reloads. It's all so much easier with 12's and 20's (and even 28's). And there are plenty of light 12's on the market, and plenty of even lighter 20's.
