bc: We all have our own degree of comfort with leaving birds in the field, and FOR ME doing so diminishes the joy of the hunt so much that many years ago I started only using my bird guns for low gun skeet and sporting clays and shot a couple of rounds once or twice a week. In the field I try my best to choose shots that with a high degree of certainty would produce a bird dead in the air, and have chosen a gun, choke combination, and load with which I have a great deal of confidence, and with some degree of 'over-kill' to accommodate a misplaced pattern.
Lots of guys have killed more birds that me (including dr btdst in Kansas and N. Dakota behind his excellent GSPs), lots of guys are better shots, and lots of guys have better dogs. But this is what I'm comfortable with, and dr wonko can use whatever he wishes if he makes it to the prairie, and will likely be less condescending thereafter.
Near Plankinton after a long day of drive and block hunting; all wild birds. Not really what I enjoy, and the other low life philistines mostly had SBEs with 1 3/8 4s
Also Plankinton, my better side
and part of our lab power
