RR,
You've received lots of advice. Here's mine. Lots of birds are killed on the Great Plains every year with everything from cylinder to extra full. One open choke is always good. As to the tighter coke, how good a shot are you? It's nice to espouse the virtues of an IM or Full choke for pheasants, but these are only needed for shots at 40 yards and beyond. Can you routinely kill wild birds at that range? I mean at least 4 out of 5. The truth is very, very few upland bird hunters, even experienced ones, can kill birds at that range regularly. Dropping a wounded bird once at 50 yards does not make you a long range shooter. If you're a AA or Master sporting clay shooter (not a requirement, just a good measuring stick) then you can use that tight choke. I don't shoot IM or F at pheasants any more as the birds are too shot up, and I use light 1 1/8 or 1 1/16 oz loads. A 12 gauge choked .010/.020 (IC/M) will do everything you want. I had an L.C. Choked .005/.015 and never felt under gunned. Shooting well is way more important than your chokes, but it takes more work. I hope you have a great time on your hunt.
Regards,
Jeff
Much wisdom to be found in that post. The other issue with birds dropped at long range: if they come down with a good pair of legs, you'd better have a good dog. The more head start you give a crippled rooster, the more likely he is to avoid ending up in your game bag. He'll feed some predator or scavenger, but I really hate to lose them. Like Jeff, I don't often take long shots--even when I have them. Fortunately, what I've found is that most of the birds I see either flush within what I consider to be acceptable range, or else they flush beyond even George Digweed's acceptable range. Relatively few chances in, say, the 35-50 yard range. At least not if you hunt in smaller groups and with decent dogs.
