Unless you pick your shots pretty carefully, 3/4 oz anything is definitely light for wild pheasants. Released birds . . . several years back, I loaded up a couple boxes of 3/4 oz 7's for my 28ga. Worked extremely well on a couple dozen plus preserve roosters. Didn't lose a bird. That being said, I did have 2 or 3 that I think might have been lost if they'd been wild birds, which I've observed are much more tenacious. But good dog work resulted in no lost cripples.

I've had really good results shooting 3/4 oz 20ga loads at skeet. Shot 94/100 last weekend, low gun with a light sxs, in 4 practice rounds. Don't think shooting factory skeet loads would've made any difference.

On small birds like woodcock and quail, or even relatively "thin-skinned" larger birds like ruffed grouse (particularly early in the season), I think 3/4 oz should be OK. That being said, unless I'm shooting a 28ga, I usually stick with 7/8 oz.

As far as shot size goes, I'm OK with 8's, or even 8 1/2's or 9's for woodcock--but I don't shoot many of them beyond 20 yards; often much closer.