Not necessarily, Don. Actually, the heavier English pigeon guns were built after the introduction of smokeless powder to the sport. Cyril Adams, in his extensive and one-of-a-kind book Live Pigeon Trap Shooting mentions that the increased velocities, thus increased recoil, that came about due to smokeless caused the average pigeon gun's weight to go from 7 - 7 1/2 lbs. to 7 1/2 - 8 lbs.
You've got me at a disadvantage concerning the weight limit you mentioned. Where do you reference that? I find no mention of it in his chapter on the guns. Perhaps I overlooked it somewhere else in the book, but I don't think so.
There are certain specs that the gun I search for must possess, but most certainly I would not pass up a gun that was otherwise perfect but only weighed 7 - 12. I can always add a bit of weight "surreptitiously". Heck, my KickKiller leather lace-on pads add 5 oz., alone. However, having a couple of hammer guns in the 7 -3 range, I do not want to be shooting 1 1/4 oz. loads in a gun that light. Just too hard to manage.
SRH.
