Being only an upland hunter, and one that tends to spend the entire day in the grouse woods or pheasant fields I prefer light guns. Like Samuel the rule of 96:1 works for me. My 16 is 6 lbs and my 12 is 6 lbs 7 oz (a bit under the rule of 96 for a 1 1/8 oz charge), but it works for me. I rarely notice recoil, but I sure can understand that if one were shooting driven birds or any type of clays that guns this light would probably take their toll.
I have a couple of Sauers that I used until a few years ago. The 20 was 6 lbs 10 oz and I purchased a flat of what I thought were 2 1/2 dram 1 oz coppers for grouse. Well, I picked up the wrong case and they had a much heavier charge. I shot a few of them at early pheasant and boy did they kick. I gave the entire case to a friend headed to South Dakota and told him to give them to someone he hated.
