I still dove hunt with a 12 gauge SxS and I sometimes use 1.25 oz loads, especially in the later season. That's nothing new; my dad used to load almost nothing but 1.25 oz shells back in the 60s. They ran around 1200 fps and they were great dove shells. And the best thing was that they were free to me as a teenager as long as I loaded them myself, and I was happy to do that.
I don't get to go on many dove hunts now, and the ones that I do make usually don't have many doves and require longer shots if you want to kill any. I usually keep a 1 oz load and ic choke in the right barrel and a tighter choke and heavier load in the left.
