" would say you are for the most part right about showing up with a 12g...up until recent times. Same goes for full chokes. "
I agree, I just meant in the old days....I can even recall this outlook in the 1970's as being pretty common.
There's a great passage in one of WDM Bell's (the famous elephant hunter) books about his preference for small bores rifles and the loads he used. He only liked solids, and someone had given him a stash of soft point ammo. He was using it up by sitting near a lake and shooting cormorants as they flew over. His hit ratio was quite good, and someone came up after a while and asked what kind of shotgun he had that could reach so far....
