I can't imagine shooting crows with 9's either.

I do recall reading the recommendations of one guy who talked about 9's at very high velocity for wild pheasants. Said he never found any pellets in the meat. That didn't quite make sense to me. Roster's lethality trials on pheasants and steel shot indicated that steel 6's, pretty much the ballistic equivalent of lead 7 1/2's, would do the job inside of 30 yards. I've shot a fair number of pheasants with 7 1/2's and they do work quite well at close range. But you also end up with a lot of shot in the meat.