The big problem with grouse is that they tend to flush at the end of the day when you are TIRED. Come to think of it, that holds sorta true for all upland game birds--some stange correlative of Murphy's Law? The trick is to be in good enough shape to handle the gun when you've walked 7 leagues over gully, stone wall, and drift (and thru bramble). Most of us are now desk jockies, so saving a few pounds on the gun weight makes it that much more likely we'll get that gun up and bangin' at the end of the day. This goes "double" for chukars.
I also could never hit a flying bird with a scoped gun. When I need to hunt deer and birds at the same time (overlapping seasons), I carry a handgun on my left hip to keep it out of the way of the shotgun. Works well enough--I've got all three major subspecies of deer that way and a few injudicious coyotes.
Drillings are beautiful machines that apparently make sense in European legal/hunting environment. But there are good practical reasons they have never caught on over here, and it isn't just that most Yanks are poor and/or cheap (although I cop to both).
That said, a drilling that really doesn handle like a fine upland double, including WEIGHING like a fine double, oughta work fine. Say, a long, slim scalloped boxlock Sauer or Simpson or Merkel 16x16x6.35x52R....THAT, I could "get behind"!
