I also reload 7/8 oz low pressure for targets. Have done so for ages. However, I'm not about to go shoot wild pheasants with 7/8 oz, no matter how well it breaks long targets. Wild roosters are much harder to break, and even pre-WWII, if you look at the available ammo, you'll find that 1 1/8 oz was the standard game load, even in "short" 12's, and an ounce the standard in 16's. If I'm shooting a whole bunch--as in multiple rounds of skeet, or 100 sporting clays--then I'll stick with the light reloads. But an ounce or 1 1/8 doesn't bother me when I'm hunting, because I'm not shooting that many times. And that's what the guns were built to take anyhow. Said so right on the flats of my 2 1/2" Army & Navy 12's: 1 1/8 oz. For a lot of modern pheasant hunters, that's a light load by today's standards . . . but still kills extremely well.
