I've never heard using dogs for upland birds described as "sneaking up on them". Quite often, dogs are wearing some sort of noisemaker (bell or beeper) so their handler can keep track of them in heavy cover. Kinda cuts down on the sneaking thing.
I'd separate both turkey hunting (which is more akin to big game hunting than it is bird hunting--stalking or sitting quietly, shooting the birds on the ground) and dove hunting (you're not really hunting, but rather waiting for the birds to come to you) from the rest of upland hunting, where you're walking birds up. With or without a dog. Shots for those games, in general, just aren't that long. And I'd say guys who haven't seen mangled birds haven't seen enough birds. I went to cyl in the R barrel of my grouse and woodcock gun this season (20ga Sauer), shooting 7/8 oz 8 1/2. Turned out to be a lot more woodcock (which are shot, on average, at closer range than grouse anyhow) than grouse, and it worked just fine. Used the same gun right up to the end of woodcock season, by which time shots were longer than when the leaves were on. Birds were still coming down consistently dead. For 20 years, until Iowa pheasant numbers started to decline significantly, I averaged 65 wild roosters/year. Hunting over dogs, I never felt that I needed the first barrel to be any tighter than IC. Matter of fact, at the end of that 2 decade span, I was alternating between a pair of Brit 12's. Both were choked .005 in the R barrel. That's not cyl, but it's not a whole lot more either.
Choke for upland hunting--when you're walking up birds--is highly overrated. Assuming you have a decent dog and know how to hunt, that is. For the vast majority of hunters, it will be much more of a handicap than a help. For those few who are champion trap or SC shots, full can be useful. For most . . . well, read Mr. Brister.
