Regarding your second point; in killing these 1300 roosters where an IC would have sufficed, did you never see one "escape" with every indication of a clean miss only to fly several hundred yards and drop dead? I've seen it many times myself. I had the rare opportunity once to see a ruffed grouse "missed cleanly" then fly 300 yds and drop dead.
Back before the drought I would hunt the same forty or so covies of Bobwhites over and over and have seen a similar phenemenon many times. The targeted bird falls dead and is put in the bag. We then head in the direction of the singles and the dogs find another dead bird, sometimes after twenty yards and sometimes two hundred. In Montana this Fall I knocked down three Huns out of a pointed covey rise at about 25 yards. Cylinder choke and 1-1/8oz of #7-1/2s. That is not what I wanted to happen. Collateral damage is not what I am looking for.
My current theory is that for me, when I hunt Bobs, a tightly choked gun shooting 3/4 or 7/8 oz. of #9s is probably the best combination The tight chokes narrows the pattern and the #9 shot runs out of penetration sooner.
As fare as putting birds in the bag I would go with open chokes every time.
I have to admit I have wounded and failed to bag pheasant, flushed from the nose of the pointing dog, with a tightly choked gun.
Best,
Mike
