Out here on the Plains where you don't know for sure what is going to get up in front of the dogs point in the early season I use a one ounce load of hard #7s in the first barrel of my 16 gauge and follow it up with a one ounce load of copper plated #6s in the second barrel. After the Pheasants start flushing wild I switch the 1 ounce load of #6s to a 1 1/8th ounce load of hard 6s. After a covey flush I will change to 7/8th ounce of hard 7 1/2s to shoot singles. We ain't got no stinking Woodcock here in Kansas.
Yeah, you guys don't have any woodcock, but you do have a few sharptail grouse out there, which in my humble opinion, don't taste all that much better than woodcock, especially late season sharpies that are as wild as can be. It seems the wilder the sharptail, the worse they taste. In September, they don't taste that bad....maybe because they are young birds?
