McIntosh, Hill and Brister all sang the praises of the old "super pigeon" formula: 3 1/4 DE, 1 1/4 oz 6's. That's about a 1220 fps load. I don't necessarily believe you need that much shot, but it does pattern very well and is, as McIntosh said, a very good all-around choice. We're now seeing premium lead loads that are 300 fps faster than that. I don't think pheasants have gotten any harder to kill than they were when the 3 gentlemen I named were shooting them. At least I haven't observed that they are.