Greg,
I would say you are for the most part right about showing up with a 12g...up until recent times. Same goes for full chokes. Many hunters are finding the benefits of more open chokes. When I was young, nobody I knew bought any shotgun with more open choke than modified with most being full chokes. Sure real shotgun enthusiasts knew better much longer ago, but it wasn't widely practiced by the common 'one gun' man.
But times are changing. Open chokes are the norm in upland. I find more and more smallbores in the upland field than ever. Not only that, not many seem to badmouth or make light of them. I hunted the last few years in SD for phez with a 20g and haven't even gotten a comment.
But the one thing I've learned about hitting things from clay shooting is that it's always more likely that I'll hit something the nearer it is, regardless of choke. My experience in waiting to let a bird get further out for a tight choke is that my percentages go way down.
