Yessir, the 28 ga is the bees' knees. Lots of cheap, readily available reloading components out there. Heck, I've seen once-fired empties sell for only 20 cents apiece. And the huge volume shot by the skeeters keeps the price of factory ammo way down, too.

And of course, nothing handles 3/4 ounce, 7/8 or 1 ounce loads in a 5.5-6.5 lb doublegun like a 28ga magic wand, sprinkling fairy dust through the uplands. Why, I know any number of upland gunners who could hit one out of 12 grousea they shot at with a 12ga and, believe it or not, those guys do just as well with their 28ga guns. And they don't have to lug all that extra weight around.

They ain't nuthin' like a light 12, though. Ruger came out with a 6.5 12ga SxS and they must be almighty popular. I've seen lots more Rugers in the uplands than I have British light 12's and you just can't seem to find a Ruger in the local gunshop, no matter how many Brit light 12's you sort through. Too bad; them 3" chambered Rugers have a significant and unquestionable advantage over a lot of them Brit light 12's....no need to shop around for them hard-to-find short hulls and NOBODY wants to tinker with shortening hulls. It would be hell to run out of ammo on a pheasant hunt and have to run home to reload some special low pressure ammo. Yep, them Rugers are so popular they can't keep em in stock I reckon.

And those pen raised birds just fall out of the sky stone dead at the report of a 28ga. I can't recommend it for those tough wild pheasants, though. I hunted 'em once in 1994 and I can tell you, they're so tough that I only managed to wound them with a 12ga. And I was shooting #7 shot, too....pure pheasant poison.
Yessir, I learned all there is to know about hunting wild pheasants in 1994 and I'm sure nothing has changed since then.