There is still plenty of shot in the center of a 25 yard cylinder pattern to blow a bird apart.
For me, shooting a two trigger double, cylinder and mod, will do for quail, pheasant, huns, sharptails, and dove.
Gough Thomas / GT Garwood wrote that the plastic shotcup and plastic wad, compared to fiber wad system, had the effect of tightening "one degree of choke" in the tighter chokes. I took that to mean in the English system of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and 4/4 chokes that it would make 3/4 choke shoot 4/4 and 1/2 choke shoot like 3/4 and 1/4th choke shoot like 1/2. I have assumed that 4/4 is about 40/1000ths of choke.
The most fun I had shooting decoyed dove last year was with Parker Repro 28ga with 30/1000 and 38/1000 chokes. But I would have been more effective with cylinder and mod.
I have never hunted roughed grouse or woodcock.
When hunting wild pheasant with my Brittanys I would be perfectly happy with cylinder and mod even though the wily bastards will sometimes flush at 40 yards as I am walking up to the point.
For NSTRA field trials I prefer cylinder and mod.
Even though they aren't I consider skeet and cylinder equivilent.
