I was briefly in the guiding business (wild birds in Iowa) in the mid-90's. For 4 seasons. Small groups, pointing dogs--usually mine, and I preferred just 2 guys. Hunted with a group of 3 on a couple occasions, and one of my more interesting clients was an octogenarian heart surgeon. We had early, heavy snow the year he and his buddies came out. Harvest was late, a lot of the CRP was flattened, and we were forced to hunt standing corn. He didn't mind blocking, and was well prepared for long shots: 2 ounces of 2's. And he could put that load to use. Most of the time, on the hunts I guided, guys were shooting over points, and the problem was that they'd dump both barrels (or sometimes shoot 3 times with an auto) while the bird was still in easy range.

But my hunts aren't like the large group deals so common in SD. A skeet choke and an ounce of 7 1/2's would have worked fine most of the time, when we were working big CRP fields. Not a lot of long shots.