Four setters, hmm. I have a friend with setters and he tends to go with a 12 gauge with a big load of 4's. I call them his "setter loads." He needs to break down the birds to up his chances of finding them. My point is that setters are not known as excellent game recovery dogs, and some owners will ramp up their loads based on this, although they either purposely fail to admit it, or are clueless to what a good recovery dog can do. Last year in South Dakota, and not on managed lands I used my 16 gauge double with good quality loads, in my case B&P 1 1/16 oz. 5's. My drahthaar recovered all 17 birds we put down. My partner had a 12, but he's not a good shot, and fringes most what he hits. I killed most of the birds. Just my observations over time.
Dave
