Well, in West Texas you will lose 20-40% of blue quail you down with 71/2 because by the time you get to where the broke wing birds fell they will be 75 yards away uphill or in desert sand you cant run in or 2-3 feet down a badger hole or burrowing owl hole or under several hundred pounds of pack rat nests 2 feet high and 6 ft across built up through 12 branches of a spreading mesquite.
With low base 20 ga 6's i will beat any gunner with a 12 and high brass 71/2's re birds in the bag at days end.
I have always preferred to go up in shot size, eschewing "pattern density" (a concept important only to gunwriters) for broken bones and penetration through to vitals from behind.
