Stepmac: There's a place for a wide range of weights in my battery of hammer guns.
Upland bird guns need to be light enough to carry all day and still be able to respond to a flush quickly. My Lang sidelever hammer is 6 1/4lbs and that's where it mostly gets used. This recent #1 framed Parker hammer should serve well on prairie birds at 7 1/4lbs, and my almost 9lb Ithaca NIG is nearly perfect for sporting clays.
American guns usually had to do it all for their mostly 1-gun owners (upland, waterfowl, & target) and "heavy" was the default position for so many of those makers.
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