For grouse and woodcock in thick cover -- or in the mountains -- I like a very light gun that I can easily carry with one hand while using the other to clear brush...or hang on for dear life while climbing through a mountain clearcut. The guns I use for this weigh between 5 lbs. 3 oz. (my Dickson 28 bore) and 5 lbs. 13 oz. (my Fox XE 16 bore).
For quail on the prairie I like between 5 lbs. 10 oz. (my Cogswell & Harrison back action hammer 16 bore w/30 inch barrels -- good forward weight) and 6 lbs. 10 oz. (my Parker DHE 20 bore with 30 inch barrels that fits me like a glove).
If I think I will encounter pheasants I'll opt for a heavier 16 in the 6 1/2 pound range or a 12 bore in the 7 pound range (my GH 30 inch 12 bore that weighs -- and letters at -- 7 lbs.).
Obviously, choke requirements change, too, and are just as important as weight.
Like Kenny, we hunt long days when pursuing upland birds. I don't want to end up with one arm longer than the other.
Now for ducks or dove...
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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