You mentioned that you are a "bird" hunter - that covers a lot of ground. For quail-sized birds, the standard velocity (1200fps) 1-1/8 oz. 12 ga. load (or 7/8 oz. in 20 ga.) should do just fine in a fluid steel Parker in good condition. I hunt with off-the-shelf factory loads like these in both 12 and 20 in my fluid steel Parkers without giving them a second thought. For larger birds like pheasants, the same loads work fine, but finding them in proper shot size (4, 5, or 6) is more difficult. Like Bruce said, the trend is for very hot loads in these offerings. I tend to load my own for this application, although Kent makes a very nice 1-1/4 oz., 1200fps 12 ga. load in these sizes that only develops a little over 8000 psi. I've shot quite a few of these in a 1-1/2 frame 12 and they work very well.
For high-volume clays shooting with the 12s, I load a 7/8 oz., 1200 fps low-pressure load that puts minimal stress and minimizes wear on the gun for years of high-volume shooting, and is very effective on targets. I have put more rounds through a gun in a day on a clays course than I will in an entire season of hunting.
Jim
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