I shoot 6 or 4 shot for pheasants. But I have killed a lot of pheasants with 8 shot. There are a lot of variables like if you are going to be shooting over dogs that are very close hunting (very close shots) or if you are going to be blocking you might have longer shots. As for grouse all I ever shoot at them is 8 shot heavy trap loads. They go down a lot easier than pheasants. I hope I was a little help, and good luck