The law requiring plugging (reducing the magazine capacity) of shotguns is probably a throwback from the market-hunting of early last century. When commercial hunting was outlawed, laws were passed to restrict overlimit or commercial harvest of migratory game birds, hence the reduction of shotshell capacity. Federal law still requires pump and autoloading shotguns be plugged to admit no more than two shells in the magazine and one in the chamber. Many people hunt waterfowl and pheasants on the same trip, and the plug law for game birds probably keeps some hunters from violating federal law when they hunt waterfowl. From a practical standpoint, there are very few pheasant hunting situations in which more than three shots can be reasonably fired while the birds are in range...even when multiple birds flush.