I never hunted pheasants in Alberta but I did for many years in Ontario. In 12 ga, I used my own reloads 1 1/4 oz. of #6 at 1330 fps. Or when I could get federal paper target hulls 1.5 oz. #6 at 1250 fps. the last 10yrs or so I used a Browning M12 20 ga. I used commercial ammo from Win, and Rem, dove loads, in # 7.5, 6, 4's. Got a good deal on it by the case at the time. It worked fine, dropped pheasants without issue. Pheasants are not a hard to kill.
Your big issue is no dog, that is actually a really big issue.!! A good dog is worth it's weight in gold. The roosters will run ahead of you and the hens will hold to the point you will walk right by them and never know it. We have literally stepped on hens, you feel something soft under foot, you look down and there's brown feathers and an eye looking up at you.
You will walk a tremendous amount to maybe get lucky on a few birds with no dog. A good dog will put birds in the air consistently for you if their there. Plus it will bring them back out of that tall grass and thick cover for you. I can not stress enough you either need to get a good dog or hook up with someone who has. In my opinion with no dog your just going for a long walk in some fields with the remote chance of maybe seeing a pheasant. There are all sorts of guys that say, oh we get lots of pheasants no problem without dogs. Pure unadulterated Bull sh!!t. I hunted pheasant for over 25 yrs. my last two labs spent their whole hunting careers on pheasant. So I do know a little something about the subject.
