870 with 3 1/2" mag-blends and win XRHD

[camodawg]

Here are a couple of patterns of my 870 sm with a 23" barrel and a .660 jellyhead choke. I know your suppose to draw the 10" circles after the shot but I thought I had it dialed in so I drew them first. And it looks like I may be a little high. Anyway I got 189 in the 10" and another 171 in the 20" with the mag-blends. And 152 in the 10" and another 162 in the 20" with the Win XRHD 3 1/2" #6. These were shot at 40yds measured with a laser ranger finder, it was around 80 degrees and misting rain. I haven't deep cleaned or polished the barrell, all I did was run a brush with bore cleaner and a few dry patches after that. I was shooting Hevi 3 1/2" # 6 and was getting around 220 in the 10" with them but I'm out and when they got some in the other day they are asking 41.99 a box. I had a few mag blends but thought I would try the win xrhd. I can get 10 for the price of the 5 hevi shots.
Do you think I would gain much by deep cleaning or polising the bore?

[Grunt-N-Gobble]

Well, I for one don't think it would hurt to deep clean and polish the bore.  Your numbers will probably go up.

And you can most certianly get Hevishot for cheaper than 41.99/box.  Heck, Cabelas had them on sale for 18.99 a box a couple weeks ago.  But now, they want 26.99/box for either 3.5" Magblends or #6's.  No 7's were listed on the website.

And hey......if those XRHD's work for you, then great!!  Shoot them.  They'll kill a turkey just as dead as the hevishot.

[hunter-b]

X2

[2much2loud]

I would stick with the mag blends til you run out..looks nice and even....could you tell much of a difference in recoil between the two shells
good luck this year

[camodawg]

They are pretty close on recoil but I think the mag blends were a little more. 
I bought the blends about 3 weeks ago because they were out of the hevi 6's. At that time they were $27.00 for the blends and $23.00 for the hevi 13 in 3 1/2". They got a new batch in this past week and jumped to $42. I have been hearing that they were going up but thats more than I'll pay for them.