Wis, I haven't tried them and probably will not. I will say that the larger shot mixed in is soley marketing and for the hunter. The 7s kill the turkeys and the larger shot satisfy the hunter. Every Nitro I've seen disected had a very small qtty of the larger pellets and if you'll notice that every pattern pic you see of them has very little if any larger holes in the 10" circle. I know that the 7s put up the numbers and give the impacts to the birds, so I like straight 7s. That said, a relative is still in the mindset of lead and wanted 6s mixed in his loads so we went with 1.25oz of 7s and 1oz of 6s in his loads and actually had good results with 390s at 40 yds in the 10" circles out of a short 23" bbl. I'd expect those loads to go around 450 in my 835, but just haven't run them in it. The patterns had quite a few of the larger holes as well.
The best patterning weather is 70s-80s, no wind, and high humidity IME. To test our loads in poor weather, we shot last weekend in the 50s with a breeze and lower humidity. That range session produced a 162 and 153 with the 3.5" straight 7 at 60yards in a 10" circle from two 23" bbl 870s. 138 with the 6x7 and 109 with the 1-3/4oz 7 from a 23" bbl as well. All of those were 60 yard 10" counts. That's a long ways, but if a bird hangs up at whats thought to be 50 and actually turns out to be a bit further, we're covered.
Brad,
Those old Remington hevis were good shells as well.
Ya'll Have a Good One,
Reloader7RM
