There is a lot more than just pellet weight that goes into deciding on the best pellet for your gun. Take a listen as Tom goes in depth on pellet shape and composition in determining where a pellet will hit the target.
15 thoughts on “Episode 43 – Selecting the Pellet”
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Hi
Firstly thank you for the interesting video, however I did have the following points I would like to raise:
1. Spring Pistons require lighter pellets. This is not my findings as my TX200, TX200HC and Diana 56TH would not work well with light pellets because lighter pellets travelling at a higher velocity tend to be more affected by turbulence and so I needed to use 18gr pellets to obtain better trajectories and reliable accuracy.
2. .177 pellets are not really favoured for hunting. This subject was investigated thoroughly within “AirGun World” and it was found that the opposite is actually true for longer distances. .177 were less effected by crosswinds and therefore more accurate and also more importantly, the lighter weight of the pellet resulted in a greater dumping of energy into the target that a .22 (which retained more of the energy within the pellet and then through the target).
Regards
Peter
Peter,
Thank you for your comments.
Tom
Yo B.B Pelletier,
I’m using .22 pellets, and what happens is a few sparks come from the end the barrel. Is this normal???
atharxd1,
I need a lot more information that that. What airgun? What have you done to it? Is it new or old? Have you lubricated it?
Tom
I have a slightly used SPA LB600 air rifle. Its been lubed from inside except for the air chamber and no oil was in the barrel.
atharxd1,
I have no idea what a SPA LB600 is. Can you please spell it out? And why are we not discussing this on my blog?
/blog/
Tom
B.B. Pelletier,
Its one of those Chinese air-rifles, here’s a link:
http://www.china-airrifle.com/product/showproduct.php?lang=en&id=41
I don’t know if this is an all-too-common air rifle.
Also have their B3 rifle because of it’s cheap price, In any case…
Atharxd1,
My best advice is to just shoot this rifle a couple thousand shots to break it in. I don’t know why you saw the sparks coming from your muzzle, but if you saw them at the trap, that’s common. When lead pellets hit at over 800 f.p.s. they often flash to incandescence.
B.B.
Tom
In the video you discussed a lighter pellet for a spring piston? What weights are you suggesting? Thanks for your informative videos.
Kurt,
In .177 anything from 7 to 10.6 grains. Don’t try those super-heavy pellets that weigh 13-17 grains in this caliber. They are too much for the powerplant.
Tom
Interesting point about thicker/harder skirts for springers, but how do I determine which pellets have these characteristics?
You examine them.
Tom
OK, but this information is not spec’d with the product descriptions?
…by which I mean to say, how would I select something likely to work better if I’m ordering from an online retailer, and cannot look at the skirts.
If you are ordering online and cannot see the tail of the pellet you have two options. The first is to order a pellet sampler and try as many as they provide.
The second is to read the reviews (customer) about the pellets. There are hundreds of pellet types in all calibers, but fewer than 20 are good ones in .177 and perhaps the same in .22. In .25 the JSB Kings and Benjamin pellets are the best. And in .20 there are less than 10 pellet types available. Buy them all, except for the Benjamins.
Tom