Air Venturi, H&N, .177 Reviews

Nice quality & good shooting consistency.

Bigger quantities

Try them, you’ll like them !

Great product. Hard hitting. Love the heavier BB and the slight deformation or 'mushrooming'. About as close to a hollow point in a. .177 BB that you can get. Get knock down. Love the threaded tin container. Great turn time with Pyramid. Have bought several things from them and will continue to.

Lower the price. Always looking for a better deal. Lower the purchase amount needed to get free or reduced shipping.

There is more riccochet than I expected. Shooting from 20 feet with a Colt Defender with advertised 460fps. (Opted for more fps:/ME than blow back cycling effect).

In modern BB guns I always use at true .177inch (4.5mm)Umarex Precision Steel BB rated at (5.1 grains) and Umarex CO2 cartridges in my Umarex military replicas. However, for the older vintage military trainers you cannot use 4.5mm BBs. A steel 4.5mm BB will stick and jam the barrel on older vintage BB rifles like my Czech military VZ 35 and VZ 47. This is where the Air Venturi, H&N Smart Shot 4.5mm. (177 Cal), 7.4 Grains, Copper Plated Lead BBs excel. For the record H&N Exite Smart Shot lead, copper coated BB’s have 4.5/.177 written on the tin, but are in fact closer to 4.3mm (.169inch ). They are copper coated lead balls that work very well in the 1930s Czech (my Vz 35 and VZ 47) and the German (my Handel 310 and Anschutz 275) vintage BB rifles. Measuring a sample, the H&N Exite BB measures in at 4.2-4.3mm (not an exact 4.4mm). This is good. Continues at anything else...

Some say the tins are hard to open. The new production tins do have an easy to open screw top. These are made in Germany. These are not always available in the U.S. Last year, I had to obtain a single tin from Canada at $28 a tin. Thank You PA for reasonable costs. Stock up while you can. Order 3 and you get a free tin and a catalog - I would not change anything.

They weigh in consistently at 7.5 to 7.6 grains, approximately 2 grains heavier than the average steel BB. These lead BBs are very round and uniform in shape with most falling in the 4.2/4.3mm size and are perfect for vintage 4.4mm BB rifles. The copper cladding makes them clean to handle and there is no out of roundness to deal with. Measuring them with digital calipers gave sizes ranging from .166inch to.170inch, most measure in at .168inch to .169inch, around 4.3 mm. I do not fire these in modern BB replicas that utilized conventional 4.5mm steel BBs. I am not concerned with ricochets. I purchase these for vintage Foreign BB rifles that utilize a 4.4mm BB. They work perfect.

Great for short range shooting in doors.

Nothing

Try them you will like them.

These things are awesome. They crumble into a disfigured shot. And super cool! Heavier then normal bbs so hit harder too!

Nothing!

Awesome product! Definitely worth it for no richochets

H&N quality. They seem uniform in size but have no means of weighing them. The copper cladding makes them clean to handle and there are not lead flakes to contend with. The deformation capacity of the round balls means fewer bounce backs and my Chamption steel trap captures nearly all the rounds. I do take the extra precaution to mount my paper targets on corrugate board (a.k.a. "cardboard") for better "printing" of the round rounds, but the extra layer of corrugated keeps bounce backs also to a minimum. The primary issue seems to be supply of the SafeShot ammunition. It is just plain sold out. I have 6K of them on back order. I suspect my Oktoberfest will need to be renamed as "Springfest," or, maybe, "Summerfest?" That is, unless Diana releases the shot they actually recommend for this piece? On another note, the SmartShot works well in my Daisy Model 25 pumper. That BB smoothbore will never be a target gun, but the SmartShot works as well or better than steel shot.

Obviously, supply, supply, supply! This issue isn't, at this point, the product, but availability of the product. And...so we learn a hard life lesson....PATIENCE!

If one purchases these copper clad lead rounds, don't expect the same muzzle speed as with steel. I suspect, however, that terminal velocity, and more importantly, energy would be higher with these than with the ferrous variety.

Great BB's. Very consistent in size and weight compared to some others. Very low ricochet.

The price. They are very expensive to shoot compared to standard ammo.

Expensive ammo but worth the price for the safety factor.

I have been using these low ricochet, metal jacketed, lead BBs for years now and highly recommend them for shooting steel. That is their prime use. They work well in my Tanfoglio Witness 1911 blowback, Makarov non-blowback, and Colt SIngle Action Army. Accuracy is as good as any steel BB but bounce back is greatly diminished (not eliminated). They generally bounce back a few feet at low speed, low energy when shot at steel targets. The cost is more than steel BBs, but still miniscule compared to firearm ammunition. I use these on steel targets in my basement with great success, and a whole lot of fun! So much cheaper and more convenient than driving to a range, paying range fees, buying boxes of 9mm ammo, etc.

Nothing

I have also tried the newer frangible Dust Devil BBs, but prefer these lead Smart Shot BBs. The Dust Devils do work as advertised, but caused jams in my Tanfoglio Witness 1911. The Dust Devils are also messier as they leave a fine spray of metal dust all over my basement.

EVERYTHING

NOTHING

no need for wadcutters at close range , these things hit like a sledge hammer in my hatsan torpedo , they mushroom like crazy , even hit a coon at 25ft. almost turned him inside out , clean kill, rite between the eyes, now he looks out the other tunnel.

Works as advertised. The shot deformed and I have had no appreciable ricochets in my Gamo resetting target pellet trap.

Thankfully Pyramyd packaged the Smart Shot in a sealed envelope. The pour spout did not survive the trip but all the shot was contained within the bag.

This shot would not stay in my Daisy 880S. It rolled out of the barrel and would not stick to the bolt. I am looking forward to trying it in my Tanfoglio 1911 on steel plates.

These lead BB's are very consistent, very accurate. But mainly they cut down n ricochets from my Daisy CO2 BB pistol. With steel BB's, this pistol's velocity is hot enough to have cracked two of my back porch windows with ricochets. Ricochets with the Excite BB's are very rare, but when they happen they are very low velocity and won't crack windows.

Produce more to lower the price!

Try these out for accuracy in your BB guns, and compare accuracy with steel BB's. I have found accuracy in my BB pistols to be increased with the lead BB's.

These work well in all of my spring loaded magazines, and have fed flawlessly so far. Much better than any previous lead shot that I have tried. Not a ton of deformity, but I am using CO2 so the energy is pretty low- Bottomline is they dont bounce back and they load reliably.

Good/safer BB choice if you may want to shoot at hard / Steele targets.

They work just as advertised and engineered.

There should be an Foot per Second mention on the effectiveness, and wish the tin had a divider in the can to keep half or a quarter of the Bbs from being touched when loading taking them out. The oils and dirt from fingers add to the oxidation of them.

These offer an expansion quality not found in fragmentation bbs.

Great finish, consistency and hard hitting compared to steel. No ricochets when shooting into my bullet trap in my indoor range, so they are perfect for that.

Price could be a little less. I'm sure part of the cost is the container. They should sell these in bulk refills also, so you don't have to pay for that item every time.

I have a Daisy 415 Powerline and it holds 20 of these. I only get good velocity from two fills due to the increased weight, but it makes this pistol much more usable for indoor pest control in barns and around my house with less issues of ricochet and hits harder than the steel BB's.

short to medium range accuracy is very good Excellent hit power Like they say, no (well very, very little) ricochet Work well in every air gun I have

Seem just right

These do have more hitting power at short and medium ranges. They do not ricochet though they have a very slight bounce and in certain cases depending on what you shoot at they could ricochet based on the properties of what you shoot at. Like do not shoot a rubber tire and expect no ricochet. UnCommon Sense, Rational thought things like that.

I liked that at the time I bought the Springfield 1911, they gave them away. Can't beat that!

Good bbs, l don't see where they have any less ricochet though.

Im sure they are consistent and well made

These pellets are much smaller that 4.40mm yet they say 4.5mm on the tin? I think they are made smaller so they will fit into anything but if you gun needs 4.5 they will happily roll out the barrel.

Helps eliminate ricochet

Price is a little high.

works

nothing

good value for the money

Just what I needed.

N/A

No