What pellet? Is it in the mind

[long jon]

Hi Guys
I am new to air rifles. Sites like this are very valued.

I would welcome guys comments on the following discussion:

I have read a lot about pellets and the reason they are chosen by the shooter. Mostly its what suits the gun. But I was wondering how much mind-play features in the choice. If you think a particular brand/style of pellet gives you your best results, then this will build you with confidence and no other pellet will do. If you have to use an alternative pellet, I believe your mind is already telling you the result will be poor.
My wife plays golf and will play with a Srixon ball only. Any other and her game goes to pot. She agrees it is probably all in her mind but says - what the heck, if that's what it takes to get a good score then so be it.
long jon

[TenMetrePeter]

If you want to win FT national comps then the choice of pellet make AND batch number seems to be important.

At 10 metres my MPR will shoot anything.

[tonyc]

Confidence in the gun makes a difference and, when it comes to marginal improvements, I think preferences for a particular pellet can have an influence on performance. Sometimes I find it difficult to decide if a stray pellet is a flyer or a pulled shot, and I think there may be a tendency to give the pellet the benefit of the doubt if it's brand or batch you have confidence in.

But there's no doubt that some pellets just don't suit some guns and some guns are more pellet fussy than others. And as you increase the range the differences become more apparent.

I think the best way to compare pellets is blind testing - not so easy with single loading because you can often feel the difference - but if you get someone else to load mags you can get a fair comparison. As a frequent tester (it's a bit of an obsession) I have often found that results can be reversed with changes in conditions, testing order, lucky/unlucky groupings, etc. So it's important to test with enough shots and repeat the testing several times to see if the results are consistent.

[Blackbaronfish]

In my opinion you can’t just try 50 pellets of each type and decide one is better than the other.
You really need to put a tin of each down range. Give the barrel a pull through before each tin.

If you don’t do the above you will never have result that are repeatable.

BBF

[143granville]

its try them till you find what is best for your gun.
see if any stay consistent .

[Outandabout]

its try them till you find what is best for your gun.
see if any stay consistent .

Like Granville said try them till you find what you think is best.
It definitely gives you more confidence if you know you are using the pellet best suited to the gun.
Kevin

[Archer50]

I used to think that pellet fussiness was a mental rather than a physical thing, and I am sure there is a big mental element that is mainly about confidence. The first time I realised just how big a part pellet choice plays was when I tried an FX Bobcat II. It was a truly sh***y gun in so many ways, but that's another story. Shooting off a rest at 45 yards indoors the difference in group size between the best and worst pellets I tried was massive. Die 42 Exacts produced a 22 mm group (which is itself pretty poor), but the best I could get with RWS Superfields was a 45 mm scatter. Just recently a member on here thought there was something wrong with his brand new S410 which was doing a fair imitation of a shotgun and he was being advised to regulate it or send it back - then he tried Air Arms pellets and the problem went away.

None of my current guns are as fussy as the Bobcat, but there are very real differences not just between makes, but as someone said, between dies and batches of what is supposed to be the same pellet. And it's not safe to assume that what works best indoors will do the same outdoors, in the wind, or that my S400 will perform best with the same pellets as yours.

It all depends what you are trying to achieve, but if you want the best you and your gun are capable of, invest some time and, unfortunately, money on finding the best pellets for you - although to make life simpler, if you are shooting an AA gun, it will probably be AA pellets.

Alan

[TenMetrePeter]

It isn't always the barrel. I bought a BSA Super 10 in the 90s and it hated my usual pellets. Turned out the magazine was shaving a piece out of the head and skirt on short pellets. Sickening, having spent good money and find 3 inch groups at 25 yards!

[tonyc]

If you take the trouble to measure pellet dimensions you can get an insight to why different brands and batches perform differently. I measure weight, length and head size.

To measure weight accurately you need expensive scales but cheap scales can give you an accurate average and mean variation if you weigh 10 at a time. It's fairly easy to measure pellet length with a micrometer or vernier. Measuring head diameter is difficult because they are usually not exactly round and have die marks. I bought a Pelletgage which is basically a sheet of stainless steel with precision holes in 0.01mm steps. I wouldn't recommend you buy one as they are expensive and I expect there are cheaper conical measures available. But they do show how much variation there is within batches and between batches.

I've found JSB-manufactured pellets (this includes AA branded) to be more consistent within a batch than any other make. And there is good consistency between different JSB batches from the same die. The die number is the first digit of 7-digit batch numbers, the first two digits of 8-digit batch numbers.

You can't rely on the stated head size. For example I've measured pellets marked 4.52 that are smaller than some marked 4.51, and I've found same die number, same measured dimensions sold as both 4.51 and 4.52.

I know other shooters who sort and/or resize their pellets. I've tried sorting but not found the effort makes a measurable difference to results with JSBs (it does with some other makes with greater variation in the tin). So my advice, like other members, is to find a couple of batches that work, then stock up, and if you can't get the same batch try to get the same die number.

[gary martin]

agree with TonyC pellets of the same manufacturer vary from batch to batch.