Accuracy pellet vs bb ????

[GhostHawk]

Considering that the vast majority of BB's available now are steel. Yeah.

Considering that "Most" people with "I've got a cheapie air gun" are not going to the trouble of finding lead BB's.

Yeah, possible, but highly unlikely.

[lrdg]

Sorry, I should have read the rest of the responses before asking. It really is my problem because I inherited a couple mason jars of lead bbs from my grandfather back in the sixties, and am sort of fascinated by the idea. One of these days grandpa's stash will be used up and I will have to find some more. In retrospect I came off as much more a jerk than I intended.

[Multigunner]

Shot shell lead BB size shot is .18 diameter, modern steel air gun BBs are .175 or there abouts, some being smaller than that.

If an air rifle isn't very strong .18 BBs can get stuck in the bore.
If the gun generates very good pressure it should swage the over size .18 shot deep into the rifling and give good accuracy. If the action has the leverage to force the lead shot into the origin of rifling it will pre engrave and be more accurate.

Lead shot won't be picked up by magnetic probe tips, so can fail to feed properly. Lead airgun shot that's the same diameter as steel shot would likely just roll out of the barrel if you let the muzzle drop below the horizontal.

Besides lead BB shot there are now copper coated BBs with a soft alloy core, intended to reduce likelihood of ricochets. These flatten when hitting hard targets.

I've compared a Gamo Lead BB to a steel BB in shooting at thin steel. The steel BB left a jagged rimmed exit hole while the lead BB punched an extraordinarily precise hole with clearly defined ridge around the exit point.

Some Russian semi and full auto CO2 guns were designed for use with lead BBs and a rifled barrel, but results were mixed. The lead BBs often became deformed and stuck in the bore.

All other things being equal a lead BB should carry further and be slightly more accurate than a steel BB.

An Italian goldsmith and inventor named Benvenuto Cellini claimed to have shot the Prince of Orange while the latter was inspecting troops preparing an assault on his city far outside the range of muskets with lead balls by using a solid gold bullet. The extra density reducing the Bernoulli effect, allowing the ball to go further with less deviation.

[halvey]

I have a Gamo Big Cat 177 I got at a farm and fleet. I can get 1" at 25 yards with the Gamo match ammo. But with the "hunter" ammo it opens to about 2 or more inches. It's very ammo sensitive.

[halvey]

(hit enter too fast...)

I did once hit and injure a rabbit enough at 30 yards with a cheap Crossman shooting BB's.

Once.