Choice of Pellets for Target Shooting and Hunting.

[W.R.Buchanan]

The right choice in pellets is one of the things that is only achievable thru trial and error.

As you know from reading my other post I just got a HW35E that I resurrected from it's misused past. The gun is an absolute joy to shoot. I have had an HW35EB for 40 years. they both perform well.

I have on hand a variety of pellets that I used in my HW35EB which I purchased in 1979. These ranged from Mount Star (Japanese) Diabolo, Jet and Silver Jet all of which were sold by Beeman's back in the day. All shot well with 1/2" 10 shot groups at 10 yards with Open sights or Peep sights. These guns both have always done better with H&N Match Wadcutters and as such I have used those almost exclusively for nearly 40 years.

Surprisingly the Mount Star Diabolos shot within 1/8'' of the H&N Match pellets, they just don't leave a nice punched hole in the paper. These pellets were $2.59 for a tin of 500 back in the 80's! Those days are gone! I just opened the new tin of those, and will shoot them up eventually.

All of the 8 different pellets I grouped yesterday shot nearly the same with the best group going to the Beeman Silver Bear HP which I have had for at least 30 years. The new pellets of choice are the JSB Exacts which are heavier and yet shoot very well. The only disappointment was the new JSB Monsters (13.4 gr) which were all over the place. IN my R1 .22 the JSB Monster pellets at 25.4 gr were excellent. go figure.

Crossman Wadcutter pellets were pure garbage with mould separation lines on the sides and 1.5" groups. Paid $7 for a tin of 250 and only shot 10 of them. The only good thing about them was the actual tin which had a screw off lid.

I also had some copper plated pellets which got stuck in the bore and had to be pushed back out with a cleaning rod. I only shot 3 of them before getting 2 stuck in the barrel in 2 shots.

So for that gun it looks like the pellets of choice will continue to be the H&N Match and JSB Exacts as those will cover all the bases. I will probably continue to shoot up the others just to get rid of them.

For the .22's I have two completely different guns. An HW77 under lever, and an R1/HW80. Both guns are accurate but there is a definite difference in power. Like 100+ fps!

Both shoot H&N Match pellets well. both shoot H&N Barakudas well they both shoot JSB Exacts well, but only the R1 has enough beans to shoot the JSB Monsters well and they grouped inside of 1/2" so they will get used in pest control.

I have some pellets that have some kind of soft metal fronts with plastic rears which I have yet to try. Don't know how those are going to work?

So as you can see they only way to figure it out is to shoot a bunch of different pellets and see which ones your gun likes the best. Most will shoot OK, but some will definitely be better and those are the ones you buy more of. You can use the others for plinking until you use them up or give them as gifts.

In my opinion the H&N Pellets and JSB Pellets are the best out there. YMMV.

I highly urge you to find the good ones and stop looking, just like I do when I find a load for one of my rifles that yields acceptable accuracy. Then go shoot something with it! Endless sighting and paper punching for groups is not the purpose of any gun, except a Benchrest Rifle.

You find a load, you sight the gun in for that load, then you go shoot something.

This is the intended progression for shooting sports.

It should be noted that Pyramid Air has 19 pages of .177 cal pellets! You could spend a fortune just trying all of them out. Instead, try reading some of the reviews, they will eliminate about 95% of the choices for you.

My .02 on this subject YMMV

Randy

[MrWolf]

Good info. Thanks Randy.

[PerpetualStudent]

I highly urge you to find the good ones and stop looking, just like I do when I find a load for one of my rifles that yields acceptable accuracy. Then go shoot something with it! Endless sighting and paper punching for groups is not the purpose of any gun, except a Benchrest Rifle.

You find a load, you sight the gun in for that load, then you go shoot something.

This is the intended progression for shooting sports.

I could not agree more.

[GARD72977]

If you get a chance try the JSB Exact 7.33gr. I shoot a Tx200 tuned to 11.75fpe. All of my shooting is @ 45yds off hand. I practice for Sillhouette and just shoot the rams.

I have lots of pellets and weights. I found that the lowered power guns do better with a slightly lighter pellet. JSB make atleast 2 in lighter weights. I dont shoot wadcutter pellets at distance.

[MT Chambers]

HW 95........H&N Baracuda match in .177
TX200........JSB 8.44 in .177
Daystate Huntsman.....H&N Baracuda match 21 grs. in .22
HW 97........h&N FTT 14.66 grs. in .22
AA S510.....H&N Hunter extreme 31 grs. in .25
Daystate Wolverine.....JSB 50.1 grs. in .303 cal.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I got a chance to shoot some pellets thru my R1 yesterday and I wanted to shoot the 4 pellets I thought were going to be the best.

Results were.

H&N Match Wadcutters 1/4"
H&N Barakudas 1/2"
JSB Exact 3/16"
JSB Monster <1/2"

These were 5 shot groups shot at 10 yards over my C&H Reloading Press which is just the right height when sitting down. With a proper bench and rest it may shoot even better but that's what I had to work with for this test.

The gun is a beast to shoot and weighs nearly 10 lbs, I have to use my right arm to cock it as it is very powerful , but surprisingly every pellet shot with acceptable accuracy, but I think the JSB Exacts will be the best overall. The H&N Match were good at 10 yards but I doubt they will fly well at longer distances.

What blew me away was the group with the JSB Monsters. They are 25.39 gr and this gun shot them well. They will definitely be going hunting.

I did a similar test with the HW35EB with the peep sight last week and the .177 cal version of the Monster pellet was a shotgun pattern, I think they really need more velocity to stabilize better.

All of the other pellets I tried shot under 1/2" from both 35's with iron sights, except for the Crossman Wadcutters which were garbage and shot worse than the .177 Monsters. Everyone of those pellets has a parting line on the sides and they aren't round and are of varying sizes, which would account for their lack of accuracy. Wish Crossman would get it together, as making pellets is not that hard, or they could just repackage European pellets under the Crossman name and be ahead of the game.

The pellets that stood out in the .177's were the H&N Match which have always been good. The JSB Exacts were good too. But the best of the bunch, with a group <3/8", were some Beeman Silver Bear HP's that I have had for 20+ years. The other big surprise were some Mount Star Diabolos which I have had for 40 years and just opened a fresh tin of. They were the first pellets I bought along with my gun in 1979, and they were inside 3/8" also. These were all 10 shot groups as the guns are much easier to cock.

Anyway here's a pic of the R1's target so you don't think I'm FOS.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

OK guys,,, I shot Rimfire Silhouette today with my R1 and those JSP Monster Pellets. I had no problem knocking down chickens at 40M and Pigs at 50M as long as I could actually hit them. I don't shoot this gun very well and only managed to hit 6 chickens and 4 pigs. This was shot offhand.

I hit one turkey off a rest and didn't get even one Ram, so I shot 11/40 total. This sucked outright.

The problem is the trajectory of these mondo pellets is unknown to me at this time. I had no problem holding the windage and all my misses were either high or low and the elevation differences eluded me big time.

I tried many different holds with only limited success. The gun will shoot 100 yards easily, and as long as I can predict the elevation changes I can hit with it. All the elevation corrections will have to be internal to the scope.

Will have to go back and suss all this out when I get a chance.

Randy

[clodhopper]

I would not say six chickens and four pigs sucked big time, unless my class was AAA or Master.

That's really pretty good without putting in the range time for 77 and 100 meters yet.

[Chill Wills]

The Crossman brand can be hit and miss on good pellets even with in the same design, different lots and not always the same. I have had some very good tins of HP dome, no parting line and very accurate in the Air Arms TX-200. I only shoot 177 and know nothing about the 5mm or 22's

I have some Crossman WC target. Right! ??? bad parting lines and some I hardly can load. Accuracy stinks at 20 yards.
This rifle does not shoot the heavy pellets well. At least nothing I have used so far. Pellets in the 7-8gr range seem to work. Slightly heaver, the FTS Beemen, a domed pellet at 8.64gr really shines with out breaking the bank; as if that was a problem with a springer.

I mostly use the rifle for offhand practice and fox squirrels. No more power than this rifle has, the squirrels rarely need a second shot.