NOE Pellet Testing

[rsterne]

I tested four types of NOE pellets today, all four weights of each.... In all cases the flat based solid pellets exhibited spiraling which blew open the groups at 50 yards.... The hollow based pellets shot well, with the lightest one the best, and the others weights pretty close.... This is consistent with the .25 cal NOE Magnum pellets I tested last summer.... Other guns and barrels may deliver different results.... but I think I am seeing a pattern with the NOE pellets.... All groups were shot at 50 yards from a bench with bipod and rear bag....

.22 cal Hunter - 19.7 & 21.3 gr. shot almost as good as the 1" group shot by the 18.1 gr. JSB Heavies and better than the 25.4 gr. Redesigned Monsters at 1.4".... The 22.6 gr. Hunters were worse (over 2" group), and the 25.3 gr. Hunters with the flat base were useless, only 3 hit the target.... Barrel is a LW....

.25 cal Hunter - 26.7 gr. consistently equaled the 25.4 gr. JSB Kings at under 1", and the 28.2 & 29.4 gr. were very close, as good or better than the 34 gr. JSB Heavies at 1.3".... The 33.1 gr. Flat Based solids were under 2" at 50 yd. which is the best any of the solids I have tested shot.... but they were low and right, so likely starting to spiral....

.25 cal Target - The 22.2 gr. 23.6 gr. and 24.3 gr. Wadcutters shot between 2-3" at 50 yards, and the 28.0 gr. flat-based wadcutters were dismal, only 3 hit the target.... I was not happy with any of the wadcutters in my LW barrel at 50 yards.... It remains to test them shooting in the 600s at closer range, as most wadcutters are useless shot in the 800-900s at this distance....

.30 cal Hunter - The 45.7 gr. equaled the performance of the 44.8 gr. JSBs at less than 1".... 4 of the 5 shots with the 48.4 gr. were in about the same size, but I pulled one shot.... The 49.6 gr. were under 1.5", which is what the 50.2 gr. JSBs shoot, but the 57.0 gr. flat based solids were over 2" and spiraling low and right... Interestingly, that was a smaller group than the Predator Polymags I also tested today, at 3".... The barrel is a 26" twist TJ's.... Chalk up one more barrel that doesn't like the Preds…. One more thing of interest.... The 45.7 gr. NOEs shot to the same POI as the 44.8 gr. JSBs at 50 yards, but had 1/2 MilDot less drop at 100 yards.... That should, in theory, mean a higher BC....

I am very pleased with the results with the NOE Hunter cast pellets…. The best of them rival the JSBs, which shoot the best of all the pellets I tried previously in all three of these guns.... The heavier NOEs are right in there with other brands of pellets I have previously tested in these barrels, and better than many.... but I have yet to find a gun that likes the flat based solids.... The HB NOE Hunters are certainly worth trying when you are doing pellet comparisons of various brands to see what your PCP likes....

Bob

[HollowPoint]

What's the twist rate on the barrel used to shoot the .22 cal pellets? You're starting to make me feel glad I held off on buying one of these molds. Well, not really holding off; just circumstances arose from some pin-head teenager crashing his momma's car through my back yard fence meant that the money I had saved up to buy the 22 caliber mold was diverted to fix my fence.

What velocities were you getting with the weights you were shooting. Perhaps that even with the same twist rate as your test rifle, if the velocity is a bit faster (or slower) it will tighten up the groups.

I know that the performance of an entire line of pellet molds cannot be judged by the results of testing in just one air rifle but, I was really looking forward to the usual good results we've become accustomed to from NOE molds.

HollowPoint

[rsterne]

The LW barrels in the .22 and .25 cal are their standard 17.7" twist.... The 3 guns are all tuned to shoot 960 fps with the JSBs I usually use, so they are a bit less than that with the lightest NOE, up to significantly less with the heaviest, flat-based ones.... Those solid pellets in .22 and .25 cal are just slightly lighter than the 25.4 gr. Monster and 34 gr. King Heavies.... which would be shooting about 810-830 fps....

I have no doubt that spending some time adjusting the velocity to find the optimum with the three different weights of NOE skirted pellets could improve the groups, just as it does with any pellet.... I wasn't happy with the wadcutters, but when was the last time you shot wadcutters at 50 yards around 900 fps with accuracy?.... I never have....

Will these pellets shoot lights out in every gun?.... Probably not, but that applies to every pellet I have ever tried.... However, they shoot better than many of the pellets I have tested, and the best are on a par with the JSBs, which in these three rifles were my pellet of choice.... Eventually, when I get my LabRadar, I will be able to assess the BC of them, and when I retire in a couple of years I hope to have the time to fine tune the lightest versions (which show the most promise) to my guns....

Bob

[MT Chambers]

I have been unable to come close to the top accurate pellets with my cast pellets, in .30 cal. they save money but don't come close to either the 44 gr. or 51 gr. JSBs in my Wolverine. Most bought pellets outshoot my .25 cal. cast(NOE) in my AA510Fac. In .22 cal. both my Huntsman(PCP) and HW97 (springer) shoot various JSBs and H&N pellets better than NOE cast pellets. All are very accurate airguns and I have tried all the dif. alloys, dif. skirt lengths(diff. pins), but no joy, except cost savings but it will take a long time to pay off those molds. Meanwhile I'm using my most accurate pellets, usually JSBs and H&Ns.

[HollowPoint]

It sounds like a set of pellet swaging dies may be the way to go. I actually made such a set of dies but my tolerances were no where near as accurate as I would have liked so I too had poor results with the pellets I was swaging.

Perhaps with more rigid and accurate milling machine I may have been able to fabricate a set of dies that would mimic the store bought pellets in terms of accuracy but my metal working machines are basically hobby machines. If I take great pains to get the tightest tolerances I still fall short of what I'm shooting for. The pellets I was swaging were only accurate out to twenty yards or so; past that distance and accuracy went down the tubes rather quickly.

It's hard for me to visualize what it is about cast pellets that would make them not be as accurate as the store bought pellets.

HollowPoint.

[35 shooter]

There are at least a few guys over on the GTA site having great results according to their posts in the hunting section.
I have’nt ordered a noe mould yet, but still want to give one a try. They’ve sold out of the one I wanted for now.

[HollowPoint]

Ideally it would be nice to have access to some test pellets in the various weights cast from one of the molds we're interested in just to see if such a purchase would be warranted. I have no doubt that the molds themselves are top quality but as with store bought pellets, some shoot well out of a given air gun and some do not.

I wonder if NOE would consider putting together a pellet pack like those made available for sale from some of the pellet manufacturers? This way prospective buyers could try before they buy.

HollowPoint

[MT Chambers]

I don't think that a cast pellet will be as consistant as a swaged pellet, this is from a guy that casts for most everything. It may be different with slugs, which are closer to our cast boolits, my guns don't like slugs at all. All pellets including the ones used by Olympians are made by swaging mostly pure lead.

[rsterne]

I tested the .22 cal Magnum Hunters today in my Regulated Disco Double.... It is tuned to shoot the 25.4 gr. Monsters at 960 fps.... The wind got really silly, but I saw the same trend, the lighter pellets (23.2 gr. and 24.6 gr.) shot the best, the 26.3 gr. with the shallowest base cavity were significantly worse, and the flat based 29.1 gr. solids were hopeless.... There may be some barrels out there that will shoot the solid pellets, but I haven't found any yet....

Incidently the Redesigned Monsters shot a bit better than the old cylindrical ones, and also hit slightly higher on the target at both 50 and 100 yards....

Bob

[rsterne]

I continued my NOE pellet testing today.... I tested the .25 Magnum Hunters in my .25 cal regulated BRod, which is tuned to shoot the 34 gr. JSB Heavies at 950 fps from its LW Polygonal 17.7" twist barrel.... Once again, the flat-based solid NOE pellets were useless, they were beginning to spiral at 50 yards, and you couldn't keep them on the paper at 100.... In addition to the JSB and NOE pellets I also tested some 36 gr. Daystate pellets.... The JSBs were the best, shooting a 3/4" 5-shot group with 4 pellets touching at 50 yards.... but the Daystates were the worst, even worse than the solid NOEs, only 2 shots hit the target at 50 yards, I estimate the group was about 5".... The best of the NOE pellets was the mid-weight 37.0 gr. at about 1", very close to the JSB Heavies.... Next best was the 35.0 gr. NOE at about 1.5" and the 38.5 gr. was starting to open up at about 2.5".... When I was sighting in at 100 yards, the JSB Heavies put 4 shots in a inch, but then the wind came up and when I tried to repeat that I got a group 1/2" high but 4" wide, extending downwind.... The 35.0 gr. and 37.0 gr. NOE pellets were about 2" groups, and printed higher at 100 yards than the JSBs.... They also printed higher at 50 yards, so the different POI is likely barrel harmonics....

I also tested the 41.7 gr. BBT FN bullets and the 39.5 gr. HP version as well.... These were cast in the larger size 0.253/0.255" mould, and shot as cast, so they are probably too large for best accuracy in this barrel.... They were a little snug on chambering, and shot about 2" groups at 50 yards.... I am confident that properly sized they would improve a lot....

I also took out my new .357 cal regulated BRod today.... It has a 27" long TJ's barrel of 26" twist, with a 5/8" OD high-modulas CF sleeve on it.... This gun is tuned to shoot 77.6 gr. JSBs at 900 fps, and would put 5 into 1" at 50 yards, which with such large pellets is basically a ragged hole.... This gun shot all the NOE pellets well, with the heavy-weight 89.8 gr. the best, tighter than the JSBs, with 5 shots into 3/4".... The 79.6 gr. NOEs were just over 1", and the 84.8 gr. NOEs shot 1-1/4" (still a great group) but the 99.3 gr. solids opened up to 2".... I also shot some 80.7 gr. EPP-UGs from an Accurate mould, and at 50 yards they shot as tight as the 77.6 gr. JSBs, but at 100 yards they opened up to 5".... I also had some of the newer 81.0 gr. JSBs, and they shot a 1.5" group at 50 yards, not quite as good as the hollow-based NOEs.... All the hollow-based NOE pellets and both weights of JSBs all shot about the same at 100 yards, with about 2-2.5" groups, but the 99 gr. solids were starting to spiral, and grouped like the EPP-UGs at about twice that size....

I am still seeing the same trend with all NOE pellets, I have yet to find a barrel that likes the flat-based solid pellets.... Most guns seem to prefer the lighter pellets, but this .35 cal liked the heavy ones, so it is worth trying all the different HB pins when casting NOE pellets to see what your gun likes.... If anyone gets the solids to work, please let us know....

Bob

[35 shooter]

Bob,

Thanks for posting all of your results with the noe pellets. I’ve found it very informative. I will be grabbing one or two of them on Al’s next run in 22 cal.

I expect there to be a bit of a learning curve casting pellets vs. boolits, such as ladle vs. bottom pour, pressure pouring,etc.
Anyway, I want to give it a try.

[Little Doc]

I read this with interest. I bought the noe 4 cavity in .25. I have a new air force condor in .25. I have been shooting the cast pellets with poor groups with flyers. Today I shot jsb pellets and at 30 yds the group went from 1.5+ with the noe to .500 with the jsb. I am wondering if sizing would help. I see it mentioned. How is it done with the head and the skirt different sizes?

[rsterne]

I haven't talked to anyone who has needed to size the NOE pellets, as you say, not an easy thing to do with any pellet with the head and skirt being different diameters (all pellets are made this way)…. Flyers are generally caused by poorly filled out skirts, or some other inconsistency in casting....

Bear in mind, all barrels have their own favourite pellets, it is not unusual to have such differences show up between brands in a given gun, or even barrel....

Bob

[rsterne]

Today I tested the NOE .30 cal Magnum Hunter pellets in my .30 cal Disco Double.... This gun has a 26" twist TJ's barrel and a Cothran valve, and I was shooting it tethered, tuned to 960 fps with the lightest 59 gr. NOE pellets.... I tested the 59 gr., 62 gr. and 65 gr. hollow base pellets, having determined previously that the 73 gr. flat based pellets were useless.... I also shot some of the 50 gr. JSBs for comparison, but to be fair they were over 1000 fps.... The 65 gr. was shooting about 910 fps and the 62 gr. about 940....

At 50 yards, I got the following for 5-shot groups....

50 gr. JSB.... 1.80"
59 gr. NOE.... 1.13"
62 gr. NOE.... 1.65"
65 gr. NOE.... 0.88

However, when I tested at 100 yards, the 65 gr. pellets spiraled wildly out of control, only 3 hit the target paper.... So, even though they shot the best at 50 yard, they were useless at 100.... The best groups at 100 yards were with the lightest NOE pellet, the 59 gr....

Bob