Boolits for air rifle

[boltaction308]

Has anyone ever either cast or swaged boolits for a .177 air rifle?
If so I would like to hear about it.

[tazman]

There is an air rifle forum on the site. You can probably find more than you ever wanted to know there.

[303Guy]

Look under; Forum =˃ Guns & Shooting =˃ AirGuns

[melloairman]

Has anyone ever either cast or swaged boolits for a .177 air rifle?
If so I would like to hear about it.
I ordered a die from David Corbin and after 2 years of waiting I canceled the order . After swaging some 25 caliber air rifle bullets . To many issues to deal with . Lots of bearing surface to name one . Ended up selling the Corbin press and the 25 and 38 dies here on the forum . Lost a lot of money on the venture . Been casting ever since . I do not know of any one that makes a .177 mold and I think it would be a challenge to use it .Marvin

[GhostHawk]

There is a person in the UK that was selling a mold/swage combo but it was quite pricey.

I decided that if I bought pellets to equal that dollar amount that the odds of my ever being able to shoot them all would be quite small.

So I stocked up for my main shooter, a 5mm Sheridan from the mid 70's. Over 3k of those about 1500 of .22's for my pair of crossman 1322 pump up pellet pistols and I didn't buy many .177's I have most of a 6k jug of BB's I figured that was good enough for killing mice. Anything bigger I prefer the Sheridan's range and accuracy.

Although I have to admit the 1322 with the shoulder stock and a nice old simmons red dot will give the Sheridan a run for its money.

Here is the info if your really interested in cutting the cord.

http://nomad-pelletmaker.weebly.com/
For me to get the double .20 (5mm) .22 kit is 175 British pounds, that is a LOT of pellets.

[calinb]

Given the difficulties in swaging diabolo air gun pellets (which work the best in low-power subsonic air rifles) and the accuracy problems with other air rifle pellet home hobby production designs (including the pellets produced by the English chap's dies), I wonder if shooting cast lead "BBs" isn't the best option. Though it would be challenging to cast such small shot, the Sharp Shooter USA .20 cal. molds (T shot) should be just about right for a .20 cal. air rifle bore and the .22 molds (F shot) would produce round pellets that would probably drop at least .002" too large to chamber. However, I think I've been able to drop undersize bullets from larger centerfire bullet molds about .002" under by using a good coating of Frankford Arsenal Drop Out.

Lead "BBs" would not provide a long range pest control solution but, from muzzleloader big game hunting, we all know that round balls hit hard!

Even at $2 per lb. for lead, for qty.=500 (typical pellet tin size), these 11.5 gr. round pellets in .20 cal would cost $1.64 and the 15.8 gr. .22s would cost $2.25. I don't want to think about casting .177. Besides, I can still get a 500 count tin of good quality diabolo .177 pellets for under $5 but .22 rounds for less than half the cost of .177 rounds interests me.