Just how accurate are these short barrel air pistols?

I was interested to see if paying for premium match grade pellets was value for money in my match pistols. So I rigged up a temporary clamp rest at 10 Metres (33ft) and tried various pellets. The answer is, in my Morini 162ie the cheap RWS Hobby pellets performed just about as well the R10 premium grade pellets. I now know that those 7's are nothing to do with the pellets or the pistol - can't imagine where the fault lies.
5 shots, outside to outside, 8.4mm

https://vimeo.com/716788324

And 5 rapid fire shots in my Aeron B96 with the same pellet.

https://vimeo.com/716764404

VERY nice to see! Thanks for posting! My "mind" goes wild with all the combinations of pellets available, with that always-present after-thought that "Brand 'y'" pellet may shoot better than the Brand x I now have... Interestingly in my experience, I have two "identical" Marauder .22s and one gets acceptable (to me ;)) groups using one brand/type pellet, with horrible results in its sister. More interesting, the "good" pellets in the sister airgun give "moderate" -- not unacceptable -- results in the other. Figure?
From this -- my thought (operative word here IS "thought" :)) is that you both have a truly have a truly wonderful air pistol which shoots both fodders well, and/or you got lucky by happentance finding two different pellets which functioned well.
I'd be curious if you were to throw a third, or forth brand in your testing?
geo

My experience shooting years of .22lr competition, and now air rifles, is that about anything shoots well at close range. When the distance is extended from fifty feet to fifty yards there are huge differences in group size. If the air pistol is going to be used at the distances tested, it probably won’t matter what pellet you shoot.

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Originally Posted by NSB

My experience shooting years of .22lr competition, and now air rifles, is that about anything shoots well at close range. When the distance is extended from fifty feet to fifty yards there are huge differences in group size. If the air pistol is going to be used at the distances tested, it probably won’t matter what pellet you shoot.

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I agree, if plinking at tin cans at relatively close range, most pellets will do the job. For more serious competition, I think pellet selection is well worth the effort, it could well mean the difference of winning a match and finishing well down the field. All International ISSF air pistol/rifle events are carried out at 10 metres and with electronic decimal scoring it's no longer good enough to just score a ten. (All ISSF pistol shooting is one handed/open sights)

As with .22lr ammunition, in general, you pay a premium for better quality but with proper testing you may find something that performs well enough without needing to sell a kidney. My Anschutz M54 shoots extremely well with Lapua Midas+ and that is what I use for Benchrest competitions - But it also shoots fairly well with Lapua Centre-x at about 2/3rds the price.

For training with the airpistol, I have been using RWS Geco match pellets - after testing I have switched to RWS Hobby, slightly more expensive but well under the price of RWS R10's

This is a five shot group at 33ft (8.1mm) .32" outside to outside with R10 pellets

http://i.imgur.com/wFOcMBWl.jpg

Five shots with RWS Hobby (8.4mm)
http://i.imgur.com/IUSC7Hul.jpg

Four other match pellets tested, Top left - Crossman Match. Top right - H&N Target. Lower left - Gamo match. Lower right - RWS Geco.

http://i.imgur.com/QeGCfi8l.jpg

The highlighted pellets are the ones I have been using for training but would only just about hold the ten ring on a good day.

When I first go into shooting premium quality air guns, I purchased a sample pack from a company (whose name temporarily escapes me) that contained twenty-five different pellets of twenty-five pellets each. All were anywhere from good reputation to excellent reputation. The very best were very good in general, but some of the “moderate” quality were almost as good as the best. At that point it came down to need, and cost per pellet. For non-competition use, the moderate ones would do everything I was going to use the gun for. OP, looks like you have some pretty good groups there.

Usually the biggest issue for pistol accuracy is the short sight radius.

Being slightly 'off' with your sight alignment has a larger and larger effect the closer the front & rear sights are to each other.
That's why rifles tend to be more accurate than pistols. It isn't the barrel, it's the sight's separation that influence it the most.
Ruger used to have an exhibition shooter that hit playing cards at 100 yards with a out of the box 2" GP100 and open sights.

I did a lot of group testing last year with two .22 air rifles at 25 and 50 yards. Premium pellets do not always yield the best groups.

I do not compete anymore, but if I did, I would do a lot more testing that I did (213 groups with one gun and 67 with the other). It takes a lot of groups to find the best once you narrow down the "good" pellets to 2 or 3 choices.

I did not do any testing a 10 meters but would think it would take even more groups to determine the "best".

I enjoyed your post.

For the last 8.5 years I have shot indoor AG bench rest comp. when we started we used 10 meter PCP pistols with scopes fired at a distance of 54 feet(not 33)
Mine was a Styer LP 2 compact with a 24X scope, pellet inspection/testing was must if you wanted to be competitive.
The two most accurate pellets were RWS R 10's and the JSB Match Diablo in .177 cal.
All pistols used in these matches would shoot 1 hole 10 shot groups that would measure on average .185 to .220.
targets are not group size or 10 ring targets but are mostly 25 shot targets where you have to connect two objects, shoot inside an object or hit a corner
or end of a line on an object or put so many shoots inside and object without the shots touching each other.
Competition is so close that we had to have a tie breaker shot to determine a winner.

I'm glad I can't shoot that well, it would be too boring.