Indians For Guns

What Pellets Should I Use For My Air Guns?

This is a question that’s often been asked and the answer to this is truly very simple. Nevertheless with a large variety of brands, shapes and weights available in the market arriving at the correct choice can be a bit daunting.

Primarily air gunners by and large are obsessed with ‘Velocity’ to a greater extent than ‘Accuracy’ at least to begin with. To add to this woe, manufacturers as part of their marketing strategies claim that their product can deliver awesome velocities – which they do by testing their weapons with PBA pellets (Performance Ballistic Alloy) which are far lighter in weight.

A basic analysis will throw some light on choosing the right pellet that’s most suitable to each one’s weapon of choice.

Pellets come in many different sizes and shapes with the many designs available today. However it can be a bit tiresome in figuring out what pellet is best suited to the air gun of your choice.

Air-gun pellets have many variables but most are of the DIABOLO design, a term used to classify a pellet with a pinched waist & a hollow skirt that aids in producing drag on the pellet, just like it happens on a shuttlecock. This drag is what keeps the pellet from tumbling & aiding in accuracy.

Shooters come under 2 basic groups in Indian Context:
1.TARGET SHOOTERS
2.PLINKING / FUN SHOOTERS

TARGET SHOOTING
Most Target Shooting in competition is done at the distance of 10 meters. The air-guns used for such shooting are mechanically very precise, phenomenally accurate, and extremely smooth in shooting. They shoot wad-cutter pellets that cut a neat hole in the target card which enables officials to score more accurately to determine the better shooter.

Wad-cutter pellets have a flat head, pinched waist, and are designed to be shot at lower velocities. The need for extreme accuracy is aided by a slower moving pellet, since the pellets that approach the speed of sound (around 1100 fps) tend to get adversely affected by the sonic wave they produce at that velocity. Keeping the wad-cutter moving at a more sedate 500-600 fps or even slower, resulting in the extreme accuracy needed for formal competition.

PLINKING FOR FUN
If you aren’t shooting for extreme accuracy but simply want to knock a plastic bottle or tin can around, you have a wide choice of pellets for close-range fun shooting, but if you want to stretch out the distance, using a round-nosed pellet will help you reach out a little further. Wad-cutters are the least aerodynamic pellet available, as they shed velocity very quickly. At 10 meters it is of little concern, but for fun plinking at longer ranges, a good quality round-nosed pellet is hard to beat.

SO WHAT PELLET SHOULD YOU USE?
Keep in mind the target you are shooting, the power of your air-gun, and the type of penetration desired, and you can begin to zero in on the type pellet you will want to use. As I’ve mentioned in my earlier posts each air-gun is different so it’s best to get several different types of pellets and test them in your particular air rifle and see what it likes best.

HAPPY SHOOTING!!!
Briha

Great post Sir...Thanks a lot

-Nishith

My association with air rifles goes back many decades but I had a break of at least 20 years when I only occasionally brought out my air guns until recently. Now with the internet (and IFG) I have been re visiting shops and find that there is a bewildering array of pellets available. I actually had an old stock of nearly 1000 20 year old Mastershot round head and 25 year old Eley Wasp 5.6 mm.

It would be presumptuous of me to try and add anything to what Brihaji has wriiten. It is very easy to get bewitched by velocity but at 15 to 20 meters and beyond "light" pellets (700 mg/11 grain) are fast but give little pleasure to the dedicated plinker. You have to see, hear and feel that something is happening at a distance and for that medium to heavy pellets are best. Once again I stress that GSmith definitely deserve the reputation they have. I discovered to my pleasure that an old box of GSmith pointed pellets are vicious, consistent and deadly accurate at 20 meters with my old old SDB 50 despite the fact that it barely squeezes 130 to 150 meters per sec with heavier pellets like GSmith. It pleases me no end to set up 3 targets at 20 meters and hit all 3 with 3 pellets - including something as small as the base of a deodorant can that is just 4 to 5 cm in diameter. The "slowness" of flight is no drawback - cans still get punctured by the heavier pellets and not the light ones. In more powerful rifles like the Orion of IHP the accuracy and power are almost boringly dependable with medium to heavy good quality pellets.

The other point that Briha made is very obvious with my SDB. The rifle gives off a loud report with light pellets because the pellet gets ejected from the muzzle before the piston has hit the end and an explosion of air emerges after the pellet. Dieseling can occur if there is oil in these instances. But with heavier pellets the rifle just makes a muffled "thunk" and the sound of that can flying 20 meters away is louder. The Orion tends to make a loud "thu-tonk" because of the hollow synthetic stock.

bennedose wrote:My association with air rifles goes back many decades but I had a break of at least 20 years when I only occasionally brought out my air guns until recently. Now with the internet (and IFG) I have been re visiting shops and find that there is a bewildering array of pellets available. I actually had an old stock of nearly 1000 20 year old Mastershot round head and 25 year old Eley Wasp 5.6 mm.

It would be presumptuous of me to try and add anything to what Brihaji has wriiten. It is very easy to get bewitched by velocity but at 15 to 20 meters and beyond "light" pellets (700 mg/11 grain) are fast but give little pleasure to the dedicated plinker. You have to see, hear and feel that something is happening at a distance and for that medium to heavy pellets are best. Once again I stress that GSmith definitely deserve the reputation they have. I discovered to my pleasure that an old box of GSmith pointed pellets are vicious, consistent and deadly accurate at 20 meters with my old old SDB 50 despite the fact that it barely squeezes 130 to 150 meters per sec with heavier pellets like GSmith. It pleases me no end to set up 3 targets at 20 meters and hit all 3 with 3 pellets - including something as small as the base of a deodorant can that is just 4 to 5 cm in diameter. The "slowness" of flight is no drawback - cans still get punctured by the heavier pellets and not the light ones. In more powerful rifles like the Orion of IHP the accuracy and power are almost boringly dependable with medium to heavy good quality pellets.

The other point that Briha made is very obvious with my SDB. The rifle gives off a loud report with light pellets because the pellet gets ejected from the muzzle before the piston has hit the end and an explosion of air emerges after the pellet. Dieseling can occur if there is oil in these instances. But with heavier pellets the rifle just makes a muffled "thunk" and the sound of that can flying 20 meters away is louder. The Orion tends to make a loud "thu-tonk" because of the hollow synthetic stock.

Hi Bennedose,
> Its obvious that your ARs prefer medium to heavy pellets - Good for you - Stick to them & enjoy your shooting.
> BTW their velocity may be comparatively less - But the energy they deliver at the hit point is more - that's what's required.
> If you can manage to get 15.2gr pellets (round heads) from abroad (if you have contacts) they are the best any day.
Briha

I have two questions

1) How differently do Round Nose pellets and Pointed pellets behave ?

2) Do the Hollow Point pellets actually expand like a normal Hollow Point bullet ?


Regards

FN-Five-Seven

Dear FN-Five-seven,
As per my experience pointed pellets tend to open up more than roundhead pellets.
The ballestic coefficient being almost same for both the type,i.e. 0.025,so the drag remain equal .
In any given day ,roundhead is my first choice.
I have no answer for 2nd question.

Basu

FN-Five-Seven wrote:I have two questions

1) How differently do Round Nose pellets and Pointed pellets behave ?

FN-Five-Seven

In my experience, on the same rifle, the two types may tend to group in a different area of the target. You may find that one type groups better than the other but that can only be discovered by shooting off a few dozen of each.

On my SDB 50 - GSmith pointed are perceptibly faster to the target than Mastershot flat head pellets (naturally). But accuracy for that rifle is superb with only these two brands and no other type. As regards penetrating power (into pesky tin cans) at a distance I have found the lighter pointed pellets no better than round heads, although GSmith pointed pellets are good.

I have taken to shooting after a break of 30 years
Thanks to so much information available regarding behaviour of pellets including excellent post by Briha Ji,
Here are results ot two type of pellets in my new (untuned) IHP 35, 0.22 cal.
Pardon the use of pistol target and the large number of shots fired at a single target.

All shots from 10m, offhand standing position

1. He-Man Shot Pointed - 30 shot group - they are a loose fit in the breech, the front portion significantly smaller than the skirt.
I used them first & ended up with two loose groups which left me wondering whether I was shooting in two ways

http://vishyb.zenfolio.com/p612838644/e1b2adc80

2. Microshot, Micropoint 100, export quality, 0.22/5.6mm - 20 shot group - these are tight fit including the front portion.
The group tightened satisfyingly (for a beginner like me!)

http://vishyb.zenfolio.com/p612838644/e1b5ac088

I have ordered Mastershot export quality from Aimco & will see how they fare.
Till then it is Microshot pointed export quality for me

Cheers,
Vishwanath

As an indicator of just how many small companies are making pellets - I have not even heard of He Man shot and Microshot Micropoint. On the other hand - among the most accurate pellets that I use on my own IHP 35 are "Marshal shot" flat heads which are again practically unheard of and I have only seen one other reference to it by someone else on this forum. These Marshal shot pellets are consistent although only the skirt is a snug fit.