United Shot Pellets - a comprehensive review

[bennedose]

I got a request from the team at http://www.kovibazaar.com to do a review of United Shot pellets which are stocked by them. I readily agreed because it is fun and the Republic Day weekend was coming up.

Let me first complete the humdrum descriptive formalities:

Kovibazaar sent me a parcel containing 5 boxes of United Shot pellets - each of a different type - 100 pellets per box. All in 0.22

Here is an image of the packing (click on thumbnail for a larger view) - which is the standard cardboard box, but the pellets are snug in a plastic cover. That stops them from mving around and bashing against each other, but the boxes can be crushed. However they were send well protected and padded from kovibazaar and were undamaged.

Strangely, none of the boxes indicated whether the contents are round head or pointed. In fact the boxes of Power Ranger round head and pointed (image below) looked exactly the same from the outside with no indicator of head shape.

I weighed each box and compared with the weight of each pellet - and yes the labelling is accurate - each box had at least 100 pellets

The Pellets came with the following brand names and had dimensions and weights as follows:(All in 0.22 calibre)
1. UNITED SHOT Power Ranger (Pointed)

• Weight: 780 mg (12 grain)
  Length - 8 mm
  Skirt diameter: 5.4 mm
  Head diameter 4.9 mm

2. UNITED SHOT Power Ranger (Round head)

• Weight: 780 mg (12 grain)
  Length - 6.8 mm
  Skirt diameter: 5.4 mm
  Head diameter 5.4 mm

3. UNITED SHOT Dyna Special (pointed)

• Weight: 900 mg (13.9 grain)
  Length - 7.4 mm
  Skirt diameter: 5.4 mm
  Head diameter 5.25 mm

4. UNITED SHOT Super Dyna pointed

• Weight: 960 mg (14.8 grain)
  Length - 9.3 mm
  Skirt diameter: 5.4 mm
  Head diameter 5.1 mm

5. MAGNUM SHOT:

• Weight: 780 mg (12 grain)
  Length - 7.9 mm
  Skirt diameter: 5.5 mm
  Head diameter 4.8 mm

[bennedose]

Testing for accuracy:

Targets were place at a range of 12 meters and 5 shots of each pellet type were shot from three air rifles - bench rested.
1. IHP 35
2. SDB 65
3. Precihole Orion

I will simply link the images of the targets below - you don't need to see them but please go ahead if you are curious. i will pass judgement and reach conclusions in the next post

1. UNITED SHOT Power Ranger (pointed)
2. UNITED SHOT Pwer Ranger (round)
3. UNITED SHOT Dyna Special (pointed)
4. UNITED SHOT Super Dyna pointed
5. MAGNUM SHOT

[bennedose]

Conclusions:

The image below shows my overall conclusions about the performance of the pellets

• Only the Power ranger round heads showed the best grouping with all 3 air rifles
• Power ranger (pointed) and Dyna gave good grouping only with one air rifle out of three
• Magnum shot and Super Dyna performed poorly with all three rifles.

These results coincide with my overall impression that in most cases pointed pellets are the least accurate and least consistent. Round heads are generally better. I can't for the life of me understand why the United Shot company has 4 brands of pointed pellets and one of round. It is very difficult to tell them apart. In my opinion only the United Shot Power ranger (round head) are worth buying for anyone interested in accuracy, and they are available online at http://www.kovibazaar.com

Another thing is that none of the boxes indicate whether the contents are round head or pointed. In fact the bokes of Power Ranger round head and pointed looked exactly the same from the outside with no indicator of head shape.

Having said that the Dyna Special pellets are heavy (14 grain/960 mg) and performed moderately well with the SDB 65, with 4 out of 5 shots grouping closely. Grouping was OK/so-so with the others - but not too bad. So for longer ranges these may be worth a try.

[bennedose]

For a person who is new to air rifles and is testing out new and different pellet brands - it is easy for one's confidence to be shaken by the process of testing. One tends to blame oneself for poor results while standing and shooting.

But when you start getting losy grouping during testing a bench rested air rifle. one can easily start worrying that something is wrong with the air rifle. In fact the problem may be lousy pellets that go all over the place. While testingt the above 5 brands - even I started wondering if something was going wrong with my rifles. So after I finished the tests I satisfied myself that all was well by doing some test shooting with pellets that I know are accurate with each of my rifles.

Just for fun and the sake of information I post a 5 shot grouping of my Orion with Precipell pellets with a 5 Rupee coin placed near the gorup - compare with the results in the images linked in an earlier post

[AnandNair]

Good Review Bennedose.
All the pellets seem to have unfinished casting lines. smoothening of the head and removing of the casting leftover that can be seen projecting at the pellet heads may help in the pellets performing better.

[Basu]

Dear benne,
Thanks that you indulged in another time consuming study.
I have used three of their products....namely Dyna Super, Dyna Special and Power Ranger RH.
Heaviest is Dyna Super...followed by Dyna Special and Power Ranger.

I tried all of them in SDB45.FPS was less in case of Super but in terms of accuracy ....both Super and Special found accurate till 40 yds....in fact today I used Special and found bang on target.
The Power Ranger RH also suited very well in my gun ...though producing less FPE yet more accurate than earlier two pointeds.
My gun produces highest FPE with 11.6 grns pellet.

Basu

[bennedose]

Well Basu as you can see from the image below, grouping of Dyna Special was good with the SDB and worst with Orion. I am fascinated by the SDB brand. Performance for price is excellent.

[Basu]

Wow !!
It is indeed a nice grouping of Dyna Special in your SDB65.
Earlier I used Dyna Super in my SDB45 ,but that was a little too heavy for my gun, so I shifted to Dyna Special and it returns 520+fps.
As I told you earlier , I hit a 2.5" bamboo at 40 yds 7/10 with this pointed and 8/10 with RH in a calm morning.Yet ...to make the pellet even more accurate......they have to travel a lot.

Basu

[bennedose]

Wow !!
It is indeed a nice grouping of Dyna Special in your SDB65.
Earlier I used Dyna Super in my SDB45 ,but that was a little too heavy for my gun, so I shifted to Dyna Special and it returns 520+fps.
As I told you earlier , I hit a 2.5" bamboo at 40 yds 7/10 with this pointed and 8/10 with RH in a calm morning.Yet ...to make the pellet even more accurate......they have to travel a lot.

Basu

I was surprised to see how well the SDB was grouping with this brand.

[bennedose]

I had a request from http://www.kovibazaar.com to test the same United Shot pellets at longer range. As Basu pointed out - he is getting good results from United shot pellets and they apear to perform well with some rifles.

So I tested them all on my SDB 65 0.22 air rifle at 25 meters bench rested. A comparative image is linked but I will post my comments first.

All the pellets performed approximately equally well at 25 meters. All of them managed to group at least within a 4 inch square at 25 meters (27 yards) which is good for plinkers. In some cases the grouping was good enough to hit a coin in 3 out of 5 shots (see photo and measurements).

But again there were ranks. The best was Super Dyna pointed - with the tightest group of about 3 in x 3 in
Image:
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k56 ... uf7187.jpg

[aadhaulya]

This is good. Nice grouping.

Regards

[Basu]

I found in SDB 45 US pointed special 14.5 grns , super 14.8 grns and in power ranger RH 12+ grns, do quite well.
I do use special as it returns 520+ fps ,where as super delivers 480+ fps and power ranger 580+ fps.
At 120/- a box at Kolkata , it is a true value for money.
In terms of accuracy ,approx ,at 40 yds , a 2.5" bamboo is hit by RH 7/10, special 6/10 and super 5/10 times.

Basu

http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=8157

[Suyash]

Hi benne,
Such a good review. But it was all about accuracy. Can you tell me how many of them were defective?(I've had quite bad experience with master shot on this aspect)
And from the pics of the pellets that you have posted, I'm assuming that the finish was not up to the mark. It's enough to spoil the accuracy at long ranges .