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Pellet Question

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 1:14 am
by Peakconti
I had a question, I shoot a steyer lg100, however my wife shoots my old Anshutz 380. They sell two different weights for pellets, I was told to use the heaver of the two in my air rifle. We purchased the lighter ones for my wife (and son's rifle). Well I was running a little short on their pellets and did not feel like ordering additional pellets since I figure I would save on shipping and order the eventually when I place a larger order.

Today, I had them both practice with my pellets, I did not notice any change in their score or the hole that that was being punched into the target. Now this is hardly sientific as they are very inconsistant with their scores hitting anyplace from a 79 to a 91, yes blame it on the coach I guess, (I shot a 95&94 today) they both shot in the low 80's. Is their any advantage or disadvantage to using the lighter or heaver pellets?

My thought was the lighter pellet would travel down the barrel at a quicker speed, perhaps giving them a higher score. If that the case then wouldn't it make sence for everyone to shoot the lighter pellets? Perhaps the heaver pellet makes them more accurate.

I think in their case their hold is not quite as good as mine, so they may benefit from a quicker pellet,

Any thoughts???

Thanks Peter

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:48 am
by robf
The prime priority of a pellet is the group it produces. Unless you're shooting at varied long ranges, there's no additional benefit of weight variation.

Time down a barrel is due to the pellet's speed, not it's weight. And the weight doesn't automatically affect it's speed. You can get two pellets of different weights performing within a few fps of each other, sometimes the same.

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:04 am
by bpscCheney
My FWB 700 seems to prefer the H&N match pistol pellet over the rifle pellets. These are 7.56 grain versus the 8.18 grain. I do notice that if I change from H&N pistol pellets to Meisterkugeln the group moves a little bit (Weight difference?) I also have much more confidence in these pistol pellets than in Meisterkugeln despite them being roughly the same quality.

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 1:05 pm
by Rover
Weight doesn't enter into it. Whatever shoots the smallest groups is the best, but that will vary from lot to lot.

I wouldn't worry too much about the whole business.

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:56 pm
by Peakconti
Thanks, for the reply, I just figured since they had pellets with different weights that perhaps there was a reason for it.

Always looking for any edge I can get

Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:18 am
by RobStubbs
Peakconti wrote:Thanks, for the reply, I just figured since they had pellets with different weights that perhaps there was a reason for it.

Always looking for any edge I can get
There is a perceived reason for it but as mentioned it doesn't always translate into practice. A lot of pistol shooters use the heavier rifle pellets, because they shoot the smallest groups. And as mentioned above, only batch testing for group size will tell what brand, size, weight and batch performs best in your gun.

Rob.