I am of the one shot, one bullseye school with air guns. More specifically, when I take a gun off the rack to shoot it, I have to know with certainty where that pellet is going to hit.Can anyone give me a list of equipment (and where to get it) that will insure me that each pellet in a tin meets specs and is consistent with other pellets in the tin? I am not the bashful type that would not send the bad pellets back to a dealer under their 30 day guarantee. If everyone stood their ground and did the same, the dealer would make sure that they were being shipped quality product. After all, the manufacturers depend on the dealers to get their product to us.
Quote from: OP on June 21, 2016, 03:13:32 AMI am of the one shot, one bullseye school with air guns. More specifically, when I take a gun off the rack to shoot it, I have to know with certainty where that pellet is going to hit.Can anyone give me a list of equipment (and where to get it) that will insure me that each pellet in a tin meets specs and is consistent with other pellets in the tin? I am not the bashful type that would not send the bad pellets back to a dealer under their 30 day guarantee. If everyone stood their ground and did the same, the dealer would make sure that they were being shipped quality product. After all, the manufacturers depend on the dealers to get their product to us.Would be nice if it worked that way. I have worked for companies that wanted to cut costs, So we bought a truck load of TiO2 from China, The samples they sent were GREAT. We paid 1/2 when we ordered 1/2 when it hit the US dock. Got it into our plant and it was very low grade stuff that was very difficult to work off. We were out the money, but rest assured they had plenty of other customers they could sell the stuff to because so many people want to save a buck.
I admit I will go to some pretty absurd lengths to obtain better accuracy. I tried sorting pellets for a while and found some benefit from it when dealing with mid-range pellets like Crosman and RWS. Cheapies like Daisy and Gamo didn't show enough promise to be worth the effort. With better pellets like JSB/Air Arms and H&N, I didn't find any meaningful improvement at all, and those were the ones that consistently grouped best in a variety of rifles from $50 pumpers to $500 PCPs. Not to say every tin grouped equally well or anywhere close to it, and not that a premium brand doesn't put out some bad pellets from time to time, but when I found a batch a particular rifle shot really well (e.g. ragged holes on the 43 yard target), it shot every pellet in the tin well without having to sort. For some pretty compelling evidence, read up on Mike Niksch's (MichaelThomas on GTA) posts regarding sorting within the last year or so. As the designer and maker of wildly successful benchrest rifles, he was a proponent of it and used some pretty sophisticated equipment to characterize and sort pellets. You'll see that in some of his older posts. But he eventually came to the conclusion that it was more effective to sample batches of pellets and just use the ones that grouped best straight from the tin. He pointed out there are plenty of competitors that sort pellets but the ones that take home the trophies are seldom those guys Please don't get me wrong. I don't want to disparage anyone who gets a benefit from sorting. Again, from my own experience I think it helps when there are wide, measurable differences within a tin. Not everyone has the disposable income to buy a $15 tin of pellets just to try them, and then another, then another until they find one their rifle really likes. But even for a unrepentant cheapskate like me, I find it to be a false economy.
I ordered 2 tins of 4.51mm FTT about a month ago to shoot in my HW77K that loves them. Well, they shot terrible.I measured both tins and all the pellets were 4.54-4.55mm head size. I had to give them away...
Quote from: OP on June 21, 2016, 03:13:32 AMI am of the one shot, one bullseye school with air guns. More specifically, when I take a gun off the rack to shoot it, I have to know with certainty where that pellet is going to hit.Can anyone give me a list of equipment (and where to get it) that will insure me that each pellet in a tin meets specs and is consistent with other pellets in the tin? I am not the bashful type that would not send the bad pellets back to a dealer under their 30 day guarantee. If everyone stood their ground and did the same, the dealer would make sure that they were being shipped quality product. After all, the manufacturers depend on the dealers to get their product to us.Well you can get one of these for about $400-$600. THE most accurate way to measure head size on .22 and .25 calibers. It's a Lead Head built by Ray Pratt:And for a more crude approach, which is usually "close enough", you can get one of these for $50. But you will need one for each caliber. Made by Pelletgage:And for weight, you will need a quality scale, like the ones that guys use for reloading. A good one will run you $40-$200. Here's one from RCBS for around 100 bucks:I don't know if you have ever measured 500 pellets, one at a time, in a single sitting. I have done it ONCE with my Lead Head device shown above. I doubt I will ever do it again. I didn't gain much for the painstaking effort. It's about the fastest and most accurate way to do it, and it is still a huge chore. The Pelletgage is a little slower, but does the job just not as accurately. And as for weight, I don't even bother if the pellets look consistent. But i know a lot of guys that do, and find some pretty good and bad results...