Sorting Pellets Round 2

Ok, this time I did a more elaborate shooting test. I shot 20 targets five shots each. Bags of ammo were randomly numbered so I didn't know what I was shooting. I then plugged the data into excel. I toyed with eliminating flyers but I'm not really sure that was helpful. So I charted it with flyers included and with them eliminated.

I kinda know what I made of the data. I'm wondering what others will see.

This was shot with a steel trigger Gamo Whisper 177 with a 3-9x40 scope on 5.5X at ten yards. I used a pillow on a 55gallon steel drum. I was going to use a vice but it would have taken forever to shot a hundred rounds, the pillow was a lot faster and nearly as good.

Hi Walter,

I think most people tend to test many different pellet types first, to find one or a couple that shoot the most accurately.  Domed pellets usually are the most accurate at long ranges, so I test those first in my guns.  Generally, if you find that "one" (or a few types) of pellet that shoot well consistently, especially at range, the head size variances don't really affect that much, unless you are really looking for cutting-edge accuracy.

Your chart was fine, and I did notice slightly better groups with smaller head sizes too.  It could show a general preference for smaller sizes.  But I say, shoot lots of different pellet brands, and then perhaps work on which head size is "best" for that gun. 

You can buy a pellet sampler with different shapes and weights of pellets from the straightshooters website.  I've meant to get one myself, as it has a wide variety of them. 

Either way, keep testing, more info is definitely good!

I may have to order some of those samplers. There's a guy on ebay doing the same thing:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=pellet+sampler+assortment&_sacat=0&_odkw=pellet+sampler&_osacat=0

Wow, extensive testing.  Thanks Walter.

Interesting that you found the looser sizes more positive.

Good stuff.

In my opinion, sorting pellets as a normal function is not worth it. Your better off paying $2-3 more for your pellets and getting ones that you don't have to sort. CPHPs are all over the place from 4.46 to 4.56. That's quite a drift. I do understand that the boxed Crosman Premiere pellets are much more consistent, but I haven't bought any as of yet.

I used the broad spectrum of their sizing to find out what sizes my gun likes. Then I found some pellets in that size range and surprise, surprise, it likes them very well. RWS pellets instead of being +/- 0.10 are more like +/- 0.01. I think most of the other makers are also like this. Some of them even tell you that their pellets are 4.52 for example. I just opened up a tin of Beeman pellets and although their not as consistent (+/- 0.02) they are mostly coming up around 4.49. I'm going to try shooting them and see how they do. The RWS my gun likes are around 4.48.

This all started when I noticed that some pellets were tight and some were loose when I put them in the breech of my new break barreled pellet rifle. It didn't take long for me to correspond the difference in the loading to the difference on the target. A lot of the "flyers" seem to be generated by pellets that fit differently.

Sorting CPHPs you can get pellets that shot well out of your gun, but if you sort 500 and only get 200 that shoot well you really might as well have bought better pellets.