They aren't as accurate due to aerodynamic factors of round shapes vs that of pellets. The Airmaster77 (iirc) has a rifled barrel, and shoots both pellets and bb's, and still the bb's won't be as accurate coming out of the same gun and barrel.
Quote from: lizzie on August 18, 2017, 07:49:42 PMThey aren't as accurate due to aerodynamic factors of round shapes vs that of pellets. The Airmaster77 (iirc) has a rifled barrel, and shoots both pellets and bb's, and still the bb's won't be as accurate coming out of the same gun and barrel. Any gun that shoots both will never shoot BBs well. BBs are .175" not .177.
Quote from: StevenG on August 18, 2017, 08:23:06 PMQuote from: lizzie on August 18, 2017, 07:49:42 PMThey aren't as accurate due to aerodynamic factors of round shapes vs that of pellets. The Airmaster77 (iirc) has a rifled barrel, and shoots both pellets and bb's, and still the bb's won't be as accurate coming out of the same gun and barrel. Any gun that shoots both will never shoot BBs well. BBs are .175" not .177.So would the H&N lead bb's be .175" or .177"? This answers a question I never sought an answer for concerning a lower end BB pistol I really enjoy shooting (not that I shoot it that much however) and found Gamo .177 lead balls (bb's?) shoot very accurately in, and do not ricochet (much) out of my trap. The gun is a Sig Sauer SP2022 with a 23 rd magazine. The issue I have with the .177 lead balls from Gamo, was/is I have to hand load the mag and about 40-50% I can't load in the mag as they are too big. The balls actually mic out from .1755/.177", and anything .1755" - .176" the magazine will load and the pistol will fire. So now I know that the mag and gun are expecting .175" +/- a smidge, but not .177". The gun is still pretty accurate with steel bb's, but it's really accurate with the slightly oversized lead bb's. The pics are with shooting with the lead bb's at somewhere between 21 -25'. It was over 7 years ago at my previous house in the basement range I had set up. The tight groups that ate out the larger holes are slow fire standing off hand, and the slightly larger 2-3" groups around the orange was slightly faster, like 2 shots per second. It's amazing what lack of recoil does to relax any flinch or trigger control. "
With all due respect, shooting steel shot at 20-25 yards accurately is not impossible. It takes a 499, shooting Avanti BBs and a spring change to increase the MV. The supplied peep sight adjustment range is inadequate for that range, so that, too, needs addressing. But anyone who actually tries this combination will see what I and others have seen.The 'problem' with this is the 499 is a single shot muzzle loader, not a repeater. And steel BBs are light weight so wind affects them easier than pellets.
Not saying it is impossible. But is it even close in cost to my $30-worth of Crosman 760? Not in the slightest. And that's my point. I can buy regular old pellets by the box, load them, pump my 760 6 or 8 or 10 times and whatever I point at gets hit without having to do anything other than swap out the MK177 rifled barrel in place of the smoothbore. I even made a thread on it.In other words, it would - as I explicitly stated- be waste of time. Spending all that money on a high-dollar BB gun with a diopter sight, precisions BBs, and still be extremely limited regarding power levels at that range even after using a stiffer spring without spending beau-coup more money would be pointless for me.Is the "time right for a repeating precision BB gun shooting lead BBs with accuracy"? Maybe for people who have nothing better to spend their money on. But I would consider that a vanishingly small group of people.