Do heavy pellets shorten spring like?Not nearly as fast as shooting really light pellets.
Quote from: avator on May 10, 2021, 08:45:18 PMDo heavy pellets shorten spring like?Not nearly as fast as shooting really light pellets.My gut feeling is that this is correct. There's a noticeable harshness when shooting very light or loose fitting pellets. I'd think that harshness might be piston slam from the lack of resistance. There has to be enough resistance to slow the piston down towards the end of the stroke. Too much resistance it bounces. Too little it slams. I think resistance is only partly created by weight. I think pellet fit is critical to. My guess is a tight fitting 8 grain pellet may create as much resistance as a loose fitting 10 grain.If you're in tune with your gun you can feel what's hurting it. My experience is that smaller power plants can comfortably shoot lighter pellets than bigger ones. My Hw30s love 7.33s but my Hw95 makes it quite apparent it's not liking it. I stay above the 8 grain mark with 95As for going heavier I'll shoot whatever a gun shoots most accurately. I still think accuracy has lot to do with the shot cycle. IMO part of why certain guns like certain pellets is because those pellets provide the correct resistance for that power plant. It's hard to get accuracy out of a harsh gun or one that has so much bounce the piston is pulsating the driving air pressure. Not to mention the induced vibration of bouncing piston and spring mass..
Quote from: Bayman on May 10, 2021, 09:23:00 PMQuote from: avator on May 10, 2021, 08:45:18 PMDo heavy pellets shorten spring like?Not nearly as fast as shooting really light pellets.My gut feeling is that this is correct. There's a noticeable harshness when shooting very light or loose fitting pellets. I'd think that harshness might be piston slam from the lack of resistance. There has to be enough resistance to slow the piston down towards the end of the stroke. Too much resistance it bounces. Too little it slams. I think resistance is only partly created by weight. I think pellet fit is critical to. My guess is a tight fitting 8 grain pellet may create as much resistance as a loose fitting 10 grain.If you're in tune with your gun you can feel what's hurting it. My experience is that smaller power plants can comfortably shoot lighter pellets than bigger ones. My Hw30s love 7.33s but my Hw95 makes it quite apparent it's not liking it. I stay above the 8 grain mark with 95As for going heavier I'll shoot whatever a gun shoots most accurately. I still think accuracy has lot to do with the shot cycle. IMO part of why certain guns like certain pellets is because those pellets provide the correct resistance for that power plant. It's hard to get accuracy out of a harsh gun or one that has so much bounce the piston is pulsating the driving air pressure. Not to mention the induced vibration of bouncing piston and spring mass..This^^^^^
Quote from: Struckat on May 10, 2021, 10:08:51 PMQuote from: Bayman on May 10, 2021, 09:23:00 PMQuote from: avator on May 10, 2021, 08:45:18 PMDo heavy pellets shorten spring like?Not nearly as fast as shooting really light pellets.My gut feeling is that this is correct. There's a noticeable harshness when shooting very light or loose fitting pellets. I'd think that harshness might be piston slam from the lack of resistance. There has to be enough resistance to slow the piston down towards the end of the stroke. Too much resistance it bounces. Too little it slams. I think resistance is only partly created by weight. I think pellet fit is critical to. My guess is a tight fitting 8 grain pellet may create as much resistance as a loose fitting 10 grain.If you're in tune with your gun you can feel what's hurting it. My experience is that smaller power plants can comfortably shoot lighter pellets than bigger ones. My Hw30s love 7.33s but my Hw95 makes it quite apparent it's not liking it. I stay above the 8 grain mark with 95As for going heavier I'll shoot whatever a gun shoots most accurately. I still think accuracy has lot to do with the shot cycle. IMO part of why certain guns like certain pellets is because those pellets provide the correct resistance for that power plant. It's hard to get accuracy out of a harsh gun or one that has so much bounce the piston is pulsating the driving air pressure. Not to mention the induced vibration of bouncing piston and spring mass..This^^^^^Agree completely, however there is more to "accuracy" than simple group size depending on the shooting conditions. My brother got excellent accuracy at 50 yards shooting the 10.5 grain CPH, however under varying distances involved with sniping squirrels in the WV woods the trajectory had a lot to do with "accuracy at the target" depending on how accurately the holdover is guessed.Even the higher velocity .177 CPL from my Beeman R9 zero'd at 30 yards the pellet dropped 1/2" at 40 yards, 1" at 45 yards, then 1 1/2" at 50 yards and the drop for a 10.5 grain pellet is much greater. Here is the trajectory on my .177 R9 shooting a 7.9 grain CPL at about 13fpe...........Guessing the range plus/minus a couple yards past 40 yards is above my skill level so I personally opt for a mid weight pellet and limiting my shooting under field conditions to 40 yards.
Over the years I've seen it stated numerous times that shooting heavy pellets in "non-magnum" springers can cause spring damage or at least drastically shorten spring life. I never really thought about it much until a little while ago, but then I got curious...After thinking about it for a little while I realized that I couldn't really figure out why a heavy pellet would have an adverse effect on the spring. Not saying it isn't true - just wondering about the mechanics involved...
Quote from: Bes on May 10, 2021, 02:30:03 PMOver the years I've seen it stated numerous times that shooting heavy pellets in "non-magnum" springers can cause spring damage or at least drastically shorten spring life. I never really thought about it much until a little while ago, but then I got curious...After thinking about it for a little while I realized that I couldn't really figure out why a heavy pellet would have an adverse effect on the spring. Not saying it isn't true - just wondering about the mechanics involved...Not sure I'm answering your specific question,However, when I was desiring to use Crosman 10.5 heavies in my R1 back in 2020, I talked to Jim Maccari of ARH (Spring God) and he recommended I use nothing heavier than 9 grain pellets in a .177 caliber gun - irrespective of shooter hearsay .... as it reduces spring life.If you aren't worried about lessening spring life ... then forget about it.The weight of .22 caliber pellets doesn't affect the spring as much; slightly increased bore size helps with fatigue as compression chamber back pressure is reduced. Obviously, very heavy .22 pellets do the same damage. Again, springs only cost about "A 500 Tin of Quality Pellets". If you have no idea how to change out a spring, read a few posts on the GTA and or buy a ARH or Vortek spring kit. After the spring in the kit wears out, simply replace the spring for $20.
Yeah Ed,That's why I asked him. He said using heavy .177 pellets in any spring gun will diminish spring life. HW30S, HW35, HW50S, HW95 and HW80. These were his words ... I was a little surprised too, but if anyone knows ... it's Jim.
So a HW95 in 177 would have a longer life than a 20, which in turn would be longer lived than a 22, and a 25 would be shortest of all.
Quote from: Struckat on May 10, 2021, 07:35:26 PMSo a HW95 in 177 would have a longer life than a 20, which in turn would be longer lived than a 22, and a 25 would be shortest of all.It is not pellet weight that matters, but sectional density. In other words weight for caliber; or more precisely bore area.
I suspect that the smoothest shooting pellets, by sound and feel would probably also correlate with longer spring life...
The gun was just dead calm when it shot them.
Shoot the pellet that is accurate out of your rifle and makes you happy. IF that happens to be a heavy pellet and IF your spring doesn’t last quite as long then who cares because springs are cheap.