GTA
Airguns by Make and Model => Daisy Airguns => Topic started by: pblawler on January 14, 2023, 09:18:56 PM
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So I got interested in pellet making and started doing some homework. There are two methods for making pellets, swaging and casting. There aren't any diabolo swaging dies that I could find. I was able to find 22 cal diabolo molds but not 177. I found a few 22 cal options at NOE molds.
https://noebulletmolds.com/site/product-category/bullet-moulds/224/ (https://noebulletmolds.com/site/product-category/bullet-moulds/224/)
They had a Magnum Hunter mold in stock so I ordered a 2 cavity brass mold. The mold comes with multiple pins for the skirt depth to adjust weight. I have never cast lead or any other metal so I looked into it and ordered materials and equipment. Before ordering I weighted the pros and cons. The pros are it is something that I am interested in and would like to do, making my own pellets means no out of stock issues, no discontinued design issues, and lower cost. The cons are the initial cost to start, time required to actually make the pellets and most important will they shoot well. I have read where the pellets from these molds shoot well from several different guns. Pretty similar to the JSB and H&N pellets I currently shoot. Also since I take over the roll of quality control I can make them as match as I want. So I started casting.
These are pellets right after casting and before weight sorting.
(https://i.postimg.cc/j2Dzvr4n/20230114-174040.jpg)
I am still learning so currently I have a 40% scrap rate. Most of the short cast are put back in the pot during casting. Weight sorting culs probably 10 to 20%. The plus side is I can just melt them back down and try again so the only loss is my time. The picture below are the rejects from the pic above.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Xvxdbv2y/20230114-174045.jpg)
After weight sorting to plus or minus 0.1 grain from the median weight I spray the pellets with Birch Casey Barricade then roll them around. I then put half a teaspoon of Tungsten Disulfide in the bag and roll/tumble them around to completely coat each pellet. This preserves and lubes the pellets.
(https://i.postimg.cc/cJdw23cS/20230114-175113.jpg)
I ordered some tins, printer labels, and face pads for storing the pellets.
(https://i.postimg.cc/wj8h5Zy3/20230114-182139.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Dwr1x6L6/20230114-183423.jpg)
I'm going to make a lot of each weight that can be cast from this mold for testing after season. I'm hoping the other NOE 22 diabolo molds come back in stock soon.
If anyone is interested I'll provide more details on casting pellets.
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Very interested as I just bought the equipment myself.
Thanks for sharing!
We do have a Casting Gate as well... https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?board=229.0 (https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?board=229.0)
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Very interested as I just bought the equipment myself.
Thanks for sharing!
We do have a Casting Gate as well... https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?board=229.0 (https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?board=229.0)
I hope you have a good experience. I have viewed the casting gate and it has some good info but most of the discussion there seems centered around PCP guns. I posted this here to be more precisely directed toward the Daisy pump guns. I plan to test these in Daisy production barrels and readily available 22 cal replacement barrels like the FX barrel liners and Numrich barrels. My reason for doing so is so that if they work well people are aware of the possibility of doing the same, or if they do not work well to hopefully save others from an investing in a poor solution.
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All my NOE pellets for .22 cal fit the Crosmans well, I shoot a lot of the wad cutters in the winter for in door shooting with my Vintage pistols which include
the Crosman MK1, Crosman 150 type 1&2 and my Smith&Wesson 78G's.
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I had a chance to shoot some of my first batch of pellets the other day from my 822. Using JSB Heavy 18 grn pellets it shoots 670 FPS for 18 FPE. The ones I cast using the Mag Hunter NOE mold weight 22 grns and shot 615 FPS also for 18 FPS. I was getting one ragged hole at 30 yards. That's nice to know I didn't waste my money on the mold tooling. I will use these in my 1922 and order the Hunter mold when it is back in stock so I can make pellets closer to the 18 grn weight. I'm thinking I can make some in the 20 grn range which will put the speed around 640 FPS and pick up the FPE at 20. That will make one hard hitting 822 rig.
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Patrick the pellets that I cast from my NOE 217-20-RF mold average about 19.6 grain and shoot really good out of my Crosman 362 as well as out of pcp's that I have.
I think that my favorite NOE 22 cal pellet is definitely the "Hunter Magnum", they seem to really shoot excellent at a long distance doing about 900fps. I got a Crow
with one at 70 yards before.
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A few months ago I noticed I was running low on 22 cal JSB Monster pellets (25.85 grn), so I ordered two more tins. I noticed the originals were no longer available and the new ones said "redesigned" on the tin. They weighted the same so I didn't think much about it. I had the 1977 out today shooting off the bags and when I went to load one I couldn't close the bolt. At first I thought I had loaded it backwards. After looking in the breach I could see the skirt. I figured it was caught on the barrel. I finally got the bolt closed and shot. It missed the target completely. I loaded another one and same thing. I had maybe 20 of the originals left so I loaded one of them. The bolt closed without an issue and it hit bullseye at 30 yards. Tried a "redesign" again and the bolt didn't want to shut. That was three in a row if the redesigns that did that. I haven't measured them but they have to be larger in diameter than the originals. I shot three more originals and was knocking the orange out of the target. I pulled out the 23.5 grain pellets I cast and they were cutting the same hole as the original monsters. No adjustment needed to the scope. So I threw the Monster "redesigned" in the test pellet bucket and the 1922 is on a strict diet of my pellets from now on. I ordered the NOE hunter mold so as soon as I run out of JSB Jumbos I'll start casting some 18 to 20 grain pellets to test in the 822. I'm thinking the 822 with the power mod will hit 20 FPE with 20 grain pellets. I am very pleased that I got into the pellet casting business. This is exactly why I did, I find a great pellet for one of my guns then they discontinue it or redesign it and it becomes garbage for that gun. If the 1925 works out, I'll be ordering a 25 cal mold.
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Nothing like being directly responsible for the QC on ones ammo 8) ;D