Jim;Damage is a relative term.All things have lives. Springs included.Back in the days when people thought that springs had to last a generation (or more), to have to replace a broken spring after 7,000 rounds was considered "damage".In this current day and age of printer cartridges and toners, we have become accustomed to the idea of things having finite lives.A very heavy pellet will make the piston rebound, yes, but that is not the problem. The problem is that in rebounding, the piston compresses the spring, which then distends again. Extreme cases can do this three times per shot. At three cycles per shot, fatigue sets into the steel much faster than when you use the spring one cycle per shot.So, when a spring dies after 2,500 rounds of heavy pellet usage, people say your spring got "damaged".Too light a pellet and what suffers are your seals. The seals take the brunt of decelerating the piston at the end of its travel, and that energy has to go somewhere. USUALLY, it goes to destroy the seals.One aspect about springers that few people realize is that a well adjusted springer will always give you peak Muzzle Energy with the best pellet for the power plant.Some power plants are highly strung instead of being finely tuned and this makes them pellet finicky. Some power plants look for maximum muzzle velocity and then disregard the effect of excessive MV in a pellet's ballistics. BUT, for some shooters, the ONLY solution to taming down the beast is using a heavy pellet. The heavy pellet will give you lower velocity and, sometimes that improves the accuracy.As you gain experience, you will learn to LISTEN to your rifle. The sounds (and even better, the LACK thereof), usually can tell you a lot of how your gun is performing and if you can improve it.A few heavy pellets will not hurt any quality spring, so test to your heart's content. When you find a pellet that the gun likes, is when the fun starts.IN GENERAL, small compression chambers with smallish pistons (like the HW's and the AA's) work their best with pellets in the region of 8 to 9 grains in 0.177" cal. but all rifles are a law unto their own, so test. Test everything, from 7.33's to 10.5'sAlso check to see if your particular barrel likes the pellets lubed (and with what) or not.HTH and keep us posted.
I hear springs are "consumables". Just like brake pads on a car. And some cars and drivers get LONG life out the pads (little old ladies), and some cars and drivers get very short life out of the pads (think Pizza delivery). And then there's the rest of us that fall somewhere in between.No one can really predict how much life you'll get out of a spring...Is 4500 pellets a low number? Did you expect to get more life out of the spring?
My HW97K doesn't seem to care a whole lot for any of the three .177 head size H&N FTT's. So far, JSB 8.44 gr. Exacts have given very nice 30 yard groups. On a lark, I shot a five shot group of JSB 10,34 gr. Exacts this afternoon. I was very excited/please with one ragged hole that was <3/8" across.Anybody else shoot the 10.34 gr. pellets in their 97K?
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