Updated $8.18 per 500 pellet can: RWS Supermag .177 wadcutter 9.3 grain

[nced]

Ed, just a heads up, your comments got me thinking about this topic again and I wanted to solicit comments so I started a “pellet musings” topic https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=151446

Thanks for the "heads up"!

[subscriber]

makes me wonder why JSB even labels the tins with head sizes in the first place

To the placebo effect, perhaps

[nced]

Nifty!

Those Benjamin HP pellets were even cheaper at Walmart a few weeks back; if my memory is not playing trick on me.

I

Ed, honestly that's one of the best groups I've seen from the .177 hollow points in recent years.  You may have won the lottery with that tin.

I gotta "fess up"! I forgot that I washed and lubed my Benjamin HPs. Both tins of BHPs had a lot of swarf in the tins and here are a few pics.
My lubing tray after dumping out the lubed BHPs...........


All BHPs were washed and this is the swarf that didn't go down the drain when the detergent was rinsed from the pellets using hot water..........

[subscriber]

nced, what's your lube of choice?

[avator]

Apparently not graphite.

[nervoustrigger]

Ed, thanks I was meaning to ask if you had done anything to them.

For what it's worth, I've cleaned and lubed almost every tin over the last few years and there was some improvement from doing it really vigorously to remove the flashing and parting lines, but the groups still aren't as good as the pellets they made a few years ago straight from the tin.

Most of you guys have probably seen these threads but just in case:
Better accuracy by deburring pellets
Crosman, what happened to your pellets?

[subscriber]

While the point of this thread is saving money,  this "offer" is so far from that goal, it just has to be seen and sneered at:  $421.44 for 6 boxes of 1250 Crosman pellets: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B07DGHFHKP/ref=olp_twister_child?ie=UTF8&mv_size_name=4

What the heck is up with that?  How does this vendor manage a 90% approval rate?

[subscriber]

Crosman Domed Premier Pellets, 0.22-Calibre, 500 Count for $7.35.  Select the add-on item:



Based on the buyer review histogram, people like them.

[nced]

nced, what's your lube of choice?

When my brother and I were having barrel fouling issues shooting dry boxed Crosman Premiers from our .177 Beeman R9s decades ago we started lubing the hard lead CPs. The "straw that broke the camels back" was when my brother's R9 started shooting 30 yard patterns instead of groups and no amount of patches pulled through the bore improved the accuracy. He used his bore light and saw that in front of the choke at the muzzle the rifling literally disappeared under a layer of polished (from all the pulled patches) fused on CP lead. He "went rather Draconian" removing the fouling by first soaking his bore with Hoppes #9, letting the Hoppes do it's work, brushing the bore with a brass brissle brush, and finally a few more pulled patches to "clean out the released 'crud". After that cleaning his rifling was again visible and his accuracy was restored. By the way, while I couldn't shoot good groups from a bench with my recoiling piston guns, my brother had no issues "bench resting" and here are a couple 3 shot 50 yard "bench rested" groups shot with his .177 R9 and the 10.5 grain boxed Crosman Premiers he used for the first couple seasons...............

LOL...that $3.29 price tag from the ACE home center in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia gives you an idea how long ago I bought it!

I lube my pellets by first spritzing a tiny bot of OneLube on the bottom of a dedicated pan, then spread the "spritz" around the pan with fingers to form a thin film, then dump in a box of CPLs and stirring them around gently to deposit a film of lube only on the pellet rifling surfaces, then dumping them into the pellet pouch for use. I don't spray OneLube directly on the pellets since Slick50 OneLube will diesel if it gets inside the pellet skirts............


Recently I started shooting 8.4 grain 4.52 (LOL, head sized down to 4.50mm) Air Arms domes and I've read that the soft lead AA domes don't need lubing but old habits are hard to break and I lubed the 4 tins I bought anyway.
LOL.....he was shooting his usual "3 shot powder burner groups" at first but I figured that two 3 shot groups at one sitting was at least as good as one 5 shot group.

Anywhoo........after the bore cleaning session my brother and I started looking for some sort of lube to keep CP lead from "soldering" itself in the bore and tried FP10 at first. The FP10 did minimize bore fouling and made bore cleaning easier, however the pellets that were "FP10 lubed" seemed to get coated with a gummy corrosion after being stored in a leather pellet pouch. The next thing we tried was Slick50 One Lube (the aerosol stuff, not the motor stuff) and liked they way it performed similar to the FP10 except the lubed pellets didn't get corroded in the leather pellet pouch.

That was a lot of years ago and I've been using One Lube ever since. I still have my original can of One Lube that I'm still using all these years because so little is used when properly "pellet lubing"........
   

[subscriber]

Clever way to get just a touch of lube evenly spread on mostly the bearing surfaces of the pellets, nced!

Every time someone explains what they use to clean or lube their pellets, I wonder about what that substance actually is.  While some of these products use "secret" chemicals, the MSDS will often reveal them.  Here is the MSDS for One Lube Aerosol:  http://www.itwgb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/SL-43712012-Slick-50-One-Lube-Spray-SDS.pdf

While I am at it, here is the MSDS for Purple Power degreaser:  http://www.chemtron.com/uploads/products/msds/PURPLE-POWER-DEGREASER--CT-366.pdf

Looking at these may help one better understand how to best use them.  For instance, Purple Power is basically a mix of very strong soaps and surfactants.  So, thorough rinsing is important to avoid hygroscopic residues on pellets from transferring to the barrel and causing rust.  Lubing after washing, with something hydrophobic (oil or wax) is a good way to offset any left over risk; if you rinsed twice and your pellets really needed three rinses...

Certainly, a wax-like lube is more likely to stay on pellets than oil when handled to any significant degree. 

I lube pellets in small quantities just before shooting them, by rolling them on the inside of the inverted pellet tin lid, after smearing plain mineral oil on the lid.  This is fine for shooting from a fixed position, but impractical if moving about, as one might if hunting critters...  Certainly, a drop of that oil in the skirt cavity causes significant dieseling and unpredictable POI, so dunking pellets in it is contraindicated.

I certainly would not want my pellet can open and exposed, if outside in a stiff dusty breeze.  Unless I am deliberately fire-lapping, I prefer not to have extra abrasives on my pellets, or in their lube.

I suppose one could coat pellets (or their bearing surfaces) in powdered graphite, but that seems a lot more messy than light oil or wax.  Also, oil and wax residue in the barrel should be better at protecting against atmospheric moisture induced rusting...

[nced]

Clever way to get just a touch of lube evenly spread on mostly the bearing surfaces of the pellets, nced!

Every time someone explains what they use to clean or lube their pellets, I wonder about what that substance actually is.  While some of these products use "secret" chemicals, the MSDS will often reveal them.  Here is the MSDS for One Lube Aerosol:  http://www.itwgb.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/SL-43712012-Slick-50-One-Lube-Spray-SDS.pdf

While I am at it, here is the MSDS for Purple Power degreaser:  http://www.chemtron.com/uploads/products/msds/PURPLE-POWER-DEGREASER--CT-366.pdf

Looking at these may help one better understand how to best use them.  For instance, Purple Power is basically a mix of very strong soaps and surfactants.  So, thorough rinsing is important to avoid hygroscopic residues on pellets from transferring to the barrel and causing rust.  Lubing after washing, with something hydrophobic (oil or wax) is a good way to offset any left over risk; if you rinsed twice and your pellets really needed three rinses...

Certainly, a wax-like lube is more likely to stay on pellets than oil when handled to any significant degree. 

I lube pellets in small quantities just before shooting them, by rolling them on the inside of the inverted pellet tin lid, after smearing plain mineral oil on the lid.  This is fine for shooting from a fixed position, but impractical if moving about, as one might if hunting critters...  Certainly, a drop of that oil in the skirt cavity causes significant dieseling and unpredictable POI, so dunking pellets in it is contraindicated.

I certainly would not want my pellet can open and exposed, if outside in a stiff dusty breeze.  Unless I am deliberately fire-lapping, I prefer not to have extra abrasives on my pellets, or in their lube.

I suppose one could coat pellets (or their bearing surfaces) in powdered graphite, but that seems a lot more messy than light oil or wax.  Also, oil and wax residue in the barrel should be better at protecting against atmospheric moisture induced rusting...

A few comments.

"Here is the MSDS for One Lube Aerosol:"
I also consult the MSDS of different lubes, however the MSDS link posted seems to disagree with the OneLube labeling from my decades old can since the MSDS doesn't mention any "PTFE" (Teflon) ingrediant .............


I just checked out an ACE link for Slick 50 One Lube and the package and it doesn't mention PTFE (only "Supercharged with synthetic additives"). It does seem that the formula has been changed and I don't have a clue if that affects "pellet lubing properties"...............
https://www.slick50store.com/product-page/supercharged-one-lube-spray
https://www.acehardware.com/departments/automotive-rv-and-marine/fluids-and-lubrication/penetrating-oils/8007890
Still looks like it would work according to the "sales pitch"!

[subscriber]

As those of you who may still be subscribed to this thread appear to be wadcutter fans, you might find this little springer internal ballistics study amusing. It includes the 7, 8.2 and 9.3 grain RWS wadcutter; as well as three types of domes:  https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=151727.msg1551712#msg1551712

Curious to know what velocities you see with the three RWS wadcutters from a given platform.  Any data on that?  Here is my limited sample from a Slavia 634:

[subscriber]

Not as good as the original price, but good none the same: