Pellet Reviews - A minor rant

[Mike T.]

Currently the JSB Hades seems to be rated as God’s gift to airgun hunters. But before I spent the big bucks to buy some I thought that I would check the reviews to see how well they might work shot from my moderately powered PCPs. How much expansion I might expect. So I went to Pyramid Air’s reviews. Plenty of glowing reports as how the pellet worked in their Athena Revenger or other air rifles. But no one bothered to mention the muzzle velocity of their particular air rifle. No one!

These reviews were of absolutely of no value to me!

[Fate]

The JSB Hades are an enigma... they're better than they should be.

It's likely because they're the JSB 18.13 Heavy with modifications to the crown, and the Heavy is the goto pellet for many because of its stellar performance. The result is that the Hades shoot to the same POI as the Heavy, only faster since it's lighter, and therefore flatter shooting at a longer range.

Anyone who has shot one knows that... just as any creature hit with it knows how devastating it is.

[Chris USA]

Currently the JSB Hades seems to be rated as God’s gift to airgun hunters. But before I spent the big bucks to buy some I thought that I would check the reviews to see how well they might work shot from my moderately powered PCPs. How much expansion I might expect. So I went to Pyramid Air’s reviews. Plenty of glowing reports as how the pellet worked in their Athena Revenger or other air rifles. But no one bothered to mention the muzzle velocity of their particular air rifle. No one!

These reviews were of absolutely of no value to me!

Not every air gunner has a chrony. I am with you 100%,... but that is fact. I have one and would post any fps with any claims. Of course, what works for them, may not work for you. If all else fails,... look up the fps for what they are shooting and compare to yours.

[Fate]

Mike, in my .22 Synrod the Hades shoots 50 fps higher than the Heavy. Go from there.

[Ribbonstone]

Velocity (at impact) does drive expansion....under some certain speed,it just won'texpand unless you shoot it into a brick.

So even when you dee photos of great expansion...have to keep in mind how fast they were shooting (and as you mentioned,they don't tend to mention that),what they were shooting into, and how far away it was shot.

The main imporvment to the HAdes seems to be that so many rifles actually shoot them well.

Had the same kind of crazy-hype when the Predotors first came out...although getting a good accuracy match with that one wasn't real common.Long before that,was the Crowmag...which nearly nothing shot well.

[Fate]

Specifically, Hades in my gun are at 925+ fps... 30 fpe @ the muzzle and 20 fpe @ 50 yds. 

The Hades are well reviewed in many places, including GTA.  Search.

Rant wasted imo.

[Monkeydad1969]

Fate is right about the Hades being the 18.13gr.  I shoot the Hades out of my Maximus carbine, 18" barrel.  I have them shooting on average at 785fps.  50yd headshots on P-Dawgs, that's prairie dogs for those who were wondering, is pretty devastating.  There's a lot of blood and no movement from the P-Dawg hit.  Expansion is minimal, but there's some expansion.  The caveat of the Hades is that even at the speed I'm shooting them at out of my carbine they still do a lot of damage due to their design.  So yes, they work.  I hope this was helpful.  And yes, I do shoot them faster than that out of my other rifles.  The .177 Hades love speed and make a mess on body shots.  The .25 Hades need to go about 935fps to really open up.  Just think what they'll do if we make a .30 or .35 Hades... da-yummm!

Joe

[JungleShooter]

Mike,

I share your frustration. 😟
Expansion tests that
▪lack impact velocity (or MV and range), and/or
▪use ballistic mediums much more favorable than flesh

are unfortunately very common — and very useless.

Here're the tests I have collected over the past year or so — these all use ballistic gel/gelatinge of one kind or another. Uncalibrated DIY stuff is still not as trustworthy as official gel or DIY calibrated according to FBI protocol, but probably better than modeling clay, play-dough, or water.

Using a ballistic calculator with your muzzle velocity and a ballpark BC number (0.023 in .22 seems reasonable) you can calculate how far you can shoot the Hades in your particular gun and still get expansion.

Matthias

[JungleShooter]

A few more PT = Projectile Expansion and Penetration Tests   😊

[Mike T.]

Matthias - Thanks for the update and info! You are definitely a real data and hard numbers guy!

[JohnnyPDX]

I buy it and try it, no other way to know.

My first rat hit with Hades in .25 convinced me.