Pellet selection - the "dark science" of airgunning?

[limbwalker]

That's kinda what I'm thinking too.  In my archery, I've found that weight is vastly overrated, but other parameters that are more important are often overlooked.  In fact, many manufacturers will advertise the things they can easily control as being most important to accuracy, in order to distract you from the things they have less control over (or are more expensive to manufacture to close tolerances) that usually have more to do with accuracy.   

Not saying that's what's going on with pellets, but it would be nice to see head size tolerance listed on a tin, so you know what you're paying for.  Arrows have spine and weight tolerance listed.  I would imagine a manufacturer of pellets could randomly sample their product to determine a tolerance "grade" for their pellets, or sort them to grade, and then market them in various grades for various prices.  To me, this would be a very nice service for the airgun consumer that many would be willing to pay extra for given the situation.

From what I can tell (and I had to do a LOT of digging to find this) my Stoeger pointed pellets are actually H&N pellets that have a 5.52 mm headsize.  So, in theory, that's the headsize my particular gun likes.  I guess I'll spend a little more money to test that theory then... 

Does anyone know what the headsize for Crosman Premier in the brown box is, and how good the tolerances of those are?

John

[Bullit]

Guys,
Think of a pellet as a shuttlecock.  Good head mass and a good tail that conforms to the barrel.  Deviating from the dome in subsonic speed, is a gamble, since the centroid of mass in a pointed pellet that I've seen,  IMO,  isn't properly placed. Even if proper,,, I think it comes to a point that there really isn't an advantage in the point over the dome.   Maybe it'll "stick" more after it hit?  I don't know there.   
Better pellets are softer...so the tail seals easier with less resistance down the barrel.
There is a table of pellet data for numerous popular pellets.  It's been linked here on GTA...perhaps it's in the library...can't remember.
I'm sure someone can kindly post it.  I'll keep it this time!