I received lots of good feedback. Pushing those pellets into the magazine did not take much force afterall. As others suggested, I found that the size of the pellet mattered when it came to how well the gun shot.
Normally, I would post target pictures in the 'Target Shooting' section, but I am going to show some here because I feel it is relevant to the magazine and this thread.
I took the gun to an indoor 100-yd range to test it out. To travel light, I only took 4 types of pellets: JSB 15.9 and 18.1, and Air Arms 15.9 and 18.1. I started off at 25 yds. Here are the results:
(1 inch squares)
Needless to say, I didn't see any point in shooting at 50 yds. I didn't know what was wrong. Maybe the gun was damaged in shipping, but I believed the gun was good. I figured it was something that I was doing wrong.
AJ suggested that I shoot Crosman and H&N pellets in it, since that is what he used with the gun, and it was very accurate. I had some H&N FTT 5.53 pellets so I sorted them using my PelletGage. The measured pellets fell mostly into two groups: 5.55mm and 5.54mm. I tested both on my 14 yd target and saw a big improvement.
I went to my brother's house the next day where I shot at 30yds first. I tried the H&Ns, several types of Crosmans, and the JSBs. None of the groups were good. It was fairly windy, but not enough to cause the problem. I didn't bother taking any pictures.
My brother was shooting his BSA R-10 Mk2 with lubed JSB pellets (at the suggestion of Allen Zasadny) and getting very good groups. He suggested I try his lubed pellets. After 2 magazines, the difference was night and day. After shooting many consistent groups within 5/8" at 30yds,
I decided to try the 50 yd range. Even with some wind, the groups were good. Here's my best group of the day, shot with the same pellets that I used the day before at the indoor range, only this time they were lubed with Napier Power Pellet Lube:
I used OnTarget TDS to add the measurement info (CTC: 0.299", etc).
Here's a photo of the target for reference. We use a self-inking stamp from Office Depot to place multiple targets on the back of paper plates. The punched holes tear very little.
(.22 cal pellets)
I could be wrong, but I think the lube that got into the magazine made the difference.
I feel that size consistency is important in this magazine, so I will look into finding larger pellets and sorting or sizing them down to make them the exact size needed. I will try to end up with the 5.53mm diameter that Michael suggested.
I will be getting two new magazines from
Penchetta which I plan to experiment with. I'm going to condition one with Teflon grease to see if reduces the amount of friction between a tight pellet and the magazine. I hope that it makes the pellet speed more consistent, since the pellet is fired from within the magazine.
Any suggestions on other things to experiment with?
