.22 JSB RD Monsters - the best pellet available for 100Y BR?

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Centercut

Centercut

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B.L.U.F. Bottom Line Up Front - YES, IMHO.

In my previous posts about the .22 Daystate Bleu Wolf HP, I stated that I had decided to shoot this gun in the 2020 competition season, despite winning in 2019 with my .30 FX Bobcat Mk2 shooting 44.75 JSB Exact. What?*&^% Am I crazy...? Well, maybe, but I'll list my reasons why...

1. BC - Ballistic Coefficient. Of all the pellets I've tested, and between the .30 JSB Exact 44.75, the .30 JSB Heavy 50.1, and the .25 JSB Heavy Mk1 and Mk2, the 25.4 grain JSB .22 RD Monsters exhibit the best BC. Now some might say the .25 Heavy is comparable, and you'd be correct, but I'll list my reasons below for ruling that one out... Higher BC, better resistance to wind drift. The measured BC in the Bleu Wolf is 0.052.

https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/the-external-ballistics-of-diabolo-pellets/

2. Practice makes perfect, and perfect practice makes great scores. And the more you practice, the better you get, especially if you practice in ugly conditions. The RD Monsters are significantly cheaper than the .30 pellets, and somewhat cheaper than the .25 pellets. More practice - better scores...

3. Barrels made specifically for the RD Monsters. The LW Poly barrel on the newer Daystates (A.R.T. barrel) are tuned specifically for the RD Monsters at fairly high speed, say optimum of 970 to 980 FPS. It may just be me, but I've only seen very accurate .25 Heavy shot at lower (830 to 840 FPS) speeds, like when Ted won EBR in 2016. I have tried the heavies in Cricket, Edgun, and Vulcan, and although accurate enough for hunting, they were not accurate enough (at higher speeds, say 900 to 920 FPS) for 100Y BR competitions. It seems difficult to find a barrel that will shoot the .25 Heavies at good speeds very accurately. I'm sure it can be done, but how many .25s have you seen compete at EBR and RMAC the past three years? And even though I've read that the .30 Heavy 50.1 pellets had a very high BC, in my testing they were at 0.046, whereas the 44.75 were 0.042, both in a .30 FX ST barrel.

4. Faster is better, up to the point the BC starts its downward trend (greater than about 995 FPS for RD Monster). Lets compare a .30 JSB Exact at 875 FPS (a common competition speed) to a .22 RD Monster at 975 FPS. And lets say both have an ES of 10 FPS. So at 100 yards, the .30 differential between 870 and 880 FPS is 0.9 cm. For the .22, its 0.6 cm. What? He's crazy, who cares about 0.3 cm at 100 yards? You do if you want to win. How many times were you close on a couple targets and they just didn't plug to the higher value? So 0.3 cm can and does make a difference when the margin of winning is a point or two. (data taken from Strelok Pro)

5. Ease of shooting. We've all shot .30 and felt the "recoil" or barrel jump when shooting a 78 FPE gun (or higher). You need to be on your toes the entire time or a shot or two can get away from you. Shooting a .22 at 53 FPE is much easier, with less felt "recoil" and less barrel jump. So easier is better in my book...

There are a few other reasons that are just my opinion based on observations that I won't specifically mention, but it has to do with aerodynamic jump... Oh, and not to forget, .22 RD Monsters have won EBR (Pro) the past two years in a row...

https://hardairmagazine.com/ham-columns/vertical-deflection-for-pellets-in-crosswind/

As you can see above, I mostly compared the .30 to the .22. I more or less left out the .25 with just a few mentions since I don't have a competition .25, and I haven't seen many being used at the major 100Y BR competitions in the past three years. So, am I FOS, or am I on to something...? All opinions welcome.

Mike

Team Centercut

1588708976_21201530815eb1c670201867.79926176.JPG

 
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My two cents, that SORTING step is likely pretty important for EBR level competition. I'm shooting these same pellets, straight from the tin, from the RW Standard (just at a lower velocity) and finding that a decent five shot group is a fairly common occurrence. But there always seems to be at least one flyer in a ten shot group. By "flyer" I mean a pellet that just doesn't go quite where it should, accounting for wind and shooter influence. The flyer isn't bad, just isn't right in the group with the rest of them.
 
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I can see your points although I'm not certain about the speeds on various pellets. I have witnessed as a for instance the .25 34gr pellets shooting very accurately at 915-920 fps and know someone else (wont mention names) thats shooting the .30 50gr. near 1000 fps with dime size groups @ 50 yards. Not saying they are better just an observation.
 
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Mike brings up valid points.

After playing with a 30 cal using 44's and 50's at 70-80 fpe, both pellets weighed.

My 25 cal with both 25's and 34's, all weighed.

And friends 22's with 25 gr.

I've come to one conclusion which I'll get to in a few seconds. 

In near perfect conditions, using sorted pellets, shooting at 100Y, does a guy have a 7 ring gun, a 8 ring gun, a 9 ring gun, or let's say a 9.5 ring gun??? There are slight advantages in wind drift to some pellets over others but the ability of the rifle in all out precision is of paramount importance in benchrest. 

In other words a guy with a 9.5 ring rifle is going to be unbeatable compared to a guy with an 8 ring rifle, especially using a higher BC pellet going as fast it can before BC and precision degrades - in the same conditions. 

I know I can go out and shoot every calm morning in practice sessions and pretty much the best that I can hope for is a 215/250 with my 8 ring rifle. Conversely that's going to be a low score for a 230+ 9 ring rifle. 

IMO....
 
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My two cents, that SORTING step is likely pretty important for EBR level competition. I'm shooting these same pellets, straight from the tin, from the RW Standard (just at a lower velocity) and finding that a decent five shot group is a fairly common occurrence. But there always seems to be at least one flyer in a ten shot group. By "flyer" I mean a pellet that just doesn't go quite where it should, accounting for wind and shooter influence. The flyer isn't bad, just isn't right in the group with the rest of them.
Click to expand...

Frank, I'm sure you're correct on this. I noticed the exact same thing you describe, only at 100 yards. I decided to use my pellet gauge on two tins of RD Monsters. And what I found was that, per tin, about 150 were 5.56mm. About 40 were 5.55mm, and about 10 were 5.54mm (or less). I am 99% sure that the 5.54s are the culprit. I'll shoot the 5.55s when normal practice shooting, but for competition I'll sort and only shoot the 5.56mm pellets. I didn't notice hardly any deformed heads or skirts.
 
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Mike - good post. Agree completely with your decision criteria for why you chose the .22 Blue Wolf. Some related observations about the RDs:

1. Interestingly, my new RW Safari .25 shooting the JSB MK2’s and 25g pellets is doing OK at 100 yards, but....my RAW KM1000x .22 HP with Poly barrel shot the JSB RDs at a very consistent and predictable 950 FPS with better accuracy. I’m guessing it may have been because of a higher BC. I don’t have as many 100 yard bench rest outings with the Safari as I did with the RAW, but so far the RAW .22 HP with RDs edges out the Safari based on my experience at 100y.

2. I had Martin convert the RAW to a .30 cal barrel. A few outings and it’s doing pretty good with the 44g. Have not tried any other pellet yet, but I am going to try the 50g and play around with HST settings. Shooting at around 870 FPS with the 44g. I had a couple recent NUAH targets that were 1.1 - 1.2 “ CTC so there is promise here for better results.

3. The larger caliber pellets are costing me more $$ and hurting my NUAH scoring because I’m hitting the ring lines more often. Also, I had way more X rings with the RDs than any of the other .25 or .30 cal pellets. Hitting the 10 ring with the larger pellet is a 9 for NUAH scoring. Also, not as many 9’s as more are hitting the 8 ring line. My only point is the larger diameter is hurting scoring for me, and I’m guessing this true for others too. 

4. Recoil - Any suggestions for holding the RAW .30 for recoil? This might be contributing to a bit of inconsistency as well. 
 
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Definitely not FOS. More like crazy like a fox. I’m not a competitive shooter but your points are quite valid. I feel the .25 is fine up to a mid range hunter. Comparing the .22 to .30, you start to see the tradeoffs of going big, so to some extent the Law of Diminishing Returns applies. I’m going to try some of those .22 Monster RD’s in my .22 Impact.
 
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Mike - good post. Agree completely with your decision criteria for why you chose the .22 Blue Wolf. Some related observations about the RDs: 

4. Recoil - Any suggestions for holding the RAW .30 for recoil? This might be contributing to a bit of inconsistency as well.
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Tommy, I'm no expert, but I'll tell you what worked for me with the .30 FX Bobcat Mk2, which is lighter than your RAW, so even more recoil or muzzle jump. What worked was holding the gun lightly with my trigger hand, so light that I was just touching the gun enough to put my thumb around the grip and my finger touching the trigger. Cheek weld very light if at all, you don't want to see your pulse on the crosshairs. I used a bipod up front, an AccuTac FC-G2 and a small rear rest bag under the heel of the stock. The bipod is as far forward as I can place it, and I use a DonnyFL Ronin not for sound dampening, but because it is heavy and also contributes to reducing muzzle flip. So I would wrap my arm across my body and hold both the stock, and the bag. I would basically anchor the stock to the bag and the bag to the bench, using pressure from my left hand to lock in the position. This gave me both horizontal and vertical control of the gun and kept the gun's recoil to a minimum. When doing it this way you still get a little jump, but it is minimized and shouldn't affect your POI. If you can't keep an eye on the pellet hitting the target, you're doing something wrong... You can see in this photo I'm doing it the same way I described above. If you try this let me know how it works?

1588800837_20314121375eb32d4581ffb4.61368437.png


Mike
 
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CC, I think your correct for the BC of the .22 25RD’s @ 930-970fps where they seem to shoot well in most guns?, but I will say they are a very finicky pellet in my limited experience? If you can get them stabilized quickly existing the barrel they are very, very accurate (as most pellets will be!) but I believe the .30 is the go to pellet for most as they stabilize quickly and they seem to be a very consistent and uniform pellet for JSB! “They are easy to get to shoot well in most guns”( that’s what I found to be the case for me anyway ) Most will take that trade off vs. pure BC? I decided after the PAcup I would never shoot a .30 again for numerous reasons! and will shoot nothing larger than .22 for fun or competition again... When or “if” the PAcup is held? I will shoot my bone stock .22 and have fun regardless if I qualify for the finals! good luck competing this yr. with the bleu beast!
 
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@nomojo65 I think you make valid points. Not only are the .30 JSB Exacts not as finicky, the pellets are more uniform and consistent out of the tin. I didn’t sort or weigh my .30 pellets since doing it didn’t make any difference in performance. The RD Monsters seem to vary from lot to lot, plus I find at least ten pellets per tin that will cause a flyer in my gun (5.54mm or less). I noticed this with the Blue Wolf more than with my EDGun R3 Long since Bleu has a polygonal LW barrel and the Eddy just a conventionally rifled LW Barrel. Bleu likes the larger diameter pellets... So the .22 pellets must be sorted, while the .30 it’s not necessary.

Another benefit of .30 is being able to see the holes better on the paper, especially in the shaded areas of the target. Plus the .30 are much easier to see in flight. But, shooting a .30 requires more skill and concentration than a .22 mainly due to recoil and muzzle flip.
 
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I do gotta agree here. I am a huge fan of .30 however there's alot more technique needed for it. Follow through is alot more important. .22 is probably my favorite caliber and has been for a long time. However recently getting a Taipan Veteran .177 Standard and shooting over 40 sage rats today and quite a few birds and with no noticable recoil now I'm thinking going to a 30fpe .177 for my longer range gun! But when the gun does shoot the monsters well there hard to beat!
 
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I am seeing that the 22 Monster ReDesigns seem to be much more sensitive to velocity changes - that is if the velocity changes by 5fps, the POI will change. That could explain the flyers with different weights/head sizes. The 30 cals seem to be much less sensitive to velocity - sort of like throwing a big rock - if you can get it going in the right direction, it just smashes the target. 

I am shooting the Monster RDs at 950 to 960 fps out of a TJ barrel in an Impact. I haven't weighed or sorted pellets yet. I shot my best group at 70 yards this evening while messing around trying to setup my Impact - 0.3" CTC. I could not even get on the backstop at 870-ish fps with the Monsters. I could not get the Beasts up past 860 fps, so they were all over the place. The different groups are different velocities that I was trying - not all of the spread was due to pellet issues (velocity changes from the regulator, shooter, wind and temp shifts all played a role). I definitely need to be more methodical about the speed testing.

So is it spin rate that is stabilizing these ultra-long pellets? Like slugs, would a faster spin rate barrel work wonders?

1588912450_10173598975eb4e1420fa349.48723363.jpg

 
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I am seeing that the 22 Monster ReDesigns seem to be much more sensitive to velocity changes - that is if the velocity changes by 5fps, the POI will change. That could explain the flyers with different weights/head sizes.
Click to expand...

This is the first time I’ve ever heard of that, and no disrespect intended, but that would defy the laws of physics if it changed more or less than any other pellet at the same speeds...
 
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