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Another tale of the 20

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Arzrover

Arzrover

Member
Nov 28, 2017
1,300
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Arizona, United States
The 20 cal pellet gun has been popularized in the 80s by Robert Beeman and many attribute the continued existence of it to him. As far as I know, it was first introduced with the creation of the Sheridan A Model in 1945. From what I can remember, the designer chose the 20 so that no inferior ammo would be used as was common with the 177 and 22 of that era. He was striving for the best air rifle of that time. All Sheridans models have used the 20 cal since.

Fast forward quite a bit... I purchased 5, 5mm LW barrels that were left over from the Sterling springer rifle project when it was moved to the USA, then quietly faded... I seem to remember it being in the late 90s. A couple of years ago, I fitted one to @Franklink's Vet Short and he has been quite happy with it and has documented it well.

Sooo... I decided to use one to try on my Delta Wolf /Ghost. I fitted it so that the 22 bolt and magazine would be used. To say it is amazing is a bit of understatement.

So on Saturday , a friend came over to plink and we had a great time with a number of air rifles, including this 20 in the DW. At the end of the fun, I put 5 standard clay pigeons out at 208 yards on a sand dune in my range. We shot at them a LOT with several 22s with MRD's, my 30 cal Safari w 51 gn, and this 20. Now the wind on my range is QUITE tricky because of the tree spacing and wind direction but I'm sure we lobbed well more than a hundred rounds at those 5 pigeons. Both the 22s and the 30 would group around them but randomly have 1 that was FEET away. It was somewhat frustrating actually, but we were determined. The little 20 w 15.89s was the only one that kept them tight around the pigeons and the final was 4 for the 20 and 1 for the 30.

Now I've related some impressive long range shooting with Wally, my RW, but on this day, even Wally was throwing them out feet away on frequent occasions. Keep in mind that ALL of these were quite good on that day at 100.

I'm definitely not trying to convince anyone of the need for a 20 or that it should be a long range consideration... just relating an IMPRESSIVE display of predictability and consistency.

It was a fun day 😁
Bob
 
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I love the heck out of my .20s. Bought a 2240 and replaced the barrel on it with an LW .20. Ran it as CO2 for a bit, then hpa with the help of a hipac. Now it runs as a mini discovery on dual fuel. Even at lower speeds it shines bright.
Have several running from 600 all the way up to 950ish and they rarely miss their mark. Not many people willing to give them the credit they're due until they shoot one.
 
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In the Ghost review discussion I've posted a couple times in the last month about connecting on multiple starlings and euros out to 150-170 yards with the .20 Heavies. And around two weeks ago I dropped a starling at 229yards. This was shared with a friend the day after it happened....

"I whacked a starling at 229 yards with the .20/15.89 last night a little before dark. 100 clicks dialed and then held over for another 6 mils. lol. Took a bunch of shots though...throw enough lead and one's bound to connect, if it sits there long enough. Strelok says it had about 8.5fpe still, which was enough. I'm not going to share it on the review though, seems a bit fantastical for many to believe, and it's less impressive when I disclose that it took me 8 or 10 shots."

Bob's sharing of his similar experience this weekend prompted me to (publicly) share the above.

In that same conversation with him I noted how with all the .20 Heavy batches I've tried, over the last couple years, I've yet to deal with the random flyers and utterly craptastic occasional batches that I see with the .22 MRDs when used for long range use.

I shot the .20 Heavies at an Xtreme Field Target match once (about a year ago) and finished in the higher end up the pack. And that was against the highest BCs available in pellets, including .22s, .25s, and .30s.

As for the .20 Lights, this past weekend I shot a 39/40 at a silhouette match out to 70 yards in TOUGH winds. My son was also using the .20 Lights and he scored higher than about half of the field of competition. Everybody else was using .177. That son is 9 years old.

For Strelok data I'm using a BC of 0.048 for the .20 Heavies @ 29-30fpe (915-920fps) and a BC of 0.045 for the .20 Lights @ 19.8fpe (795-805fps). And projected is matching actual pretty well for both of those data sets.

Referencing the .20, I have to agree with Bob, "to say it is amazing is a bit of an understatement."
 
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Michael said:
229 yards with a .20 caliber pellet!!! That's ridiculous! o_O
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That's why I was hesitant to share it.

Yes it took more than a few shots to connect, but the fact that it connected at all was amazing to me. On a starling!!! They're not a very large target. This was in one of their roosting/nesting trees. In the last and first daylight of every day they'll sun themselves, I think collecting heat either prior to turning in for the night, or after being cold all night. By nature a starling doesn't sit still very long, with this ONE exception.
 
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Out of curiosity I looked up the diameter of a clay pigeon (per original post here)....110mm which = 4.33inches. So a bit over 2moa for 208 yards.

@ 208 yards, keeping ANY pellet within a bit over 2moa is tough.

Bob and I have discussed this at length, the .20 Heavies don't seem like they should be able to shoot as well as they do at long range. They only weigh 15.89 grains! But they do indeed shoot better than one would think they could, for such a light pellet at long ranges.
 
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Franklink said:
That's why I was hesitant to share it.

Yes it took more than a few shots to connect, but the fact that it connected at all was amazing to me. On a starling!!! They're not a very large target. This was in one of their roosting/nesting trees. In the last and first daylight of every day they'll sun themselves, I think collecting heat either prior to turning in for the night, or after being cold all night. By nature a starling doesn't sit still very long, with this ONE exception.
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The first shot probably killed it, and the last one knocked him over.
Lol
 
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I need to sit and shoot some groups with it at 50 to take pics of. My typical target is a mess of finding zero, a few groups at this speed, a few groups at that speed, etc., and looks like crap but I know what happened, so it doesn't matter. To see 1 single pellet hole at 30 or pencil groups at 50 is common. I think it would be a good candidate for 50 benchrest. Regardless... it's a GREAT feeling to see pellets fly into the exact same hole when the wind is constant. I love it 😄👊
Bob
 
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mr. earl said:
What length barrel? I am thinking about a 24 inch for one of my Condors or 18 for my Condor SS. Altaros regulator and 480 cc CF bottle.
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I've recently put an 18" barrel in my "Talondor" which is regulated. I shoot them around 810 fps (the 15.89s). They group well and fly really well. I get so many shots on a fill that I have not taken the time to count them. Like @Franklink said, they are an exceptional pellet with a very high BC. My data is good at 0.047 which agrees closely with his.

All in all that pellet is probably the best long range pellet I have ever seen in any caliber... I've never shot big bore pellets so there is that I suppose.
 
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OldSpook said:
I've recently put an 18" barrel in my "Talondor" which is regulated. I shoot them around 810 fps (the 15.89s). They group well and fly really well. I get so many shots on a fill that I have not taken the time to count them. Like @Franklink said, they are an exceptional pellet with a very high BC. My data is good at 0.047 which agrees closely with his.

All in all that pellet is probably the best long range pellet I have ever seen in any caliber... I've never shot big bore pellets so there is that I suppose.
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What is your regulator set at?
 
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It's interesting how some pellets do better at long range than others but I've seen it happen. Also there are the huge flyers present. No experience with 20 cal pellets though.
Bob would know more than most about this, and Cole as well.

OT a bit but 20 cal in the PB world also does extremely well in BC with the lighter weight projectiles compared to 17 cal and 22 cal. Been able to connect on a 5" plate at 550Y before with my little 20 cal using a 32gr bullet.

Darn, now I want a 20 cal pellet barrel too 😁
 
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