Bad day or bad pellets

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H

hawken54

Member
Sep 10, 2015
247
6
Arizona
Ive have not had this problem before, let me explain. I have been shooting JSB 33.95, out of my Air Ranger, with stunning accuracy. So I slap on the SWFA 10x to try out on the Ranger. I sight it in with no issues and as usual its pellet on pellet at 50 yards. So I decide to film some shots. I notice I'm down to 3 pellets in my tin so I grab a new one. I shoot the first pellet and make a 1 click adjustment. I attribute this to the camera vs bi-focals. Then I shoot the last two pellets on a fresh target. Pellet on pellet as usual. super happy. Then it went down hill.

I broke open the new tin and it was all over. I didn't change anything. Just loaded a new mag, and crap shoot. I checked the torque on the scope and all is well. Unfortunately I don't have another tin to try, Need to run over to AofA. Is it common to get a crappy tin of pellets from JSB. I have shot 6 full tins with no issue at all. Maybe a flyer per tin but cant confirm its not me. This is just all over, I don't expect perfection with 10+ pellets, but this is not head shot worthy. Should I wait and try a new tin? get a scale and weigh them? something else? Here is the video at 50 yards.

 
I'd give the barrel a good cleaning, taking time to check screws are all snug and set the gun to the side and shoot something else for a session. Then you could revisit the Ranger fresh. If you group they way you want then you had a bad day, if not get a new tin of pellets and see how they do. You may even want to get them from somewhere else. And I say this only because I would do something like this, but make sure you didn't get a tin of MKI vs MKII or vise versa. 
 
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Ted Holdover posted a video a while back about variances with JSB pellets.

A tin from 2009, 2011, etc with 5.52mm for example may be 5.54mm or 5.50mm even if marked as 5.52mm My Daystate MVT shoots 5.50mm and 5.51mm well. Higher head sizes open up groups double or worse with everything else being the same. I can also feel the resistance with the larger head size pellet is much higher as I am trying to seat it in the barrel.

Another remote albeit very very unlikely possibility (besides a serious scope issue) that an o-ring (pellet-probe?) got damaged right as the new tin started.
 
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Not sure about the last tin as they are gone. I took out 40 random pellets out of this tin and put the mic too them. Can states 6.35. I got 1 at 5.59 and 1 at 6.39 all the rest were 6.34 to 6.36. most being right on at 6.35. I'm letting it rest for the night. Ill loosen and re torque all screws in the AM, re-zero and try again. She shot 3 pellet groups, hole in hole during zero so maybe its me. Ive had the SWFA on the M14 for a long time without a single issue. Maybe the coffee kicked in.
 
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Hawken, I watched your video and to me it appeared that the pellets were shooting about where they should in relation to where the cross hair was when you pulled the trigger. I saw the highest shot go high when you were above the bull a little and to the left when you were left of it. Take a break and try it again. Oh and lay off the coffee, sweets and brewski's.
jk
 
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Funny you should mention Harry. Earlier today, I set things up in the back yard to do some target practice—25 yards. I used the rest (20 pellets?) of a tin of Red Fires. The target looked like it was hit with a shotgun! Opened up a new tin, set up a new target, and wallah! The groups looked like they were one big hole. What is weird, the old tin was sorted and rolled, the new tin wasn't! 

And some more info on Harry's roll test. I bought 5 tins of Exact 8.44 grainers, and sized and rolled them as Harry suggested. Out of the 250 I sorted, only 83 passed the tests. They shoot well out of my PA77, but will not group when shot in my 397, or the RWS54. The pellets which didn't pass muster, shoot fairly well out of the RWS, but look like a shotgun out of the PA77. Which leads me to the next subject.

I have not slugged any of my airguns, to determine what the real bore/land diameter is, nor the twist for that matter. I know the 397 is 1:14, and I believe the PA77 is the same. I do not know the RWS' twist, but it looks to be a bit less than the 397. Perhaps 1:16? 

Just as weird and funny, is the fact that a good tin of Red Fires shoot well in all of my airguns. Maybe I live right! You think?
 
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New Pellets, Sidewinder back on, and a good cleaning. Here it is at 35 yards. #23 and 24 are no shooting grip, just a pull back on the trigger to test my grip difference. All shots within 7mm of center except #23 at 10mm. That is 1/2 inch group (minus #23) at 35 yards on 25 shots. Feel a bit better now. Ill shoot that again and then take it out to 50 after the Holiday.

 
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Looks good, consistent, curious how the 50 turns out but seems like no issues on the 35. May be some pellet check for consistency. I am happy also with my latest groups as part of my go-to pellet search quest, but now that I have a couple of good ones I will try to sort my pellets again for weight as a minimum. At 50 it may not make much difference but at 100 yards it will. Need to also double check head sizes.
 
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I watched the video and you might a have pulled off a hair but not as much as the pellets were showing. I think it is a bad tin of pellets , I just had a tin of pellets shooting very well ,run out and opened a new tin from a different order , it was terrible , weighted them and they were from 25.3 -25.6 gr. I hope that was the only tin like that.
 
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