Hey everybody, today we're going gonna have a little Q&A with Jerry Cupples owner/inventor of the Pelletgage.
Jerry, tell us a bit about yourself like where you live, your career, family, etc.
Hello, Michael and Airgun Nation!
I retired from working as a process engineer and manager in the electronics assembly business in 2016. I lived in the Dallas area for nearly forty years. In 2015 I bought my new home on the Blue Ridge, in the Saluda Mountains near Hendersonville, NC. My grown son Jeff is in Richardson, Texas. I live in the woods, effectively, and there is little limit on shooting around my home.
So what year did you start Pelletgage?
In spring of 2015.
Let’s assume that our audience has never heard of Pelletgage or even pellet sizing & sorting. Briefly explain why you created the Pelletgage & why it’s important.
My friend Joe Peacock showed me his product called Speedy Pellet Inspector. It was designed to help sort out pellets that have visible defects, and we all know that putting them into a tin and shaking them can cause some damage. If you look close, there can also be malformed pellets. I asked Joe if there was any intent for measurement, and he told me that his CO2 laser did not have the necessary precision to cut plastic for that. In my career, I had long used laser cut steel tooling for circuit board assembly. The idea bulb flashed on over my head, because I knew how to make make (arguably) the most precise laser cuts in the world. About a week later, I had a prototype in my hands, and used an optical comparator to confirm the diameter of the apertures were in 10 microns steps. Ten microns is 0.0004 inches, and the size accuracy of the apertures vs nominal size is less than 0.0001 inches. Some people think they can get the same accuracy with calipers, but I doubt that.
So, I took it home and checked my first two tins of pellets, same well known brand… one was mostly 4.51 mm, the other 4.53. While I could see that the pellets were indeed fitting into the expected apertures, I was very disappointed when checking that first tin, almost every pellet was the same. But I have since seen many big variations within tins that should have the same diameter. I believe that even the best pellets on the market have variation, and sometime that variation produces noticeable effect on shot groups. and I know that some rifled barrels are more sensitive to this than others. My thoughts are that subtle difference in the barrels choke, crown, and the heights of the lands vs the groove are what cause this sensitivity. The fundamental concept is to assure you have consistently sized pellets, and so far, it’s a certainty that they may have adverse variance in lots, and also true that you may get a consistent shift in size from the same nominal diameter products.
Why did you spell it Pelletgage instead of Pelletgauge?
The term “gage” is well established in technical usage. To gage is basically to use a simple mechanical reference for sizing. Gauges are devices that make a complex measurement for rotation, pressure, velocity, etc. So, in engineering terms, Pelletgage is a “fixed gage”; designed to assess a specific attribute based on comparative gaging and used for quickly assessing approximate size in a go / no-go manner. This isn’t really a misspelling, but I will admit, most spell checkers want that extra “U” I registered the domain names both ways
Do you actively shoot airguns?
Yes, I have a small collection, and my brother (Dr. Tommy Cupples) and I frequently set out spinners or paper targets for friendly contests. Tommy has had airguns a lot longer than I. He gave me my first “adult” gun sixteen years ago, a .22 cal Chinese break barrel from Mike Melick. It was an eye opener for me, it had much better power and accuracy than I imagined. I have quite a few of them now, including some classics like a pretty Sheridan Blue Streak. I also have a couple of nice rifles set up for field target, so I enjoy shooting a wide variety of guns, including some that burn powder. I recently got an older Daisy No. 25 BB gun just like the one my dad gave me in about 1963, and it has been destroying cans out in my back yard…so I sell a BBgage, too!
What is your favorite type of airgunning? Benchrest, FT, Hunting, Plinking…
Field target. I have competed for about six years. I met a number of good friends in the Texas FT clubs, and have enjoyed the (usually) good natured sport. It’s effectively a bunch of grown kids playing with toys in some ways, and we share the fun of getting accuracy in different trajectories, target distances, and weather conditions. North Carolina has a lot of FT shooters, and I have enjoyed meeting some great people here. It’s typical to find that airgun shooters have much in common, and can share those interests in enjoyable ways. In Dallas, we had the “North Texas Airgun Militia”, a silly name for a group of people who’d gather a couple of times a year and shoot thousands of pellets from dozens of guns at various targets. That was one of the reasons I got into airguns.
What do you enjoy doing outside of airgunning?
I like to hike in DuPont State Forest very near my home, and ride my Polaris UTV on the roads and trails nearby. My property adjoins Jones Gap State Park (in South Carolina), there are thousands of acres of scenic public lands and waterfalls near me, and I see a beautiful sunrise off my deck most mornings. I collect flashlights and pocketknives, and tinker around with those, too. I tune in to many types of radio to get weather and news, and try to keep a cellular data connection alive far from a tower.
Which do you feel is more important: weighing your pellets or sizing them?
Pellet weight is secondary to the diameter, likely because manufacturers have better process control for that variable. Airguns have some interesting dynamics, and my brother compares the firing cycle to that of a blowgun. The fit of the pellet OD to the gun barrel as it travels the rifling lands and again at the crown are a big part of what guns “like” a particular pellet. If your blowgun is shooting darts that don’t fit well, it affects the consistency for velocity, and the consistency of the exit from the crown.
I know from experience that sizing & sorting does make a difference & I was able to prove this out at EBR this year.
I’m glad Pelletgage helped you, and I have had many similar responses. A number of people have said they were rescued from total frustration after various gun tuning, barrel cleaning, scope changing, etc. when they found an issue with the pellets they had always used successfully in their favorite rifle. Benchrest shooters are good customers, along with field target competitors. Airgun hunting is becoming more popular, too. Hunters are very serious about making clean shots after all the effort needed to track game. They want accuracy when they pull a trigger in that big moment.
Even with the best quality pellets, the risk of having that one undersized head that costs a point in competition is avoidable. I believe many shooters are not aware of the pellet head diameter that their gun works best with. Most guns can do reasonably well with a range of head sizes, but there is still some improvement to be had. For instance, pellets mixed with 4.51/4.52/4.53 will all do pretty well, but the resulting group size of the mixed pellets is larger than the group sizes achievable when only the 4.53 was being shot. It’s then a matter of ‘how small do you need that group to be?’. Competitive shooters not only want to eliminate “fliers”, they want to hit that small kill zone out there at 40 yards, repetitively.
Are there any “famous” shooters that also use the Pelletgage?
Michael Wendt! ;-) I can look at the winners lists from field target and benchrest competitions, and see quite a number of Pelletgage customers, including European contests. Before the 2016 Olympics, I had a coach for the US team contact me with interest, and I donated a number of Pelletgages for use at the US team training facility in Colorado, and they did OK! Let’s see…Tom Gaylord (BB Pelletier) has written about it, and one of my first customers was Stephen Archer. Pelletgage is used to find head diameter sizes for the pellet reviews done for Stephen’s Hard Air Magazine.
You recently released the PelletgageR. How is it different than the original Pelletgage & how do you use it?
PelletgageR is designed to efficiently sort pellets for a specific, narrow size range. There are 48 apertures in the gage plates, all the same diameter. By using two gage plate (a “go” and a “no-go”) the user can quickly sort for the size desired. Pelletgage can be used to sort pellets, but only one at a time. Pelletgager is at least 10 or 20 times faster. PelletgageR can be used with two gage plates stacked and registered, so that when the pellet drops into the top plate, it can either catch on the larger aperture (oversized) catch on the lower aperture (desired size) or drop through the lower aperture (undersized).
Who would you recommend use the Pelletgage products?
Any “serious” airgun shooter. There have been quite a few sold to airgun dealers and people who write about the hobby. I don’t think purely casual shooters need this, and it won’t make a $100 gun group like an FX. I once shot a FT match with a very serious and well equipped shooter. We were squadded together, and he commented while shooting that he was surprised that people would pay $49 for this tool. I commented back to the guy (as he took aim with his Whiscombe rifle with March scope) that it surprised me that some people would invest so much money in airguns and not make every effort to get the best possible pellet. He said “you have a point”.
Right on Jerry, Thanks for spending a few minutes with us.
If ya'll have any questions for Jerry or want to share your experience with his products... please chime in!
Jerry, tell us a bit about yourself like where you live, your career, family, etc.
Hello, Michael and Airgun Nation!
I retired from working as a process engineer and manager in the electronics assembly business in 2016. I lived in the Dallas area for nearly forty years. In 2015 I bought my new home on the Blue Ridge, in the Saluda Mountains near Hendersonville, NC. My grown son Jeff is in Richardson, Texas. I live in the woods, effectively, and there is little limit on shooting around my home.
So what year did you start Pelletgage?
In spring of 2015.
Let’s assume that our audience has never heard of Pelletgage or even pellet sizing & sorting. Briefly explain why you created the Pelletgage & why it’s important.
My friend Joe Peacock showed me his product called Speedy Pellet Inspector. It was designed to help sort out pellets that have visible defects, and we all know that putting them into a tin and shaking them can cause some damage. If you look close, there can also be malformed pellets. I asked Joe if there was any intent for measurement, and he told me that his CO2 laser did not have the necessary precision to cut plastic for that. In my career, I had long used laser cut steel tooling for circuit board assembly. The idea bulb flashed on over my head, because I knew how to make make (arguably) the most precise laser cuts in the world. About a week later, I had a prototype in my hands, and used an optical comparator to confirm the diameter of the apertures were in 10 microns steps. Ten microns is 0.0004 inches, and the size accuracy of the apertures vs nominal size is less than 0.0001 inches. Some people think they can get the same accuracy with calipers, but I doubt that.
So, I took it home and checked my first two tins of pellets, same well known brand… one was mostly 4.51 mm, the other 4.53. While I could see that the pellets were indeed fitting into the expected apertures, I was very disappointed when checking that first tin, almost every pellet was the same. But I have since seen many big variations within tins that should have the same diameter. I believe that even the best pellets on the market have variation, and sometime that variation produces noticeable effect on shot groups. and I know that some rifled barrels are more sensitive to this than others. My thoughts are that subtle difference in the barrels choke, crown, and the heights of the lands vs the groove are what cause this sensitivity. The fundamental concept is to assure you have consistently sized pellets, and so far, it’s a certainty that they may have adverse variance in lots, and also true that you may get a consistent shift in size from the same nominal diameter products.
Why did you spell it Pelletgage instead of Pelletgauge?
The term “gage” is well established in technical usage. To gage is basically to use a simple mechanical reference for sizing. Gauges are devices that make a complex measurement for rotation, pressure, velocity, etc. So, in engineering terms, Pelletgage is a “fixed gage”; designed to assess a specific attribute based on comparative gaging and used for quickly assessing approximate size in a go / no-go manner. This isn’t really a misspelling, but I will admit, most spell checkers want that extra “U” I registered the domain names both ways
Do you actively shoot airguns?
Yes, I have a small collection, and my brother (Dr. Tommy Cupples) and I frequently set out spinners or paper targets for friendly contests. Tommy has had airguns a lot longer than I. He gave me my first “adult” gun sixteen years ago, a .22 cal Chinese break barrel from Mike Melick. It was an eye opener for me, it had much better power and accuracy than I imagined. I have quite a few of them now, including some classics like a pretty Sheridan Blue Streak. I also have a couple of nice rifles set up for field target, so I enjoy shooting a wide variety of guns, including some that burn powder. I recently got an older Daisy No. 25 BB gun just like the one my dad gave me in about 1963, and it has been destroying cans out in my back yard…so I sell a BBgage, too!
What is your favorite type of airgunning? Benchrest, FT, Hunting, Plinking…
Field target. I have competed for about six years. I met a number of good friends in the Texas FT clubs, and have enjoyed the (usually) good natured sport. It’s effectively a bunch of grown kids playing with toys in some ways, and we share the fun of getting accuracy in different trajectories, target distances, and weather conditions. North Carolina has a lot of FT shooters, and I have enjoyed meeting some great people here. It’s typical to find that airgun shooters have much in common, and can share those interests in enjoyable ways. In Dallas, we had the “North Texas Airgun Militia”, a silly name for a group of people who’d gather a couple of times a year and shoot thousands of pellets from dozens of guns at various targets. That was one of the reasons I got into airguns.
What do you enjoy doing outside of airgunning?
I like to hike in DuPont State Forest very near my home, and ride my Polaris UTV on the roads and trails nearby. My property adjoins Jones Gap State Park (in South Carolina), there are thousands of acres of scenic public lands and waterfalls near me, and I see a beautiful sunrise off my deck most mornings. I collect flashlights and pocketknives, and tinker around with those, too. I tune in to many types of radio to get weather and news, and try to keep a cellular data connection alive far from a tower.
Which do you feel is more important: weighing your pellets or sizing them?
Pellet weight is secondary to the diameter, likely because manufacturers have better process control for that variable. Airguns have some interesting dynamics, and my brother compares the firing cycle to that of a blowgun. The fit of the pellet OD to the gun barrel as it travels the rifling lands and again at the crown are a big part of what guns “like” a particular pellet. If your blowgun is shooting darts that don’t fit well, it affects the consistency for velocity, and the consistency of the exit from the crown.
I know from experience that sizing & sorting does make a difference & I was able to prove this out at EBR this year.
I’m glad Pelletgage helped you, and I have had many similar responses. A number of people have said they were rescued from total frustration after various gun tuning, barrel cleaning, scope changing, etc. when they found an issue with the pellets they had always used successfully in their favorite rifle. Benchrest shooters are good customers, along with field target competitors. Airgun hunting is becoming more popular, too. Hunters are very serious about making clean shots after all the effort needed to track game. They want accuracy when they pull a trigger in that big moment.
Even with the best quality pellets, the risk of having that one undersized head that costs a point in competition is avoidable. I believe many shooters are not aware of the pellet head diameter that their gun works best with. Most guns can do reasonably well with a range of head sizes, but there is still some improvement to be had. For instance, pellets mixed with 4.51/4.52/4.53 will all do pretty well, but the resulting group size of the mixed pellets is larger than the group sizes achievable when only the 4.53 was being shot. It’s then a matter of ‘how small do you need that group to be?’. Competitive shooters not only want to eliminate “fliers”, they want to hit that small kill zone out there at 40 yards, repetitively.
Are there any “famous” shooters that also use the Pelletgage?
Michael Wendt! ;-) I can look at the winners lists from field target and benchrest competitions, and see quite a number of Pelletgage customers, including European contests. Before the 2016 Olympics, I had a coach for the US team contact me with interest, and I donated a number of Pelletgages for use at the US team training facility in Colorado, and they did OK! Let’s see…Tom Gaylord (BB Pelletier) has written about it, and one of my first customers was Stephen Archer. Pelletgage is used to find head diameter sizes for the pellet reviews done for Stephen’s Hard Air Magazine.
You recently released the PelletgageR. How is it different than the original Pelletgage & how do you use it?
PelletgageR is designed to efficiently sort pellets for a specific, narrow size range. There are 48 apertures in the gage plates, all the same diameter. By using two gage plate (a “go” and a “no-go”) the user can quickly sort for the size desired. Pelletgage can be used to sort pellets, but only one at a time. Pelletgager is at least 10 or 20 times faster. PelletgageR can be used with two gage plates stacked and registered, so that when the pellet drops into the top plate, it can either catch on the larger aperture (oversized) catch on the lower aperture (desired size) or drop through the lower aperture (undersized).
Who would you recommend use the Pelletgage products?
Any “serious” airgun shooter. There have been quite a few sold to airgun dealers and people who write about the hobby. I don’t think purely casual shooters need this, and it won’t make a $100 gun group like an FX. I once shot a FT match with a very serious and well equipped shooter. We were squadded together, and he commented while shooting that he was surprised that people would pay $49 for this tool. I commented back to the guy (as he took aim with his Whiscombe rifle with March scope) that it surprised me that some people would invest so much money in airguns and not make every effort to get the best possible pellet. He said “you have a point”
.Right on Jerry, Thanks for spending a few minutes with us.
If ya'll have any questions for Jerry or want to share your experience with his products... please chime in!
