Life has conspired to keep me from shooting very much in recent weeks, but I did get out yesterday to test a recent order of pellets in the Cricket II Tactical.
I found that H&N Baracuda Match 21.4 grain pellets in 5.51 mm head size shot great in choked cricket barrels. Well, I am glad that I only got one tin of them! This longer unchoked barrel thought differently of them. I chose to not even finish a 5 shot group. It's worth noting that it was a VERY windy day, but I could clearly see the pellets corkscrewing downrange. The gun was set pretty hot. 1.25 turns OUT on the hammer spring. This resulted in velocities around 950 fps.
65 yards with H&N Baracuda Match 5.51mm
The other H&N pellet I got was the new 18 grain. I chose wisely and ordered 3 tins of these pellets. At the same hammer spring setting as the H&N BMs (good acronym for them, right?) these 18s were humming along at an average velocity of 1017 fps. And while I apparently forgot to snap a pic of my earlier targets (when it nailed a great 53 yard group...) these 18s did pretty respectably at 65 yards (again given the winds that day).
65 yards with H&N 18s
I did a holdover guess on the top group of 5 shots (1.5 mildot holdover) and then finished the mag (9 more shots) with no holdover and no compensation for the wind. The cool thing with these was the LACK of spiraling given the pretty high velocity. I could see them go down range and unlike the BMs, these flew straight and true at over 1000 fps.
So far, I would say these H&N 18s stack up pretty favorably from an accuracy perspective. The one negative for both is that they simply don't cycle as well through the magazines as JSBs or JSB variants like the FX 18s.
So yeah, I know I'm shooting these pellets considerably faster than the prescribed ideal speed. But from my experience with crickets, they just are more consistent when they're shot with a pretty stout hammer spring hit. This will become doubly true when we're heading into fall and winter and the gun will be used in below freezing temperatures.
I'll be circling back with a cricket vs. cricket pellet test with the BMs. Let's see if this newest tin of 5.51mm BMs can still shoot decently in my chocked cricket barrel... stay tuned.
I found that H&N Baracuda Match 21.4 grain pellets in 5.51 mm head size shot great in choked cricket barrels. Well, I am glad that I only got one tin of them! This longer unchoked barrel thought differently of them. I chose to not even finish a 5 shot group. It's worth noting that it was a VERY windy day, but I could clearly see the pellets corkscrewing downrange. The gun was set pretty hot. 1.25 turns OUT on the hammer spring. This resulted in velocities around 950 fps.
65 yards with H&N Baracuda Match 5.51mm
The other H&N pellet I got was the new 18 grain. I chose wisely and ordered 3 tins of these pellets. At the same hammer spring setting as the H&N BMs (good acronym for them, right?) these 18s were humming along at an average velocity of 1017 fps. And while I apparently forgot to snap a pic of my earlier targets (when it nailed a great 53 yard group...) these 18s did pretty respectably at 65 yards (again given the winds that day).
65 yards with H&N 18s
I did a holdover guess on the top group of 5 shots (1.5 mildot holdover) and then finished the mag (9 more shots) with no holdover and no compensation for the wind. The cool thing with these was the LACK of spiraling given the pretty high velocity. I could see them go down range and unlike the BMs, these flew straight and true at over 1000 fps.
So far, I would say these H&N 18s stack up pretty favorably from an accuracy perspective. The one negative for both is that they simply don't cycle as well through the magazines as JSBs or JSB variants like the FX 18s.
So yeah, I know I'm shooting these pellets considerably faster than the prescribed ideal speed. But from my experience with crickets, they just are more consistent when they're shot with a pretty stout hammer spring hit. This will become doubly true when we're heading into fall and winter and the gun will be used in below freezing temperatures.
I'll be circling back with a cricket vs. cricket pellet test with the BMs. Let's see if this newest tin of 5.51mm BMs can still shoot decently in my chocked cricket barrel... stay tuned.
