Hades vs Crow Magnum 22

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M

Michigander

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Aug 13, 2017
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Michigan, United States
I just bought a can of the JSB Hades pellets in .22 and had to see for myself how expansion of this new pellet compared to that of the Crow Magnum with its massive forward cavity. From prior experience I knew water to be an excellent medium for initiating hydraulic expansion, so I filled a vinegar bottle full of water and closed off the open end with a piece of plastic bag sealed with a rubber band. The bottle was refilled and resealed for each shot. I then used my Streamline to shoot into the sealed end at 15 and 25 yards with these results.



1563472064_7615338915d30b0c03783b1.61513611_Hades vs Crow Magnum.jpg


On the left you see the protruding head of the JSB 15.9 after passing through 11 1/4" of water and halfway through the back wall of the bottle. This was at 25 yards. To the right are the Crow Magnum and Hades pellets unfired, at 25 yards and then 15 yards. None of these made it to the back wall of the bottle. Head diameters were estimated using calipers for the unfired and Crow Magnum pellets, and a drill stand for the Hades pellets. For the expanded Hades, I choose the hole that best matched the diameter of the three lobes.

You can draw your own conclusions. For me the most interesting outcome was the impressive penetration of the standard JSB 15.9. Considering that our soft tissues are around 75% water, this penetration level shows the danger of even a moderately powerful "pellet gun". Also interesting are the differences in energy retention. With the traditional hollow point design like the Crow Magnum there appears to be a tradeoff between degree of expansion and B.C./energy retention. Newer designs like the Hades do a better job of providing good expansion while retaining ballistic efficiency.

Chuck


 
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Yes the Crow Magnum has excellent expansion but with that big hollow point I find if you push them too fast the accuracy is poor. I would imagine with the Hades you can push them faster and maintain accuracy and good expansion. I think the trick is to find the distance and accuracy needed for your target and then find the best performing pellet for the job Bill


 
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I see my table is cut off in the iPad. It looks fine on the computer. In case anyone is interested in the numbers, here is the info for just the Hades and Crow Magnum so you can compare.





As far as accuracy goes, I need to test the Hades myself and will post some target photos when done. I have never obtained great accuracy from the Crow Mags in either .177 or .22. I get somewhere around 3/4" at 25 yards out of the Streamline, which is minute of squirrel I suppose. This compares to more like 1/4" to 3/8" with the standard JSB 15.9s. I am hoping that the Hades can hold good accuracy out to 50 yards, although at that distance I don't expect much expansion anyway.

Chuck
 
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Yes the Crow Magnum has excellent expansion but with that big hollow point I find if you push them too fast the accuracy is poor. I would imagine with the Hades you can push them faster and maintain accuracy and good expansion. I think the trick is to find the distance and accuracy needed for your target and then find the best performing pellet for the job Bill

Click to expand...

Nail on the head. I got them flying out at ~930ish+ & at 30 yards pretty much single hole group. Have no experience with CMs though. 
 
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Well here are the 50 yard accuracy test results out of my Streamline. Your results may vary.



1563496014_20028893025d310e4ea46878.45515192_Hades Accuracy.jpg




At first glance it all looks fine. Hades is hitting a little lower than the standard JSBs, and groups are just a little bigger. But then I see that the Hades holes are ragged, and the groups show a horizontal spread. I have seen this before, and it usually means that the pellets are exhibiting yaw downrange. In this case, it is not extreme enough to show a clear imprint of the skirt, but the lower POI, horizontal spread and ragged holes point to lack of stability. To convince myself that I wasn't imagining things, I shot 4 extra pellets in an area of the target where the backing was intact, and still see the ragged holes. My Streamline also did not stabilize the 18.1 JSBs very well, so this result is not totally unexpected. The practical implication is that the Hades may show more than usual wind drift, and possibly fliers out of my particular rifle.

As for explanations, I did find that my tin of Hades pellets had a smaller head diameter than the standard JSBs, 5.48 versus 5.52. I don't know if this is a factor affecting stability or not.

Chuck


 
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I braved the humidity to test the Hades again at 50 yards. I had to use my wife's hairdryer to warm up the scope to keep it from fogging. I don't know how Steve of AEAC stands it. The purpose of this test was to see if I could find convincing evidence of the yawing and instability that I suspected at longer ranges. This time I shot through a piece of heavy paper backed with cardboard in the hopes it would reveal the elongated holes that are the signature of bullet/pellet yaw. In the attached photo you can see that there are usually longer tears on one side of the holes made by the Hades pellets whereas the holes made by standard JSBs are more symmetrical. I was working my way from left to right as I shot and the wind was beginning to pick up a bit. I marked the direction of the tears and found that most were off to the right of the hole. Which is interesting because the wind was from right to left, almost as if the wind was pushing the nose slightly left.

This is very mild instability, but could still cause some problems in the wind because yaw will reduce BC. The effects of yaw were much easier to see when I was experimenting with the 18.1 JSBs. In this case you could see the clear imprint of sideways pellets, and 50 yard velocities were all over the map. I should say though that after breaking in the Streamline the stability problems with the 18.1 grain pellets largely disappeared.

Also in the photo is another 50 yard group with the Hades. A little smaller this time but still with that horizontal spread. The bottom line for me and my particular rifle is going to be that the Hades will be fine for closer distances where the expansion characteristics offer some advantages, but the standard 15.9 JSBs are the better choice for longer distances where there is not likely to be much expansion anyway.



1563545996_13171233295d31d18cf2ff54.06228224_Hades Accuracy Stability.jpg




Chuck
 
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I had to test the cm today. My gun is shooting the 25cal mk2 heavies at 850ish FPS. The cm were doing 940-950. They grouped okay at 30 but at started to open up, sorry no pics. Everything around me is flooded and my paper target fell and got wet(fell apart). The field I usually shoot in is 1700yards to the next home and has grass 2.5ft tall and flooded right now, I had to put on waders just to set up a target. But they really hammer a starling within 30yards and it sounds like you hit them with a 2x4!
 
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