Inclement Weather Activities Sorting Pellets with the PelletGage

[Ezana4CE]

After reading, researching, watching videos, and asking questions I was led to this product. It’s a pretty straight forward system designed to sort pellets by head size. 

Assembly was quick and easy. It comes with everything needed to assemble except a screwdriver and you can get away with not using one. Instructions are easy and the company owner, Jerry Cupples, is thorough in his explanation. 
Drop a pellet in and be sure it is vertical. The pellet should freely fall through the closest sized hole. No need to force them. If it falls through really easily try using the next smallest hole until the pellet doesn’t fall into it. I have been rotating the pellets and using very light pressure on the skirts if they drop with the slightest pressure, I think that is acceptable.

Once the head falls through the skirt will catch on the gauge and the pellet will be suspended in the gauge. 

To remove the pellet I’m flipping it upside down, grabbing the skirt firmly, and gently removing it. 

This is difficult to demonstrate one-handed. 

Next the pellet goes into the appropriately labeled container. 


This is my first time doing this. I’m hoping to get better results. I need that first shot to be a good one. If you’ve seen my posts with pictures of my groups, it’s obvious that I also need practice. This should help eliminate flyers so I can better focus on improving my shooting habits and technique. 

Thank you @Airgun-Hobbyist and @Tominco for your assistance leading me to this product. Tom has videos where he goes into much more detail about his sorting process.


If interested you can find this product at www.PelletGage.com, AOA, and Baker Airguns. If you’re already ordering from the above vendors, consider ordering one with your other items. If you only want the PelletGage go to www.PelletGage.com and order direct from Jerry shipping is cheaper that way. I got mine from Jerry in 4 days via USPS during a snow storm. Oh yea and as I understand it, they’re made in the USA if that means anything to you. 

 

[biohazardman]

Yup they make some great useful products for the incurably OCD. ;^) I have one for each caliber and a sorter also which I don't see offered at this time.



Just in case you missed this here it is.

https://www.airgun101.com/index.php/component/allvideoshare/video/pellet-sorting-pt-4-yrrah-roll?Itemid=421

 

[rsfrid]

I first sort by weight, then head size. It has pretty much eliminated fliers.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@biohazardman What type of sorter?

@rsfrid Which type of scale are you using? How reliable and consistent is it?

 

[SkwirrelBeware]

Noob here, as a few of you know... So you're actually taking a tin and resorting for factory imperfections? Size, weight, etc.?

Aiming you're using a scale @rsfrid that measures to the thousandth of a gram?

I appreciate the time you take in the vetting for anything that reduces accuracy.

 

[douger]

THATS LOTTA WORK I WISH I HAD THE PATIENCE TO DO THAT 

 

[Ezana4CE]

Noob here, as a few of you know... So you're actually taking a tin and resorting for factory imperfections? Size, weight, etc.?

Aiming you're using a scale @rsfrid that measures to the thousandth of a gram?

I appreciate the time you take in the vetting for anything that reduces accuracy.

@SkwirrelBeware The goal is to open a tin of pellets, go through them, sort out deformed pellets, then sort by weight and head size. There’s more to it than what I’ve posted. Some people also wash and lube their pellets. I will also wash mine. I posted this to try out my PelletGage and demonstrate its ease of use as someone new to the process and it is a process. @Tominco explains it pretty well in his videos. Checkout the airgun101 link above that @Biohazardman posted. 
And the goal is to increase accuracy, but I think you meant to “reduce inaccuracy.”

 

[biohazardman]

@biohazardman What type of sorter?

@rsfrid Which type of scale are you using? How reliable and consistent is it?

The sorter is in the upper right of the pic and was sold by the PelletGauge people. It's a manual affair dump pellets in the sorter shake to put them in the holes and then take a look at them to sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly ones. The included paddle lets you turn the whole group over from viewing the skirt to view the head.

I am using an inexpensive Horrnady scale. It werqs well but then drifts up to .3 of a grn fairly regularly, after a bit, so you have to be on a constant watch when you are weighing.

 

[Mg616]

Sort 'em out for mental health. I'm on the dual pelletgage bulk sorter ( 4.53 & 4.51) to confirm 4.52, then weigh, then clean path.

 

[rsfrid]

I use this scale most of time - it does hundredths, not thousandth. I batch the pellets into 6 thousandths groups. So, for instance 25.30-25.36. I started with smaller batches, but didn't see any difference. So my regimen is like this: weigh into batches, head size with pelletgage, lube in batches using Old English furniture polish, fill tins and seal tins with masking tape to keep dry. I dry the pellets in my moisture controlled storage vault which stays below 35% humidity. All this is for pellets capable of very small groups during bench rest shooting. For hunting or plinking, I use the culls from weighing and head sizing. They get lubed as well. Lubing cuts down on amount of barrel cleaning I have to do.

 

[SqrlHntr]

I first sort by weight, then head size. It has pretty much eliminated fliers.

+1 on that order. They get grouped into a tune tin and a competition tin with stragglers for the casting. Lord knows I’ll do just fine missing a shot on my own, but eliminating as many flyers as possible has helped. Couple of flyers had me second guessing myself after a FT match, been sorting ever since. 

 

[trlrman]

That's the Speedy Pellet Checker I believe is what Jerry calls it ,that Bio is talking about. You may need to get ahold of Jerry on the contact page to see about getting 1 . Love mine !!

 

[Ezana4CE]

@rsfrid Thanks for the detailed explanation. I have a couple of scales I use for measuring liquids, but I’m unsure if they’ll be good to use for lead grain weight. I’ve been looking at some for about a week and I’m trying to determine which are reliable options. I have calibration weights as well, but I’d like something that remains accurate for extended periods after calibration.

@biohazardman Your sorter almost sounds like an inspection tool. Are you saying that it just holds pellets in groups so you can examine them faster for defects or deformities? Do you find that it works well for you? I’ll have to contact Jerry and get some more info on that sorter and to see if it’s something he still offers. 

I first sort by weight, then head size. It has pretty much eliminated fliers.

+1 on that order. They get grouped into a tune tin and a competition tin with stragglers for the casting. Lord knows I’ll do just fine missing a shot on my own, but eliminating as many flyers as possible has helped. Couple of flyers had me second guessing myself after a FT match, been sorting ever since.

My sentiments exactly.


Thanks for the replies folks. If you have any more suggestions I’m open to them. 

 

[runner57us]

I worked as an Industrial Engineer for a company that made fasteners out of precious metals. Statistical analysis of the size and weight variance was a major cost control issue. To that end, we designed a mostly automatic system to sore head sizes and I wonder if anyone has employed a similar system to sort pellets.

Basically, you would need one of the cheap lab vibrators ($50 - $100), a fixture, and several pellet head hole plates in which all the holes in a plate are the same size. You would start with the smallest size plate and put it in the fixture which would be on top of the vibrator, dump a fair size quantity of pellets in the fixture on top of the hole plate and let the one with heads smaller than the plate holes be vibrated into position and fall thru the holes into a container labeled with the head size. Once complete you would then switch to the next bigger size plate in the fixture and dump the remaining pellets on top. Run it again with a new container under to catch the correct size pellets. You would continue this process until you have used all the head-size plates desired or run out of pellets. From what I remember from the operation of the automated system we used it would take about 30 seconds to 1 minute per plate using a tin of 500 pellets. First, run would be the slowest, and then it would get faster as the number of unsorted pellets decreased.

So if you are sorting 10 different sizes it would take about 15 minutes to sort a tin of 500 pellets giving some time for setup and plate changes.

Just a concept that I was wondering if anyone had used and since I have never sorted pellets I am not sure how long it takes and if this would be a meaningful improvement?

 

[qball]

Oh my! My neck hurts just reading this thread!