Looking for head measurement device

[JasonBowlin]

So I’ve got the pellet gauge but not really trusting it, mine seems to have some of the holes partially covered with the clear shield, I’ve emailed the company with no response, but even if it were perfect there seems to be a great deal of user error induced. I saw a device that Ray Pratt built that I’d like to try but can’t find one and an air gauge that dan brown built but can’t find one of those either. I’ve tried getting contact information for both to no avail. Can anyone point me in the right direction or give me a better way? Don’t shoot benchrest....yet but would definitely be interested in. I do however love shooting tiny groups and sorting pellets seems to be a big part of that equation.

thanks in advance 

 

[Gerry52]

Calipers is the easy way for me. Harbor Freight Tools. Happy New Year! 

 

[Vana2]

I've been using Pelletgages (.177; .22 & .25) for sorting for quite some time now and wanted to say that you can't just assemble it and expect everything to line up perfectly - it takes a fair bit of fiddling to get things right. Tolerances are tight, rather than trying to align all the holes at once, concentrate on getting the most important ones (those close to the nominal head size) perfect and accept that the others might be off a bit. Increasing the size of the mounting holes in the plastic guide plate gives you more latitude to align the guide plate with the stainless steel measuring plate and makes things much easier.

Like anything a bit of tweaking often helps. I found that raising the plastic guide plate off of the SS plate by putting a washer in between them helps to tip the pellet vertically so that it is easier to drop in. I made a thicker guide plate for my .22 gage (my main caliber) and chamfered the edge slightly to make it faster to use.

I never force the pellet - if it doesn't drop right in then I will gently tap on the head of the pellet (from below) to give it a chance to straighten and settle. I don't spend a lot of time trying to get the pellet to fit - either it does or it doesn't and I go to the next hole.

My way of sorting might not tell me the exact size of the pellet but I am consistent in the way I sort so my results are consistent as well. For my purposes I don't think that a slight size variance is going to make a huge difference to my groups (I could wish LOL!), my main purpose in sorting is to screen out extreme variance in size and weight.

I tried using calipers and found it very difficult to get consistent measurements - the lead is too soft and if the pellet is not exactly square to the jaws the measurement is off. Found the Pelletgage to be quite practical to use.

Hope this helps.

 

[Eddie_E]

I don't think calipers work well on pellets. If you do need to measure with calipers, skip the Harbor Freight ones. I have one of their metal calipers and 2 of their plastic and sadly, none of them are machinist level accuracy. In fact the metal is worse than the plastic and has never given the same number twice on the same part.

I switched to a brand called Vinca and they always give a perfect reading that's accurate 4 decimal places in inches or 2 decimal in metric.. Same price as HF if you buy on Amazon.

 

[JasonBowlin]

I’m somewhat of a machinist and have several sets of mitutoyo digital dial calipers but it’s just not very repeatable. Just looking for a better way. I really liked the device that Ray Pratt made and sent to ted at Ted’s holdover....he has a couple of videos on YouTube about it. Unfortunately it seems it was very limited production and the air gauge by Dan Brown even more so....I guess I’ll keep fiddling with the pellet gauge until I come up with something better. 


thanks JB

 

[JasonBowlin]

Found what I was looking for thanks all.....moderators please delete