Maximum distance for accurate pellet shooting.

[Vetmx]

I live in a built-up rural area with houses all around me and 99% of the time I shoot at my at my shooting range at home and my longest safe distance available is 150 meter and is done only for target shooting. At 150 meter the H&N 18gr pellets can do a 50mm 10 shot group, sometimes better, sometimes worse. So, one of the reasons I want to shoot pellets is that it reduce speed / energy at a high rate. Another reason is the cost, pellets are much cheaper than slugs and for the amount I am target shooting cost will add up a lot. The closest public long distance range is about 40km away from me and when I go there I use my PB rifles for the longer distance and leave the PCP rifles at home. Other private ranges close to me is shorter than what I have at home. If I hunt small game with the air rifle, which is only a few times a year, I don't take shots at life animals at long distance. So, slugs have no advantage for me as for others. If I do hunt a bit longer distance, I use one of my PB rifles. When hunting antelope I have set myself a 200 meter distance limit even if I can shoot good groups at 500 meter. I once wounded a blue wildebeest at long distance and it took me the best part of a day to track it down and give it a final shot. I vowed myself not to do it ever again. I also don't want to wound a bird or a hare or other small game so I make 100% sure about shot placement by not stretching the distance.

After two solid days of barrel machining and slug testing, tonight I broke out my RTI P2 currently set up for pellets. Just lovely out to 90 yards. No drama, no lubes, just dropping pellets on top of each other with a friendly gun with friendly settings. Pellet guns keep us sane and they are much safer.

 

[Caliber 22]

Pellet guns keep us sane and they are much safer.

Correct. Everybody has his own preferences.

 

[goldmaniam]

I live in a built-up rural area with houses all around me and 99% of the time I shoot at my shooting range at home and my longest safe distance available is 150 meter and is done only for target shooting. At 150 meter the H&N 18gr pellets can do a 50mm 10 shot group, sometimes better, sometimes worse. So, one of the reasons I want to shoot pellets is that it reduce speed / energy at a high rate. Another reason is the cost, pellets are much cheaper than slugs and for the amount I am target shooting cost will add up a lot. The closest public long distance range is about 40km away from me and when I go there I use my PB rifles for the longer distance and leave the PCP rifles at home. Other private ranges close to me is shorter than what I have at home. If I hunt small game with the air rifle, which is only a few times a year, I don't take shots at life animals at long distance. So, slugs have no advantage for me as for others. If I do hunt a bit longer distance, I use one of my PB rifles. When hunting antelope I have set myself a 200 meter distance limit even if I can shoot good groups at 500 meter. I once wounded a blue wildebeest at long distance and it took me the best part of a day to track it down and give it a final shot. I vowed myself not to do it ever again. I also don't want to wound a bird or a hare or other small game so I make 100% sure about shot placement by not stretching the distance.

I need to get something capable of more than 200 yards

 

[Altaros]

I live in a built-up rural area with houses all around me and 99% of the time I shoot at my shooting range at home and my longest safe distance available is 150 meter and is done only for target shooting. At 150 meter the H&N 18gr pellets can do a 50mm 10 shot group, sometimes better, sometimes worse. So, one of the reasons I want to shoot pellets is that it reduce speed / energy at a high rate. Another reason is the cost, pellets are much cheaper than slugs and for the amount I am target shooting cost will add up a lot. The closest public long distance range is about 40km away from me and when I go there I use my PB rifles for the longer distance and leave the PCP rifles at home. Other private ranges close to me is shorter than what I have at home. If I hunt small game with the air rifle, which is only a few times a year, I don't take shots at life animals at long distance. So, slugs have no advantage for me as for others. If I do hunt a bit longer distance, I use one of my PB rifles. When hunting antelope I have set myself a 200 meter distance limit even if I can shoot good groups at 500 meter. I once wounded a blue wildebeest at long distance and it took me the best part of a day to track it down and give it a final shot. I vowed myself not to do it ever again. I also don't want to wound a bird or a hare or other small game so I make 100% sure about shot placement by not stretching the distance.

yes if you want to stick to 150 yards then with a little luck the pellets should be enough. On the other hand, if the wind blows a bit more, shooting will be very difficult.
I understand your reasons though. They are practically the same, why, for example, I don't shoot long range fireams even though I have all the necessary permits for that.
I am discouraged by the distance (about 70km) of a suitable shooting range and also their length limitation (mostly up to 300-400m).
If you don't have a suitable longer distance, then pellets are the most suitable in this case, because you know that the impact energy will be negligible compared to a slug.
on the other hand, if you also shoot firearms, pellets airgun will not move you anywhere. It doesn't matter how you hold the rifle, it's very simple and fun to shoot.
For slugs with powers of 80 and more J, shooting requires a similar approach to firearms for maximum accuracy. If you make a mistake in holding the rifle and pulling the trigger, you can see it right away on the target, so it's a significantly cheaper way to improvement shooting skills that can be used on other rifles that airgun.
I know what I'm talking about, because when I switched from pellets when I had about 150,000 shots fired (caliber .177 and .22) and suddenly I used slugs, I found out that I can't shoot properly with a rifle where the recoil already has an effect.

It's good that everyone can choose what suits them, but the fact is that pellets will no longer move to a greater distance, they no longer have anything to offer, while slugs are very quickly approaching the characteristics and accuracy of firearms, and that is also the goal of our company.

 

[Franklink]

......slugs are very quickly approaching the characteristics and accuracy of firearms, and that is also the goal of our company.....

Slippery slope.

SOME pellets can be shot accurately to relatively long range. I spent a couple hours on Sat shooting most of a tin from 10-225yards. And it was only fun cuz they were going where I wanted.

And shooting 80-90% of a 500count tin of pellets cost me maybe $12-14.

There certainly is a segment of the industry very interested in exactly what you're doing. And again, that's a slippery slope.

 

[Caliber 22]

And shooting 80-90% of a 500count tin of pellets cost me maybe $12-14.

The smoking and drinking people spend more than that on one night and have a headache the next morning.

 

[Franklink]

The smoking and drinking people spend more than that on one night and have a headache the next morning.

Yep. Was making the point that 350-400 shots taken with pellets is a $12-14 endeavour, whereas that many shots with Altaros slugs would run ya most of the way to $90-100$, something like 6-8x more expensive. So in that regard, yes, very much like shooting firearms.

 

[Caliber 22]

Some time ago I compared shooting slugs to shooting .22LR. For me, I decided the .22LR was the better choice and it is not much more expensive than slugs. I can shoot the .22LR at home as with a silencer it is very quiet, but again, the safety factor dictates that I shoot much more pellets than the .22LR. The LR is very accurate at 100 meter and up to 200 meter where I did shoot it to but I don't see a point of shooting it beyond that distance were the centre fire rifles excel.

 

[Franklink]

Sorry OP, somewhat off topic but that's kinda where the discussion has lead ....

Some time ago I compared shooting slugs to shooting .22LR. For me, I decided the .22LR was the better choice and it is not much more expensive than slugs. I can shoot the .22LR at home as with a silencer it is very quiet, but again, the safety factor dictates that I shoot much more pellets than the .22LR. The LR is very accurate at 100 meter and up to 200 meter where I did shoot it to but I don't see a point of shooting it beyond that distance were the centre fire rifles excel.

About 12 years ago I was finishing my clinical residencies and found myself in western Nebraska for a few months during the summer. My preceptor came from a farming/ranching family and in the course of discussion mentioned that her dad had a prairie dog problem in some of their pivot fields. Ho boy! I had a .22 long rifle buried under most of my earthly possessions as far back and deep in my trunk as it could go. I spent most Saturdays that summer, out on their pivot fields shooting prairie dogs with that .22 long rifle. Killed a lot of dogs, and many of them were stepped off past 150 yards. And that was with cheap rimfire ammo!

The easy button for 80-130fpe shooting at up to 200 yards is .22 rimfire. Air rifle slugs are the hard way to do the same thing.

 

[Caliber 22]

The easy button for 80-130fpe shooting at up to 200 yards is .22 rimfire. Air rifle slugs are the hard way to do the same thing.

Jip, I can leave my .22Lr in the safe for a year, (not that I do it) take it out and it will shoot the same as I left it a year ago, doing sub-moa groups from shot #1. No pumping, no pumps or compressors stop working, no leaks, no POI shift, no loss of power, almost no weather influence and no replacing of O-rings. I can also choose the energy output I want, from 30fpe up to 200fpe just by changing ammo. But, with all it's obstacles I still like my PCP with pellets for around the house shooting.

 

[Franklink]

Jip, I can leave my .22Lr in the safe for a year, (not that I do it) take it out and it will shoot the same as I left it a year ago, doing sub-moa groups from shot #1. No pumping, no pumps or compressors stop working, no leaks, no POI shift, no loss of power, almost no weather influence and no replacing of O-rings. I can also choose the energy output I want, from 30fpe up to 200fpe just by changing ammo. But, with all it's obstacles I still like my PCP with pellets for around the house shooting.

Yep yep.

The safety, price, and convenience of pellets (and even SOME relatively low powered slugs) swing the equation back to airguns.

 

[Franklink]

What is the maximum distance you shoot pellets and get good accuracy?

Personally I am not interested in shooting slugs. I know all the benefits thereof but it is not my thing.

Most shooters change over to slugs at long distance so I cannot get good info by searching.

To help back back on topic...

The best long range pellet I've personally found is the .20/15.89. BC of about 0.048. From a 1:17.7, 12 groove Lothar at 915-930fps, it'll hold accuracy out as far as I've tried, which is 270-280yards.

I shot it a bunch this past Saturday to 225 yards and they were doing great. Pdog shooting accurate for sure, and they're about 12-15" long and about 2-3" wide in my area. Kill shots are usually in the front/top half of that body size (head or vitals). So the .20/15.89 can keep em in a 2-3" wide by 6-7" long/tall intended impact point much further than most will think reasonable.

 

[dizzums]

my max 'accurate enough' distance for pesting is 80yds and thats .177-.357 .. beyond that i just have never had to shoot that far but i imagine i could learn holdovers enough to push it a bit further, but you start getting into 'feet' of drop its not really realistic imo.. never saw the point of slugs, dont need em around here

 

[Trent A]

Have asked this to over a half dozen people that know a lot more than myself and pretty universally the answer was that they are good to around 100 yards and then things start getting pretty iffy in short fashion.

I'm new to PCP so can't speak for that realm first hand yet. I know my Diana 54 AirKing (a springer with a internal chassis to eliminate needing to 'hold' it correctly to get good accuracy) in .22 would keep fairly tight groups with a variety of pellets out to 75 yards, but when I backed it out to 100 yards my groups opened up to around 5-6+ inches. Not sure where it has its drop off as I never tried distances between those two points.

Of note, I also was not using premium pellets, and only even had a couple JSB options that I was shooting at the time, everything else I tested was under that price point, so with heavier JSB or better pellet selection maybe (probably) would have kept better groups at 100 yards, maybe more. At the time I shot probably 90% Crosman premiers, as all my springers shot them well, and at the time they were still $7 a tin of 500.

 

[Altaros]

Slippery slope.

SOME pellets can be shot accurately to relatively long range. I spent a couple hours on Sat shooting most of a tin from 10-225yards. And it was only fun cuz they were going where I wanted.

And shooting 80-90% of a 500count tin of pellets cost me maybe $12-14.

There certainly is a segment of the industry very interested in exactly what you're doing. And again, that's a slippery slope

In this discussion, it is first the most important to define some terms, as accuracy to a specified distance.
For me, the shooting is when I am able to hit a target of 1.5- 2MOA, for example, from 50- 100% of cases when I do my work correctly within reasonable limits( wind estimation with an error up to 2-3 km/h )

Pellets at a distance of 150 or more yards simply do not have this accuracy from physical nature, as 2km/h wind (around 1 mph) will make drift by more than 10cm (4 inches). Not to mention the vertical deviation from the muzzle velocity variation and acceleration or drop in the wind from 6 or 12.
So I do not have even to see specific airgun so I can tell for sure that accurate shooting with pellets at a distance of 150 yards and more, according to the definition in the introduction, is not possible.
Yes, Pellet are good, cheap, safe at a certain distance and to a requirement for some accuracy, but this list ends.

Sorry OP, somewhat off topic but that's kinda where the discussion has lead ....



About 12 years ago I was finishing my clinical residencies and found myself in western Nebraska for a few months during the summer. My preceptor came from a farming/ranching family and in the course of discussion mentioned that her dad had a prairie dog problem in some of their pivot fields. Ho boy! I had a .22 long rifle buried under most of my earthly possessions as far back and deep in my trunk as it could go. I spent most Saturdays that summer, out on their pivot fields shooting prairie dogs with that .22 long rifle. Killed a lot of dogs, and many of them were stepped off past 150 yards. And that was with cheap rimfire ammo!

The easy button for 80-130fpe shooting at up to 200 yards is .22 rimfire. Air rifle slugs are the hard way to do the same thing.

This depends on the point of view. 22LR can be an interesting alternative in the US, where you do not have to shoot at the shooting range. In Europe in almost all countries, you have to shoot with .22LR at the shooting range (except hunting), but it is no longer an obligation to shoot at all countries with airgun, in many countries you can shoot almost anywhere if it safe.
If you add that there is a minimum of shooting ranges in many states where you can shoot at a longer distance of than 100m, suddenly find out how huge advantage is to shoot with airgun on hundreds of meters, for example, on your own meadow or agricultural land.

Moreover, there are not many rifles .22LR that would show similar results as in this last my video and certainly not with cheaper ammunition than the used slugs:

When we go over a longer distance so .22 lr will be just worse and worse

Hard to shoot with slag can be when it does not choose a suitable set, but not when a suitable choice of equipment is made.

 

[Franklink]

The easy button for 80-130fpe shooting at up to 200 yards is .22 rimfire. Air rifle slugs are the hard way to do the same thing.

Hard to shoot with slag can be when it does not choose a suitable set, but not when a suitable choice of equipment is made.

A large part of why I said 100ish fpe is most easily done with a rimfire is because of the AIR part of shooting airguns.

High pressure air is a hassle, especially at the power levels necessary for an air powered slug to get to 80+ fpe. The "hassle" of HPA is all of the peripherals, the compressors and fill stations and etc. plus the dragging tanks around, or even worse, being shackled to a tank when tethering, like the old ball and chain of prisoners.

Regardless of chosen equipment when launching air powered slugs near rimfire fpe, that HPA component is there. With a rimfire you need the gun, and a box of ammo.

As for the safety that you also mentioned, fpe = fpe. Whether it came from a rimfire or an air powered slug. If it's not safe to shoot a rimfire in a certain area (due to fpe), it's also not safe to shoot an air powered slug of the same fpe.

I get it, I really do, for the sluggalos in the industry right now it's about pushing limits and seeing what is possible. The BC gains possible over pellets is huge, with downrange gains of performance commensurate to the BC. It's simply taking the hard road to get there.

And to try to drag it back to the original topic again, pellets are not hitting a wall at 100yards, beyond which they're no longer a viable option. There ARE pellets possible of hitting the killing half of a prairie dog out to 200yards with surprising success rates. (Again, a kill zone of about 5-6 inches long by about 2 inches wide).

 

[Caliber 22]

In this discussion, it is first the most important to define some terms, as accuracy to a specified distance.
For me, the shooting is when I am able to hit a target of 1.5- 2MOA, for example, from 50- 100% of cases when I do my work correctly within reasonable limits( wind estimation with an error up to 2-3 km/h )

Pellets at a distance of 150 or more yards simply do not have this accuracy from physical nature, as 2km/h wind (around 1 mph) will make drift by more than 10cm (4 inches).

Lately I don't get much time to shoot as my work is keeping me busy and I am glad about it as I am working freelance and work was quiet for a while. Anyway, the last time I was shooting long-distance-pellet at home was at my 144 meter / 157 yard plate. Using a 6 year old Artemis M22 and H&N Baracuda pellets, sorted by head size, I shot a 50mm / 1.22 MOA group. There was a light breeze from right to left. I did shoot similar and even smaller groups but then there were also some flyers dirtying the groups and nothing to show. With this one, I actually planed to shoot more but stopped to take the picture before I mess it up. The picture was taken at a angle because that was how I saw the plate when shooting. The plate is 200x200mm. I did show this picture a few times here on AGN. Also at 100 meter I was once shooting on a dirty plate (lots of shots on it) and about 10 pellets hit all within 20mm, again I could not show it because of the dirty plate. I know it is nothing special for slugs or for high end rifles but for me, the rifle and 18gr pellets I think it was good.

I had a few tins of the batch I used to shoot this groups and other very satisfying groups. Unfortunately those pellets are finished and I could not get more of the same. The other tins I got have different batch numbers and don't shoot the same.

 

[Franklink]

Lately I don't get much time to shoot as my work is keeping me busy and I am glad about it as I am working freelance and work was quiet for a while. Anyway, the last time I was shooting long-distance-pellet at home was at my 144 meter / 157 yard plate. Using a 6 year old Artemis M22 and H&N Baracuda pellets, sorted by head size, I shot a 50mm / 1.22 MOA group....

View attachment 464124

1.22MOA @ 157 yards with pellets you say?!?!
You mean to say it didn't hit an invisible wall @ 101 yards and just fall benignly, straight to the earth?

1.22MOA @ 157 yards is good stuff, pellets or slugs. Great shooting.

Played with some numbers, and based on one e ballistics app, and quite a few assumptions, that 18gr pellet would still have around 12fpe @ 150-160yards. (Assuming BC of about 0.033-0.035 and muzzle speed of 900fps). Lots of Brits would tell you about the efficacy of just 12fpe at the muzzle, you've still got that muxh downrange. Plenty for up to about rabbit size for example.

 

[Caliber 22]

Later that evening I shot this group, not as good but still OK. It was after sunset and by the time I got to the plate at was quite dark as can be seen in the picture.

 

[Ballisticboy]

There are things that could be done to pellets, or more precisely pellet shaped projectiles, to make them more suitable for long range shooting. Making heavy pellets by putting all the extra mass at the front rather than filling up the flare at the back would help to avoid the dreaded spirals. Controlling the rate of decay of spin with velocity would also be a huge advantage. It is all a matter of getting the centre of gravity and the centre of pressure as far apart as possible and avoiding the dreaded increase in yaw wave length at long ranges.

As for the wind drift, in order to reduce this, the pellets need lower drag. Most of the drag on pellets comes in the form of base drag on the flare, unless you are shooting at silly speeds. There are ways of reducing the flare drag which would complicate the pellet design, but it could be done. Of course, there is the question of if it is worth it or not for a relatively small market, and the drag would still be higher than that of a specifically designed subsonic slug.

But there are still definitely things which could be done to pellets to make them more suitable.