My Pellet Penetration Testing in The Field

[AirgunBill]

As many of you know I have been trying to find the best pellet for hunting groundhogs. This is with head shots thus requiring very good penetration through the tough groundhog skull. In the past I had no problem taking out over 200 groundhogs with a Talon SS in .22 cal. shooting the Beeman Kodiak 21.12 grain at 720 fps for 24 fpe at ranges up to 35 yards. The results in the test with the Beeman Kodiak might show why. So I was some what surprised when I was not as successful with my first outing with the Wildcat .25 caliber putting out 47 fpe. The two rifles I have been using is the Condor in .22 cal. and the Wildcat in .25 caliber. In my Condor I had finally had good success with the Eun Jin 28.5 grain dome pellet. At first with the Wildcat .25 cal. I was not as successful at using the JSB King at 25.39 grains. My initial theory was the .25 cal. with larger surface area compared to the .22 cal. was not penetrating as well and maybe because of softer lead too. Now I am using the JSB King MKII Heavy at 33.95 grains in the Wildcat with good success. I decided I needed to do some testing with plywood and modeling clay to test the relative difference in penetration between a variety of pellets in both the Condor .22 cal. and the Wildcat in .25 caliber. My basic thoughts before testing was that I would need heavy pellet with hard lead or a combination thereof to get good results. The other necessary factor for a good pellet was it must be accurate too. I had some surprising results with how pellets in both calibers performed. I now need to wring out some of the pellets for consistent accuracy to see if they will make a good groundhog pellet. Bill



Field Work with the Clay and Plywood

 

[AirgunBill]

I went out today to do some accuracy testing for the pellets used in the penetration testing. In my Wildcat .25 cal. the JSB King MKII Heavy were chosen for their excellent accuracy in my rifle and for coming in second in the penetration testing. For the Condor .22 cal the Eun Jin Pointed 32.4 grain were chosen for both their accuracy and coming in first in the .22 cal. penetration testing. One thing I did for the Eun Jin pellets was size them down in my Lee Size die that arrived recently. The die certainly made it easier to chamber these over sized pellets. I also learned something about my Condor in that if held tightly it will shoot better groups. I have always noticed the rifle moves a lot with the heavier after market hammer and maybe restricting its movement helps. Anyway the proof will be in the groups. My goal for the penetration testing was to find a pellet that would penetrate well on head shots on groundhogs or raccoons or other tough skull critters. I hope you guys get some useful information from my tests. Bill