Pellet Quality with JSB Exact Jumbo Vs Premier Ultra Magnum

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I shoot these two pellets most often in my HW95, but I have a hard time getting the JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy Diabolos to have consistently good skirts. Now you can see in the photos above that the Premier Ultra Magnum (down at 14.3 gr like their other pellets) is seamed together and therefore has a visible line down the middle, but otherwise has a very consistent quality control pellet to pellet which is always appreciated (I wish when I had the Exacts come in they would be the same). Between batches of the premiers I’ve noticed however that they tend to be a hair under the advertised 5.5mm, whereas the Exacts are more snug and I don’t get a variation on the diameter (excluding skirt).



Has anyone else had their skirt problems? And what holds you up on the Premiers if you dislike them? Don’t get me wrong I am not a Crosman apologist, but I love the consistency of the skirt quality as it stabilizes more predictably over greater distances.



Thanks, Columbo
 
I sort my JSB pellets and have very few like only 5 or 6 per tin with bad skirts. There are many more with defects to their heads that I put in the practice tin. Most of the practice tin pellets shoot nearly as well as my sorted pellets though. I think the way the pellets are packed and handled when shipped can add to the number of damaged skirts. I would expect you may get a bad tin, with more damaged skirts, from the factory every now and then as well.

The regular Premier's don't shoot quite as well as the JSB's in my of my guns.


 
Yeah I like the Jumbos, but I keep getting bad batches, and I mean bad. The most recent tin was about 3/5ths damaged skirts, almost as though someone put a whole ton of damaged ones together and placed a few non damaged ones just for show. They are expensive compared to Premiers, but I would rather go Exact Jumbos every instance I need ammo except for the dicey quality.



Is that a marker you’ve used for the tops?
 
You can fix the skirts just run a pen twisty the skirts a little. I shared a simple push thru die using a metal ball point pen with file for a 177 in a Crosman Piranha thread. You just need a metal pen and a blunt nail to push thru. Works. You flare your skirts first then run it thru your push thru DIY pen die. Undersized is another story you May or may not have to tap with a small hammer in extreme cases then run it thru the pen after flaring the skirts. Most cases just flaring skirts for undersized pellets works. Yo!
 
I’ve noticed the Premier HPs are actually the best of the premiers. But tractor supply, I literally just found out, has $2 better price under Walzmart. 


I wouldn’t reshape them, as my time is worth more then reshaping pellets. I’ll just by another couple tins. I don’t mind separating them since I do that while shooting anyway.




 
I shoot both and have seen some JSB's with bent skirts. The shirts on the JSB's are thin and the lead is soft which is why I suspect they bend easily. The lead can be resized with a .22 cal rimfire bullet by simply pressing and twisting but unless seriously deformed I let it go because the air pressure seems to be enough to seal. If the damage is bad I discard. There is a reason the JSB"s cost more than the Crosmans. You always have to find the pellet that your gun likes but I used to measure head diameters on the Crosman and it was typical to find 20% per tin that were too small to shoot. We are talking 5.2 to 5.3mm. Lately however they all seem to be 5.45 to 5.52 so I no longer measure the entire tin. I now measure about 30 and if ok that is it. I will say however that if you want to talk concentricity the JSB pellets put the Crosman pellets to shame. 
 
I believe a large part of the skirt/pellet damage could be due to the source, packaging and shipping of the pellets. JSB's are pretty soft in comparison to other brands and the skirts are the first part that seems to get roughed up. 

These are a random sample of my tins sourced from the distributor, so I believe the JSB factory takes great care in packaging their pellets.

After they leave the US distributor, it's anyone's guess.

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Okay sorry for the delay. Check this out. Kind of hard to tell in a photo but I would say %50 of them have damaged skirts (the last three batches from different sources were the same). I agree I love them compared to Crosman or whatever else you give me, but heck it sucks being out 250 pellets right away.

Maybe I should find a new shipping solution other than UPS (I’m pretty fond of them over USPS the “toss the box that says fragile service).