After all these years shooting spring piston air rifles I have finally come to grips with something that probably a lot of you will just say : "Well, duh". But maybe some newcomers out there might get something out of my belated experience.
I have always seated my pellets by just firmly pressing the pellet in with my thumb. I always felt that I was fairly consistent in my seating. But just for the sake of trying something out I did some experimenting. I have some brass arrow points I use for shooting targets with my longbows. They are smooth and round and nicely taper to a point. I lightly filed and sanded one to round off the point just a bit. I have been using this arrow point as a pellet seater. It fits nicely inside the skirt of my pellets. The arrow point is wide enough that it only goes in so far and is stopped by the breech.
The key point is that all pellets are seated well into the breech and always to a consistent depth. What this has done for me is that pellets that did not group well before are suddenly shooting very nicely. My rifle appears to no longer be as pellet fussy. And using this make shift seating tool did not negatively impact pellets that were already shooting well.
For me at least it turns out I have not been near as consistent with finger pressure as I thought. If anyone else out there relies on your fingers to seat a pellet you might want to try something like I did. Maybe it will help.
I have always seated my pellets by just firmly pressing the pellet in with my thumb. I always felt that I was fairly consistent in my seating. But just for the sake of trying something out I did some experimenting. I have some brass arrow points I use for shooting targets with my longbows. They are smooth and round and nicely taper to a point. I lightly filed and sanded one to round off the point just a bit. I have been using this arrow point as a pellet seater. It fits nicely inside the skirt of my pellets. The arrow point is wide enough that it only goes in so far and is stopped by the breech.
The key point is that all pellets are seated well into the breech and always to a consistent depth. What this has done for me is that pellets that did not group well before are suddenly shooting very nicely. My rifle appears to no longer be as pellet fussy. And using this make shift seating tool did not negatively impact pellets that were already shooting well.
For me at least it turns out I have not been near as consistent with finger pressure as I thought. If anyone else out there relies on your fingers to seat a pellet you might want to try something like I did. Maybe it will help.
