Just washed pellets for the first time yesterday and I'm a firm believer now. Haven't lubed them yet and not sure if I will, but the amount of swarf and crud that came off the pellets was eye opening to say the least.
So I recently took advantage of the gander mountain deal posted on another site, ~$4.50/tin shipped was hard to pass up. I received my order in good condition and well packed. My stormrider likes to shoot these with maybe one flier per 7 shot magazine. I found that acceptable in the past. I have recently dialed the stormrider in at 35yds and have been having great luck with JSB, just like I always have. I mostly use the crosman to plink, so the occasional flier was no big deal, I'd usually hit the target anyway.
However, these pellets that I received are more flier than accurate. So I was puzzled why the tins from wally world shot acceptably but these did not. A visual inspection revealed no information, they looked like your normal crosman HP domes and no damage was visible. So I dumped both tins out on a paper towel. AHA! the tins from GM were extremely dirty while the tins from walmart had the normal amount of lead flakes I've come to expect. The GM tins had at least twice the amount in my estimation.
So, having learned this, I decided I'd wash these pellets and see what the results were. I washed 10 500 ct tins of crosman HP 14.3gr, 3 175ct tins of crosman pointed 14.3gr and 4 500ct tins of JSB 14.83gr. I filled a large pot with soapy water and then placed a colander in the pot so the bottom of the colander was filled with soapy water. I then washed all three tins of pointed pellets in the same batch and placed them in an oven safe pan and in the oven to dry.
Since the JSB and Crosman HP come in 500ct tins, they were each washed two tins at a time and then placed in their baking dishes. After I washed the pointed pellets, I decanted the water from the pot (many lead flakes and other detritus took advantage of the surface tension of the water and floated away as it was decanted...) then used a clean paper towel to wipe the lead flakes and other detritus that had collected in the pot. This process was repeated after washing all 10 500ct tins of crosman HP. (also had a LOT of lead flakes and other detritus float off while decanting) It was also repeated after washing all four 500ct tins of JSB.
Immediately upon washing, it was apparent how dirty the crosman pellets were. They have that nice super shiny finish on them from the factory. Once washed, that was gone and they looked more like the benjamin brand pellet. (hmmm, extra step on the benjamin line?) All the crosman pellets have the dull finish after washing, yet the JSB look exactly the same, with no change to exterior appearance..
I also washed the crosman tins since there was quite a bit of swarf and other detritus that did not spill out when I poured the pellets into the colander. I submerged each tin and gave it a good swish, then poured out the water and set them outside in the sun to dry. Once dry, upon inspection, the crosman tins were still filthy and had many pieces of swarf still stuck to the tin. So I wiped them all out with a microfiber rag. The JSB tins required no cleaning due to the foam inserts, but I did give them a wipe down just to compare and there was no residue or swarf on the metal tins and none visible in the foam inserts.
My anecdotal results from this little experiment back my experience over the last four months since I started shooting airguns. Loading crosman pellets always left dark gray smudges on my fingers whereas the JSB were much cleaner. They still left a residue, but nowhere near what the crosmans leave behind.
First pic is the swarf and residue from wiping three tins of Crosman pointed 14.3gr
Second pic is after wiping down 10 tins of 500ct Crosman 14.3gr HP
This was the swarf and residue left behind after washing the 525 Crosman pointed 14.3gr
Swarf and residue from the 5000ct Crosman 14.3gr HP after washing
Swarf and residue from washing 2000 JSB 14gr
