Quality Concern for .22 JSB 18.13 gr Pellets

[chip78]

Dear AGN Members:

There is some noise about the quality or quality control of the JSB 18.13 pellets manufactured in 2021. I have some bought last year at different times. And Pyramyd Air appears to be having them in stock every 2 or 3 months. I know this question may not yield scientific answers but I would like to have an idea if the problems are wide-spread or rare. Please drop a word or two to tell me your individual impression of them comparing to older production. Thank you!

 

[Ranchibi]

When shooting my Raw with JSB & JSB rebranded 18gr, I do occasionally notice some are tighter to seat while others seat smoothly, but all have the same POI but my barrel is not pellet fussy. Having a pellet sizer will help with oversized heads if needed and are not expensive to acquire. 

 

[lhandy]

I know in my 22 cal guns they are the most accurate with the tins that are marked with 5.52mm head size. 

 

[boscoebrea]

No problems here....and for the record, I think the AA brand is of better quality....thou made by JSB.

 

[18.13]

4 tins won't even go in the barrel 

 

[chip78]

My own experience has been good so far. I can’t really see significant differences between JSB, AA or FX branded pellets. I haven’t seen differences between tins made in 2020 and 2021. The 16 gr AA or JSB pellets are similarly good. I only shot within 50 yards so don’t have any long range comments. The only stabilizing device used was a bipod. I have tried several other brands, none can compare to JSB/AA/FX. They are great on FX guns, Eastern European guns as well as Avengers.

 

[Ranchibi]

4 tins won't even go in the barrel

That's terrible QC..especially from JSB...I have not had that large of a discrepancy in head sizes...YET..and I hope not too! Have you tried contacting the vendor and have this issue resolved? I personally use a pellet sizer for just a few oversized heads but I wouldn't want to resize 4 tins! Hope you get this issue resolved.

 

[Saltlake58]

I've weighed more than a few tins of JSB 18 grain pellets. Generally, there's a 5% or so spread in weight with a couple (maybe 2 or 3) outside the 5% spread. Some do get damaged in shipping and leave a bent skirt or two. In general, they are pretty consistent.

I've also weighed more than a couple tins of Crosman premier domes and hollow points 14.3 grain. They also have about a 5% spread (at least in my experience) with about the same number of outliers. Interesting - but I've not seen much change in pellets in the past few years, that is when I can get them.

Also, since JSB makes FX pellets, I wouldn't expect much difference. Again, I've weighed FX 18 grain pellets and get the same spread as the JSB's which makes sense as they come off the same lines.

 

[ctshooter]

I've received a few tins over the past year that fit very tightly into magazines. They do still seem to shoot well, but definitely something not right with them.

 

[brink]

5% weight variation is terrible for a projectile in the shooting world! I cast bullets for competition for myself 235 grains and if one is .3 light or heavy it goes into the practice pile. For a swaged pellet that weighs 18 grains and is .1 heavy or light is just unacceptable, I don't know what to do about it other than complain as long as we keep buying them this way, they will keep making them this way. 

 

[Rwindsor]

I bought 4 tins of JSB 18.1.3grs this fall dated them 8/11/22. I short by head size, use pellet sizer and weigh them. The weight variations are from 17.8grs to 18.3 the bulk of them are 18grs with the outliers 17.8 100 pellets 18.3 about a 100 pellets out of a tin. I was looking yesterday at the base of the pellets and noticed they vary in depth. Some are deep with a small diameter at the bottom and the other half are more shallow with a wider base at the bottom of the skirt. I think that might make a difference the center of gravity and effect accuracy. Has anybody else seen this or is this just a bad lot?

 

[chip78]

I believe I have seen the variation in skirt depth you mentioned. Unfortunately I didn’t measure them. If memory serves (not always reliable nowadays), the AA branded pellets have deeper skirts than JSB even though they are made by JSB. One could speculate JSB is moving to have the same deeper skirt for its own brand or they simply had some batches using the AA dies. Some, especially Brits, say AA branded 18-grain fly better. The difference in skirt depth might have something to do with it. Again, pure speculation.

 

[JCup]

I have a friend in Austin who shoots extreme field target with a Daystate, using 18 grain JSB. He messaged me this morning, saying the most recent tins he has gotten were checking 5.57 mm with a Pelletgage.

I have seen the difference in the recess formed by the punch in swaging have a visible variance in diameter. It seems very significant to me in what might happen to the ballistics. Have tried to get some cross sections made of sample pellets, not yet successful. Several competitive shooters tell me they inspect pellets visually to sort them into groups on that basis.

I have also had several customers tell me that every FX pellet in a tin would not clear the 5.57 mm (largest) aperture of their Pelletgage. I feel sure that most of their .22 production is larger than nominal 5.52 mm. I have tins purchased this summer that run about 5.55. However, there is a thread on this forum with reports of .22 cal JSB Hades running UNDER 5.50 mm. Hard for me to accept that much dispersion from nominal sizes does not matter.