Just wanted to share this to add to the knowledge base. I'd been researching the whole cleaning, sorting, weighing and lubing pellets school of thought for quite a while. Basically I just shoot Air Arms 16gr straight from the tin in both my guns because they are consistent. I can get .5" or less consistently, better results than JSB 15.89gr, but the JSB 18.13gr just won't group tight, either in the Regal or the WC with ST-X barrel. 5.53 head size... bad, 5.52 a bit better. The AA 16gr are 5.51 head size so I also picked up two TTS resize dies in 5.51 and 5.52. I thought perhaps resizing the jsb 18.13 to 5.51 might do the trick. I also ordered this scale:
WAOAW Digital Scale after coming across this great post by forum member brucel:
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/testing-scales-for-weighing-pellets/
So far, a great little scale for the price and very repeatable. I can weigh the same pellet three or more times in a row and get the same reading. So I washed with acetone, weighed and sorted. No lube, still waiting for my Napier. So here are some tests from this morning(Regal) and afternoon (Wildcat):
50 yds, shooting off the bags. Not sure what to make of the AA 18gr so planning further test for those but my plan of resizing the JSB 18gr from 5.53 to 5.51 head size was a disappointment. The AA 16gr are decent but if I'm being honest, I can get those groups fairly regular in the Regal straight from the tin which is surprising since the weight varies from 15.5 to 16.2 grains. For these trials, I was sticking to .10 grain variance, so each group shot is 15.9, 16, 16.1gr, etc. Tbh, I didn't settle much in my mind. I think I'd be better off just shooting a full target of weighed vs unweighed.
This afternoon(Wildcat off the bipod), the eye-opener for me was the JSB redesigned Monster 25.39gr that I received from PA around noon. After the JSB 18.13 experience, I wasn't really expecting much. First off, just disregard group #1 at the bottom left. I was actually shooting at bull #2 at the top left but at 25gr they were landing on the bull below so I just finished the group and made a liberal adjustment up. First shot hit just below bull #2, one more slight adjustment and then I fired 7 more:
After group 2 and 3, I was like,umm let me try this... I loaded two mags with 2 different weights mixed in each mag and chose a wide variance, like 4 pellets at 25.2gr mixed with 4 pellets at 25.6 so group #4 and #5 are the result. Then I loaded another mag all one weight to the .10gr again, like all within 25.4 to 25.49 and shot the last group, #6. The monsters seem to benefit from weight sorting but I plan to test more. One thing for sure, the wildcat loves them which surprised me since FX actually sells a ST-X liner "type B" which is supposed to be better with these larger diameter pellets. Mine is the type A liner. I have a Type B coming, hopefully in a week or two so I can do some test with it also and hopefully do some chrono strings. By then I should be in "lubed" mode, lol. So, verdict on sorted vs unsorted? I don't know, need more data. Admittedly, my old eyes were blurring the target out by group 6 but hey, "What's the maximum effective range of an excuse Airborne!?"... "Zero meters, Sergeant!". So, whatever. Were groups 4 and 5 empirical or psychological? I did know those two mags were mixed but I tried very hard on the groups. Only the shadow knows...
that's all I got, cheers
WAOAW Digital Scale after coming across this great post by forum member brucel:
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/testing-scales-for-weighing-pellets/
So far, a great little scale for the price and very repeatable. I can weigh the same pellet three or more times in a row and get the same reading. So I washed with acetone, weighed and sorted. No lube, still waiting for my Napier. So here are some tests from this morning(Regal) and afternoon (Wildcat):
50 yds, shooting off the bags. Not sure what to make of the AA 18gr so planning further test for those but my plan of resizing the JSB 18gr from 5.53 to 5.51 head size was a disappointment. The AA 16gr are decent but if I'm being honest, I can get those groups fairly regular in the Regal straight from the tin which is surprising since the weight varies from 15.5 to 16.2 grains. For these trials, I was sticking to .10 grain variance, so each group shot is 15.9, 16, 16.1gr, etc. Tbh, I didn't settle much in my mind. I think I'd be better off just shooting a full target of weighed vs unweighed.
This afternoon(Wildcat off the bipod), the eye-opener for me was the JSB redesigned Monster 25.39gr that I received from PA around noon. After the JSB 18.13 experience, I wasn't really expecting much. First off, just disregard group #1 at the bottom left. I was actually shooting at bull #2 at the top left but at 25gr they were landing on the bull below so I just finished the group and made a liberal adjustment up. First shot hit just below bull #2, one more slight adjustment and then I fired 7 more:
After group 2 and 3, I was like,umm let me try this... I loaded two mags with 2 different weights mixed in each mag and chose a wide variance, like 4 pellets at 25.2gr mixed with 4 pellets at 25.6 so group #4 and #5 are the result. Then I loaded another mag all one weight to the .10gr again, like all within 25.4 to 25.49 and shot the last group, #6. The monsters seem to benefit from weight sorting but I plan to test more. One thing for sure, the wildcat loves them which surprised me since FX actually sells a ST-X liner "type B" which is supposed to be better with these larger diameter pellets. Mine is the type A liner. I have a Type B coming, hopefully in a week or two so I can do some test with it also and hopefully do some chrono strings. By then I should be in "lubed" mode, lol. So, verdict on sorted vs unsorted? I don't know, need more data. Admittedly, my old eyes were blurring the target out by group 6 but hey, "What's the maximum effective range of an excuse Airborne!?"... "Zero meters, Sergeant!". So, whatever. Were groups 4 and 5 empirical or psychological? I did know those two mags were mixed but I tried very hard on the groups. Only the shadow knows...
that's all I got, cheers
