Springer pellet weight confusion

[scrane]

I look at shooting extra heavy pellets as being loosely analogous to lugging an engine: applying maximum load to a system at a point where it is not designed to take it.
This is how I visualize the process:
A springer is designed to offer a soft landing to the piston as the piston approaches the end of the cylinder. This is provided by the residual pressure in the system as the pellet travels down and exits the barrel. Shooting light pellets allows this back pressure pillow to dissipate too quickly and piston slams into the end of the cylinder. Not good.
The static inertia of a heavy pellet delays its movement and retards the release of pressure in the cylinder. The piston encounters this excess pressure and rebounds too early while sprung pressure is still very high and then proceeds again as pressure bleeds off. Instead of a nice smooth landing the piston receives a double bump. 

 

[Guest]

Well, I don't know if anyone has touched upon this yet so I will:

Most springers are not adjustable with respect to power output. They do the same thing with the same mechanical parts every single time until something fails or wears significantly. Just so much energy goes into the system and the only thing taking energy away from the system is that little lead pellet.

That little lead pellet can be very informative. Get yourself a half a dozen different tins of pellets each with a different weight. Get some really heavy ones and some really light ones and as many in between as you feel like shooting. Now take your chrony to the range and shoot ten of each over the chronograph. Compute the average energy for each pellet type and plot it on a graph.

You will discover that the system (your springer + pellet) delivers the most energy with a narrow range of pellet weights. Now since you are changing only one input, clearly there is a "most efficient pellet weight" which your gun "likes". What is even more interesting than that is the most accurate pellet you find for your gun will generally be pretty close to that weight.

There are many factors when it comes to accuracy with springers but a smooth shot cycle is one of the biggies. A smooth shot cycle will be delivered when the pellet you are shooting carries the most energy away from the system. The efficient pellet is also the one that delivers the smoothest shot cycle.

Well anyway, that's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

 

[Rioshooter]

I agree with that oldspook