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Trail NP Pellet Choice

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ahnlaashock

Member
May 2, 2018
125
2
Missouri
Been a long time since i posted on an airgun board. What made me sign up is detailed below.

I bought a Trail NP years back, and installed a better trigger immediately. Since I purchased it, I have switched to the next best pellet, since nothing was very accurate. I tried everything from several JSB selections to Barracudas. From gold plated to alloy with plastic skirts. Minute of squirrel at 25 yards with the best of them, and 6 inch spreads with the worst. 
I had finally just started using the Crosman Pirahnas and using a seating tool to start them into the bore which keeps them minute of squirrel. .
Walking through the local store, I spotted the Ruger Superpoints. Having never had much success with pointed pellets, I almost walked on by, but I figured one more tin to go with the other 20 was not going to break the bank.
I am very very glad I bought them. One, they do not seat all the way into the bore, but they are a consistent size and that is okay. Maybe good.
2, Off the top of a stump with a wool army blanket on top, I fired a ten shot half inch group at twenty five yards. After I walked them on target sighting the scope, I fired a second half inch 10 shot group, the last five of which I fired as soon as I acquired a good sight picture like you would hunting.
3, Not only is the rifle as accurate as any springer I ever fired now, the pellets are striking the target with a noticeably louder thump as compared to the Pirahnas. I think the over size skirt is allowing pressure to build higher before the pellet starts down the bore. Whatever is causing it, a three quarters thick hardwood board will not reliably stop the Superpoints at 25 yards.
I have always been a little leary of hunting with it because it did not have the accuracy I wanted. No more! I am going to get half a sleeve of them and never put anything else in that rifle again. It is hard to believe it is the same rifle.
 
I don't want postage. I want to give these to you at no cost. You are happy with them, I was not able to use them in my gun. Just trying to balance the karma a little.

All the same, glad to know you are happy. The offerstill stands. I would be happy to throw in the crossman destroyer pellets too. Those are going to be melted into slag otherwise. My choked barrel does not like those either.
 
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The rifle is one of the original Trail NP's, and has an aftermarket trigger. I was shooting the piranhas seated before. They will hold an inch or so at 25, and i would have said that was all it would do.
Yesterday at twenty five yards, holding the sling instead of the front stock, using the sling around my elbow to firm my hold military style, I quickly lifted the Trail NP, acquired the target, and squeezed the trigger. Those pellets are in a jumbled pile where I hit the other pellets in half an inch at 25 yards.
I went and purchased several more tins, and as a hunting rifle, I doubt it will even need more, but three local stores are carrying the Superpoints. 
I hope everyone finds a pellet that works as well in theirs. I have had the rifle for years, but never really trusted it until now. I have tried just about every kind of pellet I have ever seen in it, and this is the only one that has ever performed this way out of it. 
Let me take that back, I had one sample of alloy pellets with red plastic skirts that shot fine, but when I bought the full tin, they did not shoot as well. It also shoots Barracuda Match okay, but the scope won't adjust that low, and the speed is getting down there. 
If you asked me before I put them in this rifle about Superpoints, I would have told you I don't like pointed pellets. That pointed pellets don't fly all that well, don't retain good velocity downrange when compared to domes, and that the beveled points cause the energy to be transferred to the target faster than even flat nosed match pellets do. Years back I tested pellets firing them into phone books and catalogs because they record the actual impact circle, penetration, showing how much damage is caused even after the pellet stops. The pointed pellets of the day were the worst on penetration causing a large impact circle on the pages, and the worst for retained energy at range. Domes always penetrated the furthest, and the impact cone was smaller along the length and after the pellet stopped. Because of that, i have not used points for 30 years or better unless I was trying to find a pellet for a fussy rifle. I had a Steroid pumper that I tried everything made and never found anything it liked. 
Nothing makes sense about how well they are doing in this rifle. They don't fit all the way in. They stick hard enough that I would have to make a pellet seater with a shoulder to seat them, and to keep from seating them too deep. I was sure when I loaded the first that they would shoot like crap just from the fit. That if they were accurate, that they would be pretty slow since the rifle had to push them on into the bore on firing. I was seating the Piranhas, but that tool wont work for these, and they are working so well I am almost afraid to mess with it.
Not only are they as accurate as any pellet out of any springer I have ever shot, but I had to change to a treated 4 x 4 for the target, since the other board I had been using will not stop them reliably. They actually sound like they are hitting harder..
I know that doesn't make sense, but if you have a Trail NP that isn't shooting the way you want it to, you might want to give them a try. The power level would be better suited with a lighter pellet, but accuracy trumps all!
 
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Nothing makes since with them except they work for you, an airgun blessing at the price point if on sale.
Funny they look so similar to the only pointed pellet I've ever seen do well in many springers the RWS superpoint which is a supprisingly good pellet in may rifles, and if the rifle does not like them they come no where near second choice, seems to be an either make or break design.

I do suggest you stock up as future runs ( dies) could be different and it's terrible knowing the rifle WILL group but THE pellet it likes is not available.



John 
 
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I figured they were the old RWS Superpoints under a new label. Thanks for the response!
It was raining all day, but I did a couple of seated pellet experiments using an ink pen that fit inside the skirt pretty closely and seated the pellet a little deeper than you would like to see how well it shot with the Superpoints seated. . I just took a few shots offhand with seated pellets, but all of them hit right where the crosshairs were when the gun went off. I will have to make a proper seating tool to just barely cut it into the barrel. The can says they are 1.1 grams, so almost 17 grains.
What did the older Superpoints weigh? 
Do you remember was the name of the Beeman version? I seem to remember "Ram Jet" as the heavy option, and that there was a light version too.
 
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