. . . not that it's even "necessary" for the .177 shooters, myself included, BUT I'm pretty sure that most field and target shooters are pretty adamant about doing so as kill zones can be small and every bit of an advantage you can get will count towards knocking that thing down.
With .22 cal and up though - and in particular high power PCP's (900+ fps) . . . what's the consensus on weight variations in these bigger, heavier - and often - faster flying projectiles with respect to the subjected?
I raise the question because of perceived inconsistencies that I experienced earlier today while out shooting my .22. JSB 18's - cleaned with warm soapy water and then dried, but other than that - not sorted, weighed, lubed - just cleaned off. Challenging myself with small targets at 50 yards today - beer bottle caps - 2, 3 shots - overlapping and right on the money. Then 1 high. Then on the money, Then high, Then low. Money. Low. Low. Low. High. Money.
"WTF???" I"m grumbling to myself.
I wrap it up and come home, then just for the heck of it decide to run 'em across my little scale. They're supposed to weigh 18.13 - they are in fact "all over the place". {sigh} Granted - MOST of them did fall into what I call "spec" - 18.00 - 18.19. Anything less than 18.00 went into the "light" bucket, anything heavier went into the "heavy" bucket. Some of those "lights" and "heavies" are just that too - 17.6's on the light side, 18.5's and even a couple of 18.6's on the heavy side.
Full disclosure - I've been experimenting with slugs on this same gun and have been shooting both with it over the last week or two and I haven't cleaned the barrel - maybe it's gunked up some and that is potentially contributing to some of the poi variance I was seeing today?
With .22 cal and up though - and in particular high power PCP's (900+ fps) . . . what's the consensus on weight variations in these bigger, heavier - and often - faster flying projectiles with respect to the subjected?
I raise the question because of perceived inconsistencies that I experienced earlier today while out shooting my .22. JSB 18's - cleaned with warm soapy water and then dried, but other than that - not sorted, weighed, lubed - just cleaned off. Challenging myself with small targets at 50 yards today - beer bottle caps - 2, 3 shots - overlapping and right on the money. Then 1 high. Then on the money, Then high, Then low. Money. Low. Low. Low. High. Money.
"WTF???" I"m grumbling to myself.
I wrap it up and come home, then just for the heck of it decide to run 'em across my little scale. They're supposed to weigh 18.13 - they are in fact "all over the place". {sigh} Granted - MOST of them did fall into what I call "spec" - 18.00 - 18.19. Anything less than 18.00 went into the "light" bucket, anything heavier went into the "heavy" bucket. Some of those "lights" and "heavies" are just that too - 17.6's on the light side, 18.5's and even a couple of 18.6's on the heavy side.
Full disclosure - I've been experimenting with slugs on this same gun and have been shooting both with it over the last week or two and I haven't cleaned the barrel - maybe it's gunked up some and that is potentially contributing to some of the poi variance I was seeing today?
I was thinking the same thing. 
lol!!