Wind - pellets vs slugs - amazing difference

[bdzjlz]

I finished my chores for the day and pulled my always superb .25 RAW (pre AirForce) out of the vault and placed it on my outside bench, filling the magazine with hand size and weight sorted JSB King Heavy MKI 33.95 Gr pellets.

The wind was quartering in crossing at 15 to 20 mph right to left. At 85 yards the drift was about 1 1/2".

As an experiment, I pulled out the Uragan II in .22, with ZAN 30.5 Gr slugs. Virtually no windage adjustment needed to hit the reactive spinners at the same distances. And by the way, the Talon Tunes Uragan II is deadly accurate, too. Shooting sub moa groups with slugs about every group at less than 100 yards in reasonable wind conditions.

An interesting experiment.

 

[Vetmx]

Well you must have found a magic slug and pellets. Because where I live and when shooting in an actual 15mph wind, my slugs are blown 6” at 85 yards. Pellets in a true 15mph wind would never find the target. Are you using a “what my phone says” wind or the actual wind speed at your range?

 

[Ranchibi]

Nice comparison! Have you tried slugs thru your .25 RAW? When I pest I fill 1 magazine with pellets a second 1 with slugs just in case of wind...I shoot the pellets if no wind, more cost effective..... By the way, both beautiful guns!

 

[bdzjlz]

Thanks for the reply. I have tested all kinds of slugs through the RAW over the years, with a myriad of tunes, with very limited success. It really prefers pellets.

Now my FX King and Panthera are different matters. So with approx 20 pcps in the vault I have a rifle for about every occasion and projectile, lol.

 

[LDP]

You were not shooting in a 15 mph wind if you got 1.5" drift at 85 yds. I happen to be shooting the same pellet in my .25 crown so I have my data setup in my ballistics app. I am shooting those pellets at 880 fps and a 15 mph wind at a 90 degree angle right to left pushes that pellet 5" at 85 yds.

 

[Ballisticboy]

Regardless of the actual wind speed, if you want to truly compare wind effects you need to fire interleaved serials where you fire one shot from gun A followed by a shot from gun B, then one from gun A followed again by one from gun B etc. until you have fired around ten of each. Then you can compare the wind drift.

If you fire all ten from one gun and then ten from the other gun, you cannot be sure the wind conditions have not changed from one gun to the next. The method was tested on airguns in this video.

 

[bdzjlz]

Thanks for all of the replies. I did not have a wind meter, took it off of the airport reading about a mile away s a reference. The trees were blowing over pretty hard.

It was fun and interesting none-the-less.

 

[LDP]

Thanks for all of the replies. I did not have a wind meter, took it off of the airport reading about a mile away s a reference. The trees were blowing over pretty hard.

It was fun and interesting none-the-less.

I feel like I should say I didnt mean for my reply to sound condescending. I just got back in from doing some shooting and looked this thread over again and I feel like it came off that way. Yes it is fun and interesting to see what happens between two projectiles or any projectile when shot in adverse conditions. Its fun making a hit on a long range target on a calm day and its even better when you calculate drift on a windy day and hold off 3 or 4 moa and connect at long range. I dont know why but watching the pellet drop in like a missile and do it in the wind just makes me smile.

 

[Outside]

Interesting, thanks for sharing!

 

[bdzjlz]

I feel like I should say I didnt mean for my reply to sound condescending. I just got back in from doing some shooting and looked this thread over again and I feel like it came off that way. Yes it is fun and interesting to see what happens between two projectiles or any projectile when shot in adverse conditions. Its fun making a hit on a long range target on a calm day and its even better when you calculate drift on a windy day and hold off 3 or 4 moa and connect at long range. I dont know why but watching the pellet drop in like a missile and do it in the wind just makes me smile.

No problem. Thanks.

 

[Vetmx]

Ditto on what LDP said.

 

[airgunmike56]

This is the reason I have my feelers out for a compact 177 bottle slug gun, Now I have 10 high dollar pellet guns and I shoot pellets , The guns were made and designed to shoot pellets and they do that very well.. I don't expect my slug gun to shoot pellets , Its a slug gun built and designed to shoot slugs, So if any one knows of such a gun , By all means let me know..
Mike

 

[gtrollins]

Am I correct to think that pellets have more surface area causing more loss in velocity for the same distance and also more area to be pushed by the wind compared to slugs of same weight?

 

[Ballisticboy]

Am I correct to think that pellets have more surface area causing more loss in velocity for the same distance and also more area to be pushed by the wind compared to slugs of same weight?

Surface area has very little effect on the drag, as the skin friction drag is only a small component of the total drag. Base drag is the biggest drag component for both pellets and slugs.

A cross wind does not push on anything. Down wind drift is caused by a component of the drag of the round. It was fully explained here. https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/how-wind-causes-pellets-to-drift.1278969/

 

[gtrollins]

Surface area has very little effect on the drag, as the skin friction drag is only a small component of the total drag. Base drag is the biggest drag component for both pellets and slugs.

A cross wind does not push on anything. Down wind drift is caused by a component of the drag of the round. It was fully explained here. https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/how-wind-causes-pellets-to-drift.1278969/

Thank you!