Are JSB Made FX/Daystate 18.1's & 25.4's Standard Or Redesigned?

Dug down and pulled tins of Rangemaster King, Exact King, AA Field Diabolo and FX flavors of 25.4gr pellets. I seriously cannot tell a difference in appearance (cup depth, skirt thickness, &c). Perhaps you are thinking of the King Heavy 34gr, as FX and Rangemaster Emperor use the "mkI" and mkII designs, respectively.

My understanding is the FX pellets are made at the JSB facility, but a different die is used. So probably not identical, but close. I haven't had a chance to shoot JSBs and FX pellets side by side. Someday hopefully this ammo shortage will pass, and I can do the comparison

.22 FX and JSB 25.4 are identical Monster Redesign

.25 FX and JSB 34 grain Heavy are Mk2. The older style deep cavity King Heavy Mk1 are no longer produced. The JSB tins labeled King Heavy contain Mk2 pellets. 

I can’t say on the 18.1s. I think they are the same as the JSB 18.1. There is only one design of the 18.1. And the older .22 JSB 25.4 Monsters (the barrel shape not the Redesigns) are worthless in most guns unless you’re looking for a shotgun pattern. 
I’d like to check out the new 18.1 H&N and see how they do so we’re not limited when JSB decides to change their 18.1s that they’ve been making for years. Their attitude seems to be “it works great and it’s successful, let’s change it”.

Been buying JSBs since 2012. They've made changes to all the pellets that I use/have used in the last 9 years. Typically a small change like the way the skirt cavity is shaped, or the thickness of the skirt, or the angle of the skirt from edge to bottom of the cavity. I try to buy a bunch at a time, and they'll usually be the same within that batch. It's when purchases are separated by a year or two that I've typically seen the change in shape. 

Recently talked to a guy that goes through a lot more than me....he sent me these photos and said left is from 2020 and right is from 2019, .22 Monster RDs.



The head is even different with this example of a JSB shape tweak. 

Makes a guy wonder how the BCs vary between each shape.....perhaps JSB R&D is making these small changes for gains in external ballistics? Somewhat evidence based but mostly conjecture without their input, but interesting to ponder nonetheless. 

In my experience, JSB making changes to their pellets is not a new development. 

Yes, the change to the RD Monsters was from the shallow skirt to the deep skirt. In their obvious lack of common sense, the "reason" was that the shallower thicker skirts in the older model was being damaged too much in shipping, so they went with the thinner, deeper skirt. Tell me that passes the common sense test!. 

Then, about a year later, they said they moved away from the deeper thinner skirt in the .25 King Heavy to the thicker, more shallow skirt in the Mk2 - for the same reason - but opposite - of the RDMs. Now they are also saying that the King Heavy has a larger diameter (6.68mm) skirt than the Mk2 (6.60mm) but the same shallow cavity depth. At least ten different people have actually measured this statement and its been "the big lie", since both have the same diameter skirt (6.60mm). 

Hopefully H&N will fill the void that JSB has left for polygonal barreled .25 caliber airguns. Maybe even NSA could make quality pellets... Don't know how much different that is from slugs as far as manufacturing difficulty...

It really is surprising that JSB has had the market somewhat cornered for so long, when it comes to quality pellets. 

I know H&N has their fans, but I've not yet seen any flavor of H&N shoot as well as JSB. 

You just don't see many guys shooting H&N in field target or benchrest (any flavor of benchrest). And from the XFT matches even, most everybody shooting pellets, is shooting JSB (even if from a tin marked FX). Whenever I've tried H&N I've seen more flyers than I get with JSB. 

I'm with you 100%, would love to see another manufacturer give JSB some real competition. And even better if it's a "made in the USA" company. 

I'd also love to see an official (and believable) announcement from JSB about why they're constantly jiggering with their pellet designs. 

I just ordered some tins of JSB .35 Exacts from Topgun-airguns. They called me and asked if I minded if they were packaged in FX tins. He assured me that the pellets were JSB's in a different package. I just got them and they look identical. I haven't shot any yet. 

Watch this video to clear up all the misinformation. I will start the video at this topic so you won't have to watch the whole thing.

https://youtu.be/-AAQzSkRZVg?t=2289