Good Cheap Hunting Pellet

I come across an affordable pellet that I honestly over looked all the time before. They used to be made in China and were dirty, deformed, inaccurate, and in general just garbage in everything is tried them in. This past April I got into PCPs because of bad shoulder and the inability to pump up the old 392 or break a barrel on a springer. Now shooting was a more enjoyable experience and my kids and their kids joined me at the backyard shooting bench daily. Soon it became clear to me that there had to be a more affordable way to feed all these guns and shooters. So I started looking for other brands than JSB and the like. They are great pellets, super accurate but just can’t keep up with JSB prices and shipping. Tried Crosmans, from Wally World, yeah they were ok but didn’t expand when I needed to dispatch critters plus one of the guns had a hard time loading them into the breach due to the hardness of the lead. Then I found these Daisy Hollow Point .22 caliber pellets on Amazon for $6.99 for 500 rounds. Also made the same in .177. I thought what the heck...kids will shoot anything, I just give them a try. Well this is what I found out so far about these pellets. They are now made in Spain and not China. The picture of the label doesn’t look anything like what’s inside the tin. They weigh 15.4 grains, at least to my scale, which is also not advertised anywhere on the label. To my surprise all my guns like them for 475 FPS up to about 920 FPS and they will hold a 1” or less group out 50 yards. The lead is softer than Crosmans so they load real good in my guns. They are of consistent size,shape, and weight. Overall quality is pretty good. We have went through the better part of 16 tins since I started using them. Daisy and Gamo are under the same roof now so I’m told and after doing a little digging of my own, have a suspicion that the Gamo Red Fire ballistic tipped pellet uses the Daisy Hollow point as it base pellet. I took a Gamo Red Fire pellet apart and weighed it in its separate components. The pellet weighed 15.8 grains with the tip and without weighed 15.4... the shape is very close and if the tip were put in the Daisy HP and compressed to lock it in, it would be its twin. I think they use the same die to make both pellets but again, I’m not sure...just a hunch. These Daisy’s expand like crazy, just like the Red Fire. As far as I can tell from checking the BCs on similar shaped pellets, I think the BCs on the Daisy HP in .22 are around 0.018-0.022 ish. That makes them about a 40-50 yard backyard friendly pellet with a lot of shock energy on impact and less chance of passthroughs and ricochets. Another nice thing about them I found is that I like the JSB Hades 15.89s and for longer ranges past say 40-50 yards, I don’t have to adjust my scope from a 25 yard sight in with the Daisy pellets and can just take the longer shot with the Hades with no problems. These pellets are never going to replace the accuracy of a JSB or good target pellet. But what they are is a good all around plinking/pesting pellet that good out to about 50 yards and is very affordable. I just want other shooters to be aware of my find and maybe give a little back to a community that has given me and my family a heck of a lot of great family time and lots of advise when I really needed it. Thanks