Question about pellets samplers

I like to shoot a new gun for about 500 to 1000 pellets ( usually JSB, but brand or weight don't matter ). I just give the gun a chance to break in. Then I try different pellets to see which ones the gun likes best.

Based on my experiences owning and tuning the 97, if you have the JSB or Air Arms 8.4 Gr, the H&N FTT 8.64, and the Air Arms 10.3, one of these will do really well.


Eveb though they are supposed to be both produced by JSB, I find the Air Arms Diablo Field pellets you be more consistent in size and weight.

Both of mine prefer the Air Arms 8.4

I watch lots of videos and read lots of posts and reviews about that particular gun and what it likes, sometimes even that particular pellet, and try to guess from there. I like my guesses to start with the cheapest alternative available, so if I find it works, I don't have to venture into expensive land. This actually worked pretty well with a Crosman gun likely designed around Crosman pellets.

That all works great when you have Amazon Prime and everything is in stock. No shipping, cheap prices, buying small shipments can still make economic sense. Unfortunately we have virus delays etc. and that borks my plans unless I want to wait forever. So I'm spending way too much on a variety of pellets all at once and figuring I will relegate the losers to plinking. Expensive plinking. Inaccurate plinking. But do you really want to not know what works for months on end ... and wait three months just to plink?

I often have more money than sense and I don't even have that much money, so that goes to show how dumb I am. But I also have only so much time in this life. And if I waste a little money ... hey people sell pellets here too, successfully. It may not be a total loss. And for casual plinking for your losers, at least you tried, and YOUR barrel may justify the try because you can't just rely on reviews or someone ELSE's barrel.

It's not perfect logic, and there's plenty messy about it. But at least you give yourself the chance to find out what works ... and once you do, who knows, you may be able to use that weird outlier of a pellet that nobody believed would work for your rifle/barrel/particular tune for decades. In the meantime you have some fun and tear your hair out occasionally just like everywhere else in life. That's doable and okay.

You can try a sampler from Straight Shooters, good variety and weights. Personally my HW98 is very consistent with AA 8.4s.

I have been doing this for decades so have allot of pellets to choose from. So I just shoot a few to find out what werqs best then I get on the internet an see what everybody else is using and try some of those. If I have not found anything worth shooting yet I go to my samplers from straight shooter, JSB and others. I usually don't have to try too many pellets before I find something that shoots well. But finding something that shoots excellent can be more taxing.

Over time, I'm narrowing down to what works best most often.

I change guns a lot, so a sampler pack is handy.



Made mine using a "floss storage box" you'd find at any hobby store. And 16-tins of ammo.

Nicely done!

My very brief springer experience has been with HW's and while they do shoot JSBs well and probably brown box CPLs (which I've never had), they all shoot H&N FTTs the best. .177 and .22. So I would buy different head sizes of those to try in tins. Even the least preferred head sizes usually shoot well..at least in all but 1 instance.

As always, YMMV..

I would echo what has already been stated about JSBs & H&Ns I've tried lots of others and those tend to be the best.

If you looking for a lead free option I have been finding the JSB/Predator GTOs seem to perform very well out of my HW50&HW30, haven't yet tried them in my HW98.

Over time, I'm narrowing down to what works best most often.

I change guns a lot, so a sampler pack is handy.



Made mine using a "floss storage box" you'd find at any hobby store. And 16-tins of ammo.

Click to expand...

Over time, I'm narrowing down to what works best most often.

I change guns a lot, so a sampler pack is handy



Made mine using a "floss storage box" you'd find at any hobby store. And 16-tins of ammo.

Click to expand...

That's a nice setup!

To the OP, read up on what others are using and working for them. Try those. If they work, great! If not, save them for practice fodder or trade them off for the ones that you found that worked in the classifieds.

Although I'm still an advocate of barrel break-in.

I used to own (and still do) a large variety of pellets for testing. I found that my springers will usually perform best with one of the following: JSB RS, JSB Exacts, HN FTTs, or CP brown box. I’ll rarely test any other besides those. I have found that seating depth has an effect as well. So I now test seated flush and at least at one measured depth. I use modified allen wrenches for seating the pellet to a specific depth. 

My pellet sampler although I need a bigger cabinet as it now has tins on top and stacked in front of it. 

- 20 different styles/weights/brands in .177

- Everything currently made in .20

- 35 styles/weights/brands in .22

- 14 styles/weights/brands in .25

With the box being delivered today something like 72,000 in 4 calibers

 

Wow! Are some confined to the dustbin of history, or do you actually shoot all of them?

Wow! Are some confined to the dustbin of history, or do you actually shoot all of them?

Click to expand...

The stuff that doesn't shoot well I use for break in with new rifles. If I'd known about samplers before I bought at least half of that, I wouldn't have near as much...lol