Results of Different Holds from Different Pellets (fixed the pic situation)

Members, today I was shooting my .177cal Air Arms Prosport at 35yds. Now I already know/have her preferred pellet which is the Air Arms Field Diabolo 8.4gr which shoots at 785fps and incredibly accurate as well. In 2nd place is the jsb express 7.87gr shooting @ 823fps but after today I may have to reevaluate her second choice in the jsb 7.87, lol.

Today? Well lets just say it was a cold 34 degrees and a light 7mph wind. I kept going in and out the house to warm up. Man o man my fingers were numb.
The pellets that were used today were:
JSB 10.34gr; 4F= 13/16", .63" ctc; SS= 7/8", .69" ctc

JSB 7.87gr; 4F= 7/16", .26" ctc, 8F= 11/16", .51" ctc, SS= 3/4", .57" ctc

H&N Baracuda 10.6gr; 4F= 15/16" (FYI: Sub group .26"ctc), .76" ctc, 8F= 5/8", .44" ctc, SS= POINTLESS

Beeman Kodiak 10.? gr; 4F= 1/2", .323 ctc, 8F= 15/16", .76" ctc, SS= 7/8", .69" ctcC
PL Domed Brown Box 7.9gr; 4F= 5/8"(if you minus 1 flyer its 3/8" and .19" ctc), .44ctc, 8F= 5/16", .13" ctc (WHOA), SS= 1/2", .323" ctc

The first measurement was outside to outside and the measurement after that is the groups center to center

All shooting was done from a little orange fold out table with a Caldwell front and rear rest (And yes, yes, I know the story...some springers don't shoot well off a rest, use the artillery hold and yada, yada, yada. I appreciate it but lets put that on the back burner for another day)

There were 3 different (holds) places that I placed the rifle on. 
1) SS (Stock Screws); The front stock screws is where I placed the front rest at. "SS" is the abbreviation on the target so you know where the rifle was while being shot
2) 4F (Four Fingers); This means that the rifle is placed on the rest four "4" fingers away from the trigger guard
3) 8F (Eight Fingers); This means that the rifle is placed on the rest eight "8" fingers away from the trigger guard.

Now if the weather was warmer, believe me, this "testing" of pellets and holds would've been more clean and in depth. Meaning that i would've tried holds in 1" increments from trigger guard onward and I would have been more patient in taking shots and not worrying about the temperature or trying to get stuff finished before losing the sunlight.

One thing I did notice was that she didn't seem to care for the heavier pellets except for the Beeman Kodiaks. That goes to tell you that when others say that H&N's FTT's, Baracudas are the same as Beeman FTS and Kodiaks, that they are wrong. Just like Air Arms Diabolo's and JSB's. I have and still get noticeable different POI. Well thats talk for another time. Here are some pics and hopefully with my description of the holds above that you can understand what I am doing and where the rifle was being placed.

Now for all you “critics” if you don’t have anything positive to say and/or contribute, please refrain from commenting because I don’t got time for that and new or young airgunners/shooters don't need gossip and negative opinions. And for all you beginners, don’t take what I say as “Gold” or “Law”, but understand that different holds, different pellets do different things for different rifles/pistols and different shooters. I hope everybody gets a little bit of something from this. Now go out and shoot.

Oh yeah, for all those who has ever helped me in my time of being an airgunner, I want to say thanks to all of you. And you guys know who you are.











most circles are 1/4"-3/8"

Oh, this isn't a representation of my shooting ability what so ever. It was cold, my fingers were numb and I was rushing because daylight was fading. I'll post as soon as I can, pics of her prefered pellet grouping as soon as I have time tomorrow if it just warms up a lil, lol.

 
It looks like you had a lot of fun. The first couple images aren't showing for me but whatever - the text is there. People can take from it what they want, I see an afternoon spent for the hell of it which is all we can ask.

I do have a question. To whit:

If this isn't representative of your shooting ability, what is it? Wouldn't the differences in pellets and holds be better demonstrated in circumstances where shooting ability isn't otherwise hampered by environmental conditions?

I don't know why reliable comparisons of hold on POI and group, or pellet choice effect on the same would not depend on the shooter being able to rule out shooting ability as the main influencing factor of group size. IOW, shoot a group and declare that it's the best you can do. Shoot another group and compare, under the assumption that shooting ability wasn't compromised by cold fingers.

Otherwise, you are just saying you shot a bunch the other day for fun, here are the targets. Nothing wrong with that :)

Does the proceeding make me a "critic" or a critic? I prefer no quotes if being pedantic but once it goes on the t-shirt there's no going back and I do prefer accuracy in labelling :)

If the groups were all over the place and barely fit on a pie plate at 5 yards than yeah your disclaimer makes sense. On the other hand that isn't the case.
 
Well it's not a representation in my opinion due to the fact that the situation wasn't ideal because of weather and my rushing but at the same time I just wasn't just loading and shooting. Did I take 5 mins per shot and waited for wind to die down and so forth? No. 

"Wouldn't the differences in pellets and holds be better demonstrated in circumstances where shooting ability isn't otherwise hampered by environmental conditions?"

Of course they would have been but the circumstances didn't allow for such.

"I don't know why reliable comparisons of hold on POI and group, or pellet choice effect on the same would not depend on the shooter being able to rule out shooting ability as the main influencing factor of group size."

Ruling out the main influence factor, well for a example the jsb 10gr compared to the cpl show a vast difference between group sizes. Could both be smaller if time, temperature and more shooting discipline was applied? Probably but it would still show that the cpl's shot better. If I'm shooting good or shooting bad, the rifle will show what it likes and how it likes to be held. Lets just say for the sake of argument that I couldn't shoot as well as I am proclaiming. Does it still show what I put in the title? Yes so there you have it.