I too wish Benjamin would at least come out with a 35 grain domed pellet. I think it would be an instant success for a couple of reasons...there are several very powerful air rifles that would benefit with an increase in ft.lb. energy with great accuracy. The 27.8 grain Benji Domes are absolutely one of my favorite pellets to shoot out of my .25 cal. Sumatra. Their accuracy is great whether I am shooting them on a low power setting at 50 ft. lbs energy, or on my maximum power setting that generates 81 ft. lbs. energy!
Any dedicated Sumatra .25 cal. shooter knows that there are pellets like the JSB Exact Kings, Predator Polymags, and Barracuda's that may shoot extremely accurate on one of the lower power wheel settings, but yet are terribly inaccurate when used on the highest power wheel setting. Well for those of you who have not tried them I strongly recommend that you try shooting the 27.8 grain Benji Domes on your Sumatra's highest power setting...I think you will be pleased with the results!
There was a time when I could not have imagined any pellets taking the place of my Exact Kings or Polymags...until one day my son who works at Wal-Mart brought me home a can of Benjamin Domes. I never would of thought that they would carry .25 cal. pellets... I took them along to the range one day and shot them at 50 yards...and kept turning up the power wheel three clicks at a time until I was all the way up to the max power setting, and was absolutely astonished that they were still holding 3/4" to 1" groups at full power.
Here are the chrony numbers for 18 shots with the Benji's at my rifles max power setting on a 3000 psi fill at the time of the test:
1) 1168 fps 7) 1100 fps 13) 1027 fps
2) 1160 fps 8) 1088 fps 14) 1012 fps
3) 1147 fps 9) 1077 fps 15) 998 fps
4) 1130 fps 10) 1064 fps 16) 984 fps
5) 1124 fps 11) 1053 fps 17) 975 fps
6) 1111 fps 12) 1033 fps 18) 960 fps
Avg.=1140fps, SD=22fps, 81 ft.lbs E Avg.=1069fps, SD=24fps, 71 ft.lbs E Avg.=992fps, SD=24fps, 61 ft. lbs E
(Air in tank shot down from 200 bar to 100 bar just at the beginning of the yellow area on rifle air gauge - All shots fired with chrony set at 5 yards from muzzle to prevent erroneous readings - Hammer spring at time of test was full length OEM spring with only light coating of silicone grease - Barrel used was Sam Yang 1-16" twist test barrel mounted on my personal Sumatra, however the accuracy was just as good at all power settings using .25 cal. Sumatra test rifle with 1-18" twist sent to me to me for testing).
The bottom line? If you have a .25 caliber Sumatra get yourself some Benjamin Domes and test them in your own rifle. You should be well pleased with the results!
