Microscope pictures of ZAN BR100 30 Cal 56 Grain Pellet and ZAN .30 Cal 45.5 Grain Slug

This is cool, but I think it's important to keep metrology in check. What do the targets look like? Do these differences matter, and how much?

I've gone deep down the rabbit hole of precision shooting with powder burners (and it's a *deep* hole) and interesting as well. Lots of things that would absolutely kill accuracy at extended ranges don't matter a whit at short ranges. Airguns are new turf. What I refer to as "short range" for a powder-burner is "long range" for an airgun, and of course the velocities are very different. So do these microscopic variations contribute to accuracy / inaccuracy? I don't know, but I know, from experience, that I'd want to see the targets first, with explanations second...

GsT

Those skirts are definitely not clean and clear. How do they shoot?

Those rough outer edges below the skirt have a same effect as a bad crown on the muzzle end.

It's amazing pellet guns shoot as accurate as they do . The skirts look like they have delaminations on a lot of pellets. The surface is rough, or lines from the molds . I was target shooting with some .177 baracudas and noticed the tip of the pellets had a small sliver of lead around a 1/32" long . When I knocked them off it improved the groups. I wonder if you need to buy the Match Baracudas for a better surface with less defects. Or newer molds or longer finish time . I haven't noticed it as much in .22 Baracudas though. Now guys will sort them by weight, diameter and microscopic surface scan . Lol

I'm guessing that the reshaping that happens when the air blows the skirt into the rifling cancels some of this out? The skirts are getting reshaped/swaged. It would be interesting to see them after being fired recovered from a water bucket or something