I continued to do pellet testing with my .177 Avenge-X. I was checking the impact of shooting in the wind this time. I usually shoot at 50-yards but that set of ranges was full. Soni used 45-yards here.
Air Venturi Avenge-X .177 in the wind
- Thread starter drpietrzak
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Were you adjusting your point of aim based upon reading wind flags or just shooting and letting the wind do what it did?
Wind affects vertical point of impact just like it affects horizontal. If the wind is towards you it pushes the pellet down. If it is away from you it sails up a little.
I find it hard to tell a lot by shooting my one 177 (a P35) in windy weather. Sometimes it's all you have so I do it too. But I try to make decisions on what I get in low wind conditions. I shoot 30 yard challenge targets in the wind sometimes with my 177 because it drifts significantly more so if I can shoot well with it the others will improve too and probably by more.
I've tried pellet sorting several times (both weight and head size) and have not seen an impact. But I shoot mostly at 30 yards, hardly ever at 50 or more.
You should try some H&Ns. Most of my guns prefer them to JSBs. In my 177 it likes both H&N Baracuda Match and H&N Baracuda FTT pellets better than JSB 10.3s and Crosman 10.5s (but I have not tried the new Crosmans yet). You can get a couple different head sizes in the Match pellets.
Wind affects vertical point of impact just like it affects horizontal. If the wind is towards you it pushes the pellet down. If it is away from you it sails up a little.
I find it hard to tell a lot by shooting my one 177 (a P35) in windy weather. Sometimes it's all you have so I do it too. But I try to make decisions on what I get in low wind conditions. I shoot 30 yard challenge targets in the wind sometimes with my 177 because it drifts significantly more so if I can shoot well with it the others will improve too and probably by more.
I've tried pellet sorting several times (both weight and head size) and have not seen an impact. But I shoot mostly at 30 yards, hardly ever at 50 or more.
You should try some H&Ns. Most of my guns prefer them to JSBs. In my 177 it likes both H&N Baracuda Match and H&N Baracuda FTT pellets better than JSB 10.3s and Crosman 10.5s (but I have not tried the new Crosmans yet). You can get a couple different head sizes in the Match pellets.
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I modeled the process after the English pellet testing guys who shoot hft/ft. I used a fixed point of aim and compared across various pellets. While this is just one time I will repeat it many times. I used the same process when I built the dope for my TX200.
I tried H&N in few varieties. I have tried the Benjamin 10.5 as well. They are shown in previous videos I posted. They just did not make the cut.
I am sure sorting, like everything, depends on rifle and caliber. I did a lot of testing of it with my TX200 which was in previous posted videos. It moved my 30-yard challenge scores from the 170's to the mid to upper 180's with that springer. I have not shot that challenge in a year or so as I recall. There are a couple of videos of that being done posted as well.
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I find sorting mrd’s to be worth the trouble. Most usually fall in .3,.4,.5,.6 but usually about 50 or so are way out there
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I sort to 0.10 of a grain. I have not found going further provided added benefit given my level of error. The Benjamin 10.5 match I sorted were an extremely consistent pellet. Mostly 2 bins, and one very small. The AA 10.3 Field Heavy usually sort to 4 bins with 10.3 and 10.4 predominantly the weight (~90%). Though I have had bad batches which shot awful and sort was ineffective.
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I thought I had determined that H&N Baracuda 18s that my Caiman X prefers shot well except for those that were 10.3 grains. 10.0, 10.1, 10.2 and 10.4 were all good but 10.3 were not. Most of the ones I have are 10.1 and 10.2. So I only shot something like 20 into 5 shot groups to make the determination that 10.3s were worse. So I sorted more and got enough to shoot an entire 30 yard challenge target and the 10.3s shot as well as the others. I'm sure you repeat tests for the same reason, it's best not to reach conclusions based upon a small sample of data. This is only one of several times I've tried sorting.
I did find head size useful in explaining why a couple tins of Crosman 10.5s shot so poorly. I had a tin that shot as well as H&N Baracudas in my P35 so I bought two more. They shot horribly. I did not have a head size gauge and I got curious and bought one. The dozen or so pellets I had left of the "good tin" had pretty consistent head size and it was similar to the H&Ns. The "bad" tins had pellets in the size of every hole in the gauge. All over the place. None of them shot well, I tried sorting them by head size and no head size in those tins would shoot decently. I don't think the problem was the head size, it was just s symptom of badly made pellets.
I haven't tested this theory rigorously but I think the weight variation in JSB brand pellets is higher than H&N brand pellets typically. So I've tried sorting the JSBs in my two guns which prefer them. Didn't make a difference. At least none I could detect.
Good luck on your investigations. Nothing at all wrong in understanding if there is a difference in how they shoot in the wind. I use group sizes as an initial screen but I like to use 30 yard challenge scores as my final determining factor.
I did find head size useful in explaining why a couple tins of Crosman 10.5s shot so poorly. I had a tin that shot as well as H&N Baracudas in my P35 so I bought two more. They shot horribly. I did not have a head size gauge and I got curious and bought one. The dozen or so pellets I had left of the "good tin" had pretty consistent head size and it was similar to the H&Ns. The "bad" tins had pellets in the size of every hole in the gauge. All over the place. None of them shot well, I tried sorting them by head size and no head size in those tins would shoot decently. I don't think the problem was the head size, it was just s symptom of badly made pellets.
I haven't tested this theory rigorously but I think the weight variation in JSB brand pellets is higher than H&N brand pellets typically. So I've tried sorting the JSBs in my two guns which prefer them. Didn't make a difference. At least none I could detect.
Good luck on your investigations. Nothing at all wrong in understanding if there is a difference in how they shoot in the wind. I use group sizes as an initial screen but I like to use 30 yard challenge scores as my final determining factor.
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