Sorting

some guns like bigger skirts , or are these to large to fit in the breach ?

You can use a pellet sizer. I like these because they are tapered and do not reduce the skirts to the same size as the head.
https://www.trrobb.com/product/adjustable-pellet-seaterv1

Have to decide what your tie is worth. Personally, mine is worth too much to spend it fixing a pellet that is worth less than a dime.

flagger said:

New to this pellet sorting thing.
I was given a bunch of cheap tins of pellets and have found that some of the pellet skirts are too large.
I don't know if it is worth my time to go through them, but I hate to just throw theses tins out.
I would say, 1 out of every 5 are too large.
Exactly how do you sort these before putting them in the gun and then finding out the skirts are too large?
Do you use a die of some sort and where did you purchase this from?
Thanks!

Click to expand...

I find the head diameter to be much more influential than skirt. The skirts just adjust to the size of the barrel. (Heads do also but it takes a lot more force and that seems to affect ballistics more).

But if the skirts are really different then it’s reasonable to consider that in flight the more heavily deformed skirts will fly differently because the air flowing over the deformed edge of the skirt is very influential.

If you resize I recommend a TR Robb style tapered resizer instead of a push-thru that makes the head and skirt equal size.

Sorting takes time and there are multiple criteria to sort by. I suggest sorting a hundred by multiple criteria, and then making groups of discards that are significant examples of the flaw they were sorted by. Eg the most oversized head, the most undersized head, the most dented skirt, the most ugly head, whatever. Shoot them in a very controlled setting and see which, if any, of these sorting methods are significant in your situation. I’ve found it’s not as influential as I expect.

If you are not competing in matches or hunting, I would use them for plinking. If you have grandkids or young shooters you shoot with, you can use them. And of course, if you have a chance to shoot against someone, you could offer them some ammo.

Don't worry about the skirt, 3,000 psi makes'em all the same! If you want to measure anything it should be the head. But, if you are dealing with "cheap pellets", you might want to just shoot them at plinking targets and skip the bother. And yes, there are pellet sizing dies available. I bought one years ago and found it to be of little use. But, I think it has been shown that consistent head size is a critical variable, so my experience may not be the norm.

My memory is of pellet sizers being a need-to-have thing back in the late 80's when I got my R9. Maybe the pellet quality wasn't as high "back in the day"? Or maybe the guy behind the counter was just trying to sell me something I didn't need.

I was a college student at the time so lived w it and bought beer, weed or pizza instead & doubt it would've been worth the time. Even back then they struck me as something kind for those w OCD

EVERY airgunner should have a caliper! Easy to determine skirt o.d.'s and don't have to buy a pellet sizer. It will be essential sooner or later when you need o-ring sizes down the road so if you don't have one you really should get one! My 2 cents. I mostly use an inexpensive Harbor Freight one but also have a better one for REALLY precise tolerances.

Gerry52 said:

EVERY airgunner should have a caliper! Easy to determine skirt o.d.'s and don't have to buy a pellet sizer. It will be essential sooner or later when you need o-ring sizes down the road so if you don't have one you really should get one! My 2 cents. I mostly use an inexpensive Harbor Freight one but also have a better one for REALLY precise tolerances.

Click to expand...

I can totally see agonizing over micrometers & grains for the serious and competitive. Or maybe do a check on your tins, just for varification.

But, there's no way that I'm down for sorting thru a tin of 300 just for a range day. Not caring enough to spend the time doing that is more time speant sending more. Yes, I am that lazy.

For your occasional shooting the averages should be good enough IMO. It's probably fair to say that you get what you pay for in terms of QC too, so premium products definately should provide less need to analyze your projectiles? Less garbage in can mean less out? Just a theory.

I forgot the pellet seater that I also didn't buy. It was also must have.

Sleestak said:

I can totally see agonizing over micrometers & grains for the serious and competitive. Or maybe do a check on your tins, just for varification.

But, there's no way that I'm down for sorting thru a tin of 300 just for a range day. Not caring enough to spend the time doing that is more time speant sending more. Yes, I am that lazy.

For your occasional shooting the averages should be good enough IMO. It's probably fair to say that you get what you pay for in terms of QC too, so premium products definately should provide less need to analyze your projectiles? Less garbage in can mean less out? Just a theory.

I forgot the pellet seater that I also didn't buy. It was also must have.

Click to expand...

I didn't say  I sort or measure. Never have, never will. Just making a suggestion for someone who is so inclined.

Some airguns are very fussy about the pellets that they shoot well and others are less so.

It's typical to try a couple of brands and weights of pellets to find a good match.

The pellets that don't fit/perform well can be used for casual shooting/plinking or just put aside to try in next airgun. Owning multiple is a common problem here

Most (95%) of my shooting is done with unsorted pellets but I do use sorted pellets for tuning, sighting in and serious target work.

Cheers!

Vana2 said:

Some airguns are very fussy about the pellets that they shoot well and others are less so.

It's typical to try a couple of brands and weights of pellets to find a good match.

The pellets that don't fit/perform well can be used for casual shooting/plinking or just put aside to try in next airgun. Owning multiple is a common problem here

Most (95%) of my shooting is done with unsorted pellets but I do use sorted pellets for tuning, sighting in and serious target work.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

If the # of pellet hoarders trying to unload over in the classifieds is any indication, this hobby is mostly a lot of trial and error.

No wonder people are always running across forgotten stashes