.217 NSA 17.5 grain - YES!

[Centercut]

Decided to take the .22 Cricket Mini Carbine shooting today, since I haven’t had it out since EBR. The gun is my favorite, but with all that’s going on, plus all the prep for RMAC I haven’t shot it. It shoots 18.1 JSB at 880 FPS and easily puts 5 shots inside of a dime at 50 yards...

So there I was, practicing at various yardages, in very windy conditions. Enough so that I couldn’t hit a 2 inch spinner at 50 yards without hold off outside the edge of the spinner. I looked in my gun case and remembered that I had some .217 NSA 17.5 grain, and had only shot them over the Chrony and had never checked accuracy. They shoot at 830 FPS, or about 50 FPS less than the 18.1 grain pellets. More on the speed in a bit.

So I hung a target at 50 yards, and shot a few. They were lower, had to raise elevation about 3 MOA. But I was astounded by the accuracy! Every bit as accurate as the Pellets. And even better, the wind drift was about 1/2 of the 18.1 JSB. I didn’t get a chance to measure BC but I’d estimate around 0.065. And they fit the magazine without falling out if you push them in a bit further with a pen or pencil so that the hollow point is flush with the forward side of the mag. 

I’m excited about this since although the BC isn’t great for a slug, it is much better than the 18.1 pellets and better than any other pellet like the .22 RD Monster, 25 JSB Heavy Mk2, or .30 JSB Exact. Even though shooting at 830 FPS, the drop at 100 yards is the same as the drop with the 18.1 at 880 FPS. Plus it carries more energy down range... and to top it all off the price is pretty much equivalent to the JSB pellets. Looks like a win-win to me. This will be my squirrel setup this Summer. 
Note: the slugs are actually the .2165 diameter NSA.
https://nielsenspecialtyammo.com/products/17-5-grain-375-count-22-cal-slug-nsa

 

[TNT19]

Nice discovery. I have been testing the 17.5 gr .216 in kral puncher 22 at 890 fps. They are accurate just a hair off the 18.1 jsb. The bc is .075 which is very nice. I have done some hunting with them and they have performed well. 

 

[Dairyboy]

Excellent! I need to try them again in my R5M. They had promise but I didn't shoot them much

 

[Centercut]

Nice discovery. I have been testing the 17.5 gr The bc is .075 which is very nice.

Did you measure the BC? It seems odd that they would be that high when the .217 20.2 grain are 0.074 measured. 

 

[TNT19]

I remember seeing it on the box and label. I will see if I can find it again. I had that loaded in strelock and never had issues with the aim doping with that bc and other factors.

 

[Centercut]

I see. The only way to get the True BC is to measure it yourself. The number shown on the NSA web site is just a SWAG, a guesstimate. Use the Truing function in Strelok Pro to derive an accurate BC for your situation. 

 

[Strietwise]

Your findings are very similar to my findings. I compared the 17.5 .2165 to JSB 18 gr in my matador R3. More accurate at 70 + yds, less wind drift, more thump on impact.

 

[mercado]

They where awesome to in my cricket compact..at 100+ I hope that the cricket standard would like them to....the .25 likes the 26g n 29g ...the .177 compact shoot great to 11g slugs..

 

[TNT19]

It's close and so far out to 100 yards out of a regular pcp I have had some stellar performance. I am looking forward to my new toy the Rti Prophet. Will get two barrel changes at first.

 

[Arzrover]

They weren't very good in the RW At 920 w the HP barrel. At 1040 (next pl up) they shot as good as the Monster RD do at 980. Almost a single bullet hole at 50 and typically under an inch at 100 but actually seemed to blow more in the wind than the M RDs.

RB and I were pretty impressed!

Bob

 

[Skeeeets]

My guns refuse the 17.5gr slugs.... all my crosman barrels are "too big" and they just slide out the barrel, my prod has a hard time feeding them(why i had a jam last night) and afterwards shoots 1 foot circles the true .217s shoot very well with my 2240/hipa with the 23g being one hole at 20y. Defiantly good prices for thier slugs.

 

[Centercut]

Note: I was wrong about the speed. The JSB 18.1s were shooting at 880 FPS, and the .217 NSA 17.5 were shooting at 850, not 830. My mistake. 

 

[Corvid_hunter]

Any experience with the .217 19gr flat base ones?

 

[Centercut]

Any experience with the .217 19gr flat base ones?

Who makes those? I have tried the 20.2 grain .217 in my .22 EDGun R3 Long at 980 to 990 FPS and it loves them. They shoot too slow out of my Cricket so I didn’t bother checking accuracy, and I don’t want to crank up the power. Honestly I’m thrilled that I can shoot a slug (accurately) out of the Mini that has better wind performance than any of the “high BC” pellets.

The 20.2 grain also shoot from the DS Bleu Wolf but go too fast on Medium Power level, like 1050 FPS. I’m sure if I slow them down to the high 900s they’ll be good. I’m very anxious to try some heavier NSA and the JSB Knock Out 25.4 grain in Bleu. In order to get the benefits of slugs, a heavier .22 is better, I’d say minimum 25 grain but better at 27 to 30 grain. Bleu has the power to shoot 30 grain slugs at a good speed. 

 

[Corvid_hunter]

Any experience with the .217 19gr flat base ones?

Who makes those? I have tried the 20.2 grain .217 in my .22 EDGun R3 Long at 980 to 990 FPS and it loves them. They shoot too slow out of my Cricket so I didn’t bother checking accuracy, and I don’t want to crank up the power. Honestly I’m thrilled that I can shoot a slug (accurately) out of the Mini that has better wind performance than any of the “high BC” pellets.

The 20.2 grain also shoot from the DS Bleu Wolf but go too fast on Medium Power level, like 1050 FPS. I’m sure if I slow them down to the high 900s they’ll be good. I’m very anxious to try some heavier NSA and the JSB Knock Out 25.4 grain in Bleu. In order to get the benefits of slugs, a heavier .22 is better, I’d say minimum 25 grain but better at 27 to 30 grain. Bleu has the power to shoot 30 grain slugs at a good speed.

Bought these a while back, put a few through my Condor.

 

[fderry]

Centercut - I broke out my Cricket Mini Carbine and tried both JSB Jumbo 15.89 gr pellets and Nielsen 17.5 gr, 0.2165 slugs with my LabRadar. I live at an altitude of ~7100ft and the temp was 67*. My Cricket was tuned by Charlie Frear last year and I haven't changed any settings. I shot at 50 yards and have attached pictures of the groups. I managed about 1.5" with pellets and 3" with slugs. I have also attached a spreadsheet from the LabRadar with the 10 shot data. This may help you in determining BC for the slugs.

 

[fderry]

For the pellet hole counters out there I only tested 10 shot groups with the LabRadar but shot full 14 pellet magazines for the groups.

 

[JungleShooter]

fderry,

Thanks for sharing your data!

If I understand correctly, for BC calculations it's important to know the air pressure — either the actual pressure at the testing site, or that pressure converted to sea level (and knowing the elevation of the test site).



Matthias

 

[Centercut]

Centercut - I broke out my Cricket Mini Carbine and tried both JSB Jumbo 15.89 gr pellets and Nielsen 17.5 gr, 0.2165 slugs with my LabRadar. I live at an altitude of ~7100ft and the temp was 67*. My Cricket was tuned by Charlie Frear last year and I haven't changed any settings. I shot at 50 yards and have attached pictures of the groups. I managed about 1.5" with pellets and 3" with slugs. I have also attached a spreadsheet from the LabRadar with the 10 shot data. This may help you in determining BC for the slugs.

Thanks, appreciate the info. My Mini shoots the 18.1s at about 880 FPS and the NSA 17.5 at 850 FPS. Perhaps your gun isn't shooting them fast enough to get the benefit of accuracy? In my gun the NSA 17.5 and the 18.1 pellets were "hole in hole" HA! j/k I'd say though that five shot groups at 50 yards with both would easily be covered by a penny.

 

[fderry]

On my best day I'm a 2 MOA shooter but I should have done better with the pellets. The test group Charlie supplied with the rifle was a 0.3 inch 5 shot group at 40 yards with 15.89 gr pellets. I only added the groups for reference. I agree that I need to up the fps if I intend to shoot slugs in the Cricket. The slugs were bought to shot in a different rifle that I intended to set up for slugs. The air pressure was 30.16 inHg. Meant to include that in original post. Also the altitude via GPS is 7126 ft.