105 BAR Here is the pellet testing. As previously mentioned, I was curious to see what the current settings could do, with only messing with the hammer tension adjust, leaving the regulator and hammer stroke length the same. Weights from 7.87grains up to 16.2.
Test design was as follows....(remember 13 shots in .177 magazine and why I did it this way makes more sense)13 shots over the chrono in the garage first (less lighting issues than outside and no chrono errors). Then outside to where I had two target traps at 50 yards, the first 3 shots were used in one trap to get the impact points roughly near a crosshair I could use as an aimpoint. The following 10 shots were then shot into the other trap, holding on the nearest crosshair to the impact point. So, 10 shot groups at 50 yards. There were no "fouling" shots or letting the barrel get accustomed to the new pellet. Quick and dirty (well not really, it still took forever).
I did not clean the barrel at any point in this testing, in fact, I haven't cleaned it since before the field target match on Saturday. I also only shot 1, ten shot group at 50 yards with each pellet (except for the 13.43s since I shot it at two different speeds, shot 1, 10 shot group with each speed for that pellet). So these are NOT the "best of the best" or cherrypicked "good" groups. These are the only groups I shot today. The only thing not shown here are the first 3 shots from each magazine shot at the other trap, to get an idea of impact points.
Chrono first.....refer back to this table when analyzing the photos of groups shared next. Those groups were taken with the hammer tension setting shown here.
- Some of those speeds are simply too fast for the pellet, and some are too slow. With only one exception, the accuracy results support that conclusion.
- Overall, the consistency was pretty good.
- The Beasts were tight loading, but they have been in every gun I've tried them in.
- the magazine wells were plenty deep for the 16.2gr Beasts, anyone familiar with them knows how long they are, like a tiny little dart.
- An interesting thing to note is the ES on the 13.43 with two different hammer tension settings. At first glance one would assume the hammer tension had something to do with it, but I don't think that's the case. With the spread of 16.29 I didn't seat the pellets all the way into the magazine wells. And with the spread of 7.4 I did seat them the entire way (ball point pen). I noticed the loading into the barrel wasn't as smooth with the pellets not seated into the magazine entirely. And the magazine lid will shut just fine without fully seating the pellets. These photos were taken as an attempt to show fully seated, and not. I think I'll seat them the entire way now, seems to be better consistency, and for sure loads smoother. And some pellets just drop all the way to the bottom, some have a large enough skirt to not fall to the bottom.
- Seated and not seated.
Here are the groups from the 7.87 to 8.64 grain pellets. Shot around noon and wind speeds were 3-7mph and shifting from right to left and left to right during this session, per NWS.
Those 8.44s were amazing at this speed. This was the surprising one to me, as I would have assumed that was too fast for that weight. The Sniper Mediums weren't too bad.
Here are the groups from the 9.1gr to 10.65gr pellets.... also shot around noon and wind speed were 3-7mph and shifting from right to left and left to right for this session.
About what would be expected, the gun was tuned to shoot a midweight pellet, so not surprising that these did so well. The FX/10.34 in the lower left was actually the tune used at the field target match on Saturday. I don't think I'd hesitate to shoot any of these four pellets at a field target match. Plenty sufficient accuracy for that game from all four of these pellets. In that regard, not very pellet picky, assuming gun is tuned for that window of pellet weights.
This is the Monster RD. Shot around 4pm and winds were 7-10mph during this session, again shifting from various directions.
Really quite decent accuracy, given the greater wind during this session, perhaps the best shooting pellet of the day.
Finally, the groups from the 16.2gr Beasts....taken at 9pm and winds were 6-7mph, per NWS.
7 of the 10 went into a pretty decent group, the other 3 were definite flyers. Take a close look at the holes from those three flyers and you can see more lead smear on one side of the hole, as well as slightly oblong (non round) holes. My thoughts are that the 16.2s just weren't going fast enough to be stabilized with these settings.
Conclusion(s) Too fast for the light pellets and too slow for the heaviest (16.2 Beasts). Just right for the 9-13grain stuff. Further adjustments would be needed for a better work-up of those lighter pellets, and the 16.2s. I think the solution to getting the 16.2s to behave is just a higher reg pressure. But I think the solution to getting the light stuff to behave can be found in the fine stroke length settings that I'll discuss in the next post.
Generally, the shot cycle CAN be oh so sweet on this gun! And it can also be pretty nasty. When everything is balanced to the pellet weight and the desired speeds, it's just a gentle little "tink" with everything happening quickly and crisply. BUT, when you're trying to force the gun to shoot something lighter or heavier than appropriate for the settings, it's not such a sweet behaving gun. The shooter can "feel" wasted air with less than optimal settings for that particular pellet. And it's a very definite "YUCK, something needs adjusted" impression.
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