Hiw many size and weigh pellets??

[scotton]

Was showing it to a few other shooters and one claimed "nobody uses those stupid things" and that "all the top shooters don't worry about the head size".

That's exactly what I would say to someone I was trying to beat. Or I would say "You have to wash, lube, weigh and size every pellet".

There are very few shooters that I will listen to advice from. Two immediate red flags for me are using "nobody" or "all the top shooters" in a sentence. I would recommend you do whatever you think helps your score and find a better class of people to talk to.

 

[pbike257]

starting with about 12,000 pellets in the same lot... sometimes more... I weight sort mine, to sort out the middle and high and low... not to say high or low won't shoot... they just now become 3 groups rather than one big group... I have 2 very expensive scales (Laboratory Balances) that check each other for accuracy and consistency.

Then I roll them on glass and look for odd head size, Tom Hollands method... this gives me heads in the middle and low or high... It also proves out the "dinged" pellets.

Now my 3 groups have become 9... I then test and find which groups work "good enough" for matches... The rest are for practice.

In talking with Mike Niktch (Thomas), he basically said I'm wasting time when I could be shooting and practicing... I said, So I have to keep buying pellets and shooting them until I find good ones? No, he said all the good ones are gone there are none left!!! This I find out after I bought a Thomas gun for me and one for my wife and convinced my son to buy one. That's 3 Thomas guns!!!

I haven't shot Benchrest since that conversation, which never came up before the first Thomas gun.

EBR is a lot more forgiving and like the lottery, luck can strike for anyone. Good luck

 

[thomasair]

Todays pellets still do quite well. You see particular die numbers that are outstanding for a while….then they disappear or the dies finally wear out. Others always pop up to take their place. If you plan to compete at a high level, you will always be looking for the best. I have yet to find sorting mediocre pellets to be a suitable substitute.

Mike

 

[bigHUN]

I wanted to try resizing the MRD pellets to a common consistent size for a tin (instead of loosing my hair with a PelletGauge),
and I ordered the Trrobb pellet sizer.
When I got it I spent a decent amount of hours still on it to make all the FFF (form, fit, function) to my liking .
Measured the barrel/liner, and I resized a tin of MRD's to 5.52.
And I learned something over this weekend from the excersize.
Both days minus 3-4C, 75% humidity, light snow just a white powder, not much air movement.
Sighting in @50, 10 groups of 4 per ring, pellets straight from the tin, all groups looks nothing special = average as I got used to seeing.
Next 10 groups of 4 per ring, from a resized tin, and a shocking ... these groups opened up.
Quickly jumped back to a normal tin to cross check if the liner started fulling, no, back to normal...

I didn't thought about that the lead will shrink this much from cold, and the 5.52 most likely lost a head contact with the rifling land.
This what Iearned today, the project will be on hold for next 5 or so months until my Canadian winter is gone.
And, the worst thing is - I still don't know if resizing the pellets worth a penny. Not necessarily resizing to a specific OD but at least to a consistent tin.

 

[thomasair]

I don’t think the lead shrinking was your trouble. Your barrel would also shrink….although to a lesser degree. I think the cte of lead is 29 and stainless steels are 16 to 17.

You could keep the pellets in your pocket and try them again.

Mike

 

[thomasair]

Try putting some pellets in the freezer for a few hours and then push some through your barrel.

Mike

 

[bigHUN]

I pushed some pellets to a half barrel and push them back from muzzle, this how I resized to the very bare minimum OD, with a jewellery lupe only a tiny pressure point is visible. Looks like I overdo the sizing, oh well this is a learning curve.
These are my Leshiy2 groups with a .22x600 liner @ -4C, at that Temp not much patience to pay full attention to shooting from a cold bench.

The yellow marked x4 groups are MRD's straight out from the tin, and the blue circled x4 groups are the 5.52 resized pellets (resized in my basement cave at 23C). Clearely visible the groups opened up. So the shrink from 23C to -4C at a bare minimum OD may be a case. Next time I will try loading from my pocket, thanks for the tip.
The red circled rings I swap the scope to LPVO and I could not track the aiming at the rings @50 way too out to my eyes.

Next time I will put more layers.

 

[RScott]

starting with about 12,000 pellets in the same lot... sometimes more... I weight sort mine, to sort out the middle and high and low... not to say high or low won't shoot... they just now become 3 groups rather than one big group... I have 2 very expensive scales (Laboratory Balances) that check each other for accuracy and consistency.

Then I roll them on glass and look for odd head size, Tom Hollands method... this gives me heads in the middle and low or high... It also proves out the "dinged" pellets.

Now my 3 groups have become 9... I then test and find which groups work "good enough" for matches... The rest are for practice.

In talking with Mike Niktch (Thomas), he basically said I'm wasting time when I could be shooting and practicing... I said, So I have to keep buying pellets and shooting them until I find good ones? No, he said all the good ones are gone there are none left!!! This I find out after I bought a Thomas gun for me and one for my wife and convinced my son to buy one. That's 3 Thomas guns!!!

I haven't shot Benchrest since that conversation, which never came up before the first Thomas gun.

EBR is a lot more forgiving and like the lottery, luck can strike for anyone. Good luck

I'll keep my eye on the WTS listings for 3 Thomas', and maybe about 10k of sorted pellets.
My .177 Pulsar can't distinguish (in terms of 25m BR precision) sorted from unsorted pellets among the three it shoots best: QYS 9.56D, AA 10.3, and JSB MRD 13.4.
I'm trying a new .177 for BR and will eventually check whether sorting works for it.