I know there's a limit. Or maybe I just got a bad batch of pellets. Using a regulated gun with Lothar Walther barrel, and shooting 650fps... Wondering if my scope is broken...
Hmmm... How fast is too fast for .177 wadcutters?
- Thread starter Long_Gun_Dallas
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Wadcutters dont like speed.. your pushing it a bit. In my experience they like to be around 600fps or slower. Thay definitely dont like to be shot at distance... as in anything beyond 20 yards. If you were shooting wadcutters fine before with the same brand its probably time to clean your barrel..
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Hmmm. Thanks for the input. I dont have any domes of the appropriate weight (lots of monster RDS). I'll try and stop by wally world tomorrow.
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650fps is definitely not too fast for a decent wadcutter. For example I shoot a lot of wadcutters from a ~12fpe rifle with a LW barrel at somewhat higher speeds.
9.3gr Supermags at about 760fps
Or the 8.2gr RWS R-10 from the same rifle at about 800fps
Even have a different rifle that groups the Supermags at 900fps (QB79 HPA conversion with OEM barrel)
Of course they are very sensitive to the wind, and they spread out quite a bit by 50 yards or so. But in calm conditions they're good enough to hit an aspirin consistently at 30 yards.
9.3gr Supermags at about 760fps
Or the 8.2gr RWS R-10 from the same rifle at about 800fps
Even have a different rifle that groups the Supermags at 900fps (QB79 HPA conversion with OEM barrel)
Of course they are very sensitive to the wind, and they spread out quite a bit by 50 yards or so. But in calm conditions they're good enough to hit an aspirin consistently at 30 yards.
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650fps is definitely not too fast for a decent wadcutter. For example I shoot a lot of wadcutters from a ~12fpe rifle with a LW barrel at somewhat higher speeds.
9.3gr Supermags at about 760fps
Or the 8.2gr RWS R-10 from the same rifle at about 800fps
Even have a different rifle that groups the Supermags at 900fps (QB79 HPA conversion with OEM barrel)
Of course they are very sensitive to the wind, and they spread out quite a bit by 50 yards or so. But in calm conditions they're good enough to hit an aspirin consistently at 30 yards.
Off top but where did you get those targets?
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Nervoustrig, those are some heavy wadcutters for a .177. Maybe that helps them. A lot of .177 wadcutters are flimsy light little things. Good for clean holes in targets and smacking small critters in close.
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You could have some things going on with the gun but I would try a good pistol dome like a JSB 7.3 or 8.4 before I started looking at things like that giant can or if the threading of the barrel jacked up your choke and made the gun picky.
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Wad cutters are designed for 10 meters with no wind or indoors, ideal speed is 400-550fps normally. 600FPS is a bit high especially in the wind, they were frustrating in anything besides my stock 1701, S200 and challenger(420-550-500fps). I’ve cranked up my S200 to 8 FPE and it doesn’t like wade cutter anymore.
With LW barrel try crosman pointed 7.4 grain pellets, they seem to do very well out of my crosman guns with LW barrel, they get pushed by the wind a lot though. For hunting just use 10.3 grain hades, at 650FPS the hades is simply awesome on even tree rats.
With LW barrel try crosman pointed 7.4 grain pellets, they seem to do very well out of my crosman guns with LW barrel, they get pushed by the wind a lot though. For hunting just use 10.3 grain hades, at 650FPS the hades is simply awesome on even tree rats.
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It's just one I drew up a few years ago. Here you go
https://www.dropbox.com/s/41bg9yr7wgyxdj2/inverse%201in%2054ct.pdf?dl=0
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Yeah the Supermags seem to fare well everywhere from 500 - 900fps.
I've had good luck with the lighter RWS Basics also though. 7.0gr pellet. An example from my files, shot at 750fps from an unchoked Crosman barrel at 25 yards:
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Hm... I've used the daisy wadcutters with good success out to maybe 30 yards, but all I have is some crosman ones, they have the very distinct mold lines across them.... Probably not good for what I'm doing.... I'll see if I can find more daisy ones and some domes locally today.
Shooting at 35, I'm all over the place. Like missing soda cans aiming dead center. It seemed to be shooting on-ish at one point, but maybe fell off the reg. Might should pull out the chrony, too. My shot count seemed low now I think about it....
Can should have plenty of bore clearance, but the seat on the barrel wasn't cust square. I squered it up some, but it's still not perfect. I'll see if I can slug the barrel as well. The crown looks very nice, but I know cutting threads can cause issues, though the guy that made it has a very good rep for airgun work, I know he was overloaded with orders as it took several months to get mine.
Shooting at 35, I'm all over the place. Like missing soda cans aiming dead center. It seemed to be shooting on-ish at one point, but maybe fell off the reg. Might should pull out the chrony, too. My shot count seemed low now I think about it....
Can should have plenty of bore clearance, but the seat on the barrel wasn't cust square. I squered it up some, but it's still not perfect. I'll see if I can slug the barrel as well. The crown looks very nice, but I know cutting threads can cause issues, though the guy that made it has a very good rep for airgun work, I know he was overloaded with orders as it took several months to get mine.
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I did manage to dig up a tin of jsb match wadcutters I'd forgot about. And less than 10 standard jsb exact domes. Still going to the store. Got my chrony as well. And grabbed another scope.
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When I 1st got into 177 after about 10 years of PCPs I really enjoyed shooting the small pellets but not loading them, Any way I had the Vulcan II shooting the JSB Diabolo S 100 8.25 gr at 940 FPS, Sparrows made a good sounding pop at 30 yards, Even the Euro doves dropped with a proper head or body shot.
No pest at my 48 yard range but the 8.25 grans did very very well on paper with no more than a light wind
I think that is pretty much max range for the small 8 gr pellets for me anyway, I have moved on to the 10 gr JSBs domed pellets and even the 13 gr JSBs but do not want to get into the 22 caliber weight with my 177, So I got the 16gr 177 JSB pellets sitting on a shelf , Maybe some day..
Speed oh yea, I like to keep all my 177 s at mid 900 FPS range, 940 FPS is on the low side for my shooting
Vulcan II in 177 and the king of shots the Uragan Standerd in 177 , My Prophet has the 177 barrel but I shoot the 25 caliber barrel most of the time just because its so powerful and easy adjustments..
Mike
No pest at my 48 yard range but the 8.25 grans did very very well on paper with no more than a light wind
I think that is pretty much max range for the small 8 gr pellets for me anyway, I have moved on to the 10 gr JSBs domed pellets and even the 13 gr JSBs but do not want to get into the 22 caliber weight with my 177, So I got the 16gr 177 JSB pellets sitting on a shelf , Maybe some day..
Speed oh yea, I like to keep all my 177 s at mid 900 FPS range, 940 FPS is on the low side for my shooting
Vulcan II in 177 and the king of shots the Uragan Standerd in 177 , My Prophet has the 177 barrel but I shoot the 25 caliber barrel most of the time just because its so powerful and easy adjustments..
Mike
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The great Airgun boffin and tuner, Ivan Hancock had ran some pretty exhaustive testing of Wadcutters in the early 80s and concluded that Wadcutters hit peak accuracy at somewhere between 500-600 fps, which interestingly tied in with what Feinwerkbau had set the speed for their 300S Target rifle (usually running 580 fps to 600fps) which was pretty much un-matched with Wadcutters at that time and even today.
He also reported that stability remained reasonable at upto 850fps and would pass clean through a Squirrels head at 30 yds at this speed, something he had witnessed numerous times using a BSF55N at that time. He however, made mention that the pellets started to go unstable after 900fps in early experiments tuning the 24 ftlb HW80 Lazerglide Mach1
He also reported that stability remained reasonable at upto 850fps and would pass clean through a Squirrels head at 30 yds at this speed, something he had witnessed numerous times using a BSF55N at that time. He however, made mention that the pellets started to go unstable after 900fps in early experiments tuning the 24 ftlb HW80 Lazerglide Mach1
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