How far with a pellet?

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Vetmx

Vetmx

Member
Dec 4, 2017
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Pa, United States
I was bored a couple days ago so I took my best 33.95gr shooter and started doing a test but the heat was ruthless. I put a target at 120 yards and 180 yards just to narrow down where I need to focus. At 120 yards my gun was still good. At 180 I think my pellets became little paratroopers. When I get time I will incrementally work my way out 10 yards at a time. Just curious and for conversation sake, how far have you guys shot pellets accurately? Doesn’t matter the caliber. I have taken birds with my Taipan .22 shooting 18’s out to 130 yards. Who knows, it might have been luck or the gun could go to crap at 131 yards. But I never spent any time with pellets shooting over 100 to see where each gun, pellet and tune goes off the tracks. So to save me a lot of shooting, I’d like to hear just how far you guys have shot them and still hit stuff. Be it a can, spinner or target. Maybe this has been discussed but I’ve never seen it.
 
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My furthest ever was a Pdog at around 265 yards. Upper body shot, maybe head, because he dropped and twitched. Rangefinder wouldnt pick it up but 21 mils of holdover (combo of clicked and hold over) and Strelok said 265 yards for 208 clicks. Took about 8-10 shots to walk it in. Also per Strelok, pellet would have had just shy of 8fpe. Lots of mirage so that helped gauge crosswinds.

Have taken numerous Euro doves and starlings from the trees at the back of my property, branches laser from 160-174yards.

All of the above with .20/15.89gr pellets. Monster RDs are the only other pellet I've tried to shoot very far, and they fall apart around 140-160yards, at least at the speed/barrel/batch that I've tested.
 
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Franklink said:
My furthest ever was a Pdog at around 265 yards. Upper body shot, maybe head, because he dropped and twitched. Rangefinder wouldnt pick it up but 21 mils of holdover (combo of clicked and hold over) and Strelok said 265 yards for 208 clicks. Took about 8-10 shots to walk it in. Also per Strelok, pellet would have had just shy of 8fpe. Lots of mirage so that helped gauge crosswinds.

Have taken numerous Euro doves and starlings from the trees at the back of my property, branches laser from 160-174yards.

All of the above with .20/15.89gr pellets. Monster RDs are the only other pellet I've tried to shoot very far, and they fall apart around 140-160yards, at least at the speed/barrel/batch that I've tested.
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If you were able to walk them in then you still have some degree of accuracy out that far. Impressive.
 
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Vetmx said:
If you were able to walk them in then you still have some degree of accuracy out that far. Impressive.
Click to expand...

Yes, they follow ballistics app predictions pretty well. Ive seen them in flight on occasion and they fly straight and true, no cork screws or diving this way and that.

The first couple REALLY long shots I made with them I thought it a fluke, but I've since made enough successful long range shots with the .20/15.89 that I've concluded that they truly are accurate at much longer ranges than one would expect for such a light pellet.

The .22 MRDs on the other hand....good batches can be REALLY good out to 150-160ish, but even the good batches further than that are unpredictable, and the bad batches......🫣
 
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Before last year, I had never shot much over a 100y with pellets either. Everything has pretty much changed. I have a 5" square duraseal target hanging from a tree at 125y that I started shooting at with my .25 using the MkII's and nailing it easily rested, but for real fun, freehand standing (as likely to miss than hit these days) and thought that was pretty good. Then I got a .30 Paradigm and I thought, way to close, so I moved back to 155y, and then I wonder about shooting the .25 this far. I checked Strelok, 8.8mils up needed, first shot kneeling, foreend rested on my hand, deadnuts! I probably didn't need a .30, is what I was thinking at that point, but they do hit comically harder. Before the .30 I never thought to try, but it's a lot of fun. Same scenario with using slugs in everything, I never thought a .177 could do anything at 125y, -wrong! Yeah, the .25, 33.95gr JSB MkII's at 875fps, fly beautifully to 155y anyway.
 
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Last time I was at the ranch we had one of those super rare days that there was zero wind. Off the back patio I have a steel plate at 190 yards. I usually use that for plinking with my Panthera 25 cal or my 22 cal M3, both guns shooting slugs.
I had my Maverick 25 Compact on the patio with me to pick off any uneducated starlings and decided to toss a few pellets at the steel plate. I could get them in the general area of the plate. Moved in to about 165 and started shooting at rocks imbedded in a cut bank along the creek. Once I got the holdover I could keep shots in what I considered groups that indicated some degree of accuracy.
 
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Chukar60 said:
Last time I was at the ranch we had one of those super rare days that there was zero wind. Off the back patio I have a steel plate at 190 yards. I usually use that for plinking with my Panthera 25 cal or my 22 cal M3, both guns shooting slugs.
I had my Maverick 25 Compact on the patio with me to pick off any uneducated starlings and decided to toss a few pellets at the steel plate. I could get them in the general area of the plate. Moved in to about 165 and started shooting at rocks imbedded in a cut bank along the creek. Once I got the holdover I could keep shots in what I considered groups that indicated some degree of accuracy.
Click to expand...
25.39?
 
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Several years ago, I was at a friend's house that had some targets at 220 and 289... I believethey were 7" diamonds on a strap hanger. He had a 30 cal EVOL using 50 grainers and I brought my RW in 22 and Safari in 25. The 22 and 30 both were able to tag the 289 frequently and we could see the misses splash in the cinders where the range resided. Both were keeping the misses very close but I was holding 2.5 mils of wind where he required 6... fairly good breeze but steady. The 25 was still doing okay at 220 but the splash at 289 was huge... maybe 6 ft. I'm guessing the 34 grainers went bad around 240, maybe 250.
Now that has been my mental benchmark for these but more recently, a friend and I were shooting at my place where I have a sand dune at 208. After a few shots with the 20 cal 15.89s, I decided to put some of the regular clay pigeons out and we tried to break them with my 22 RW, 20 DW, 30 Safari w 56 gn, and Ghost 22. Out of 6 pigeons, the 30 broke one but hung in there close, the 22's really sucked, and the 20 hit the other 5. The 22 was the real letdown because this has been my reference for years. I guess the ammo was a LOT better years ago( not guessing... I KNOW it was).
We threw a LOT of lead in 22(25.4s). A lot were pretty close but some were at least 3 ft away. All rifles were decent at 100 yds where my main cluster resides.
That little 20 was impressive...
Now my range has DIFFICULT winds even though they may not be intense so we didn't feel all that bad about the miss/hit ratio but the dang 22 is a puzzler.
Bob
 
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Regarding MRD's.... I am not sure if I am glad or disappointed to hear others having a similar experience as mine. I really wanted to like that pellet, I had high expectations, but in the end they pale in comparison to .25 King Heavies.

.25 King Heavies and .22 Jumbo Heavies, IMO, are the most forgiving, most versatile pellets made.
 
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Franklink said:
Yes, they follow ballistics app predictions pretty well. Ive seen them in flight on occasion and they fly straight and true, no cork screws or diving this way and that.

The first couple REALLY long shots I made with them I thought it a fluke, but I've since made enough successful long range shots with the .20/15.89 that I've concluded that they truly are accurate at much longer ranges than one would expect for such a light pellet.

The .22 MRDs on the other hand....good batches can be REALLY good out to 150-160ish, but even the good batches further than that are unpredictable, and the bad batches......🫣
Click to expand...

That is my conclusion. MRD's past 160 = waist of time. Heck I don't even like shooting them past 75Y or so.

I have two batches and they both give flyers. Mike N gave me two tins from a proven batch back when I bought my HPX and those shot well inside of 100Y.
 
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I appreciate the added examples.

To summarize, me and @Arzrover's examples of .20/15.89 and then multiple examples of .25/33.95 and .30/44.75. I think the .22/25.4gr MRD of a few years ago would have had a more prevalent place here if JSB hadn't screwed them up.

So pretty much what we'd expect in this discussion, the pellets with the highest BCs performing the rare examples of successful extreme long range attempts, that being generally in the 0.05 or better category.

Interesting stuff. Thanks for starting the topic, and thanks to those that shared.
 
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Franklink said:
I was really hoping to see more input here, as I'm curious to hear others reports of stretching out the distance with pellets. Distance, pellet, gun, etc.
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I’m consistently hitting my targets at 102 yards, using 20 MOA of holdover out of my Pathfinder XR sending Crosman Premier Hollow Points. And 15 MILs of holdover get me the same hits out of my Atomic XR. I literally see the pellets drop down as they hit the target. Artillery style plinking, just for fun, of course.
 
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