I chronographed pellets from 13.4 gr. (790+fps, 18 fpe)to 18.2 gr. (720ish fps, 21 fpe) and settled on the 16 gr. (750+fps, 20 fpe) weight class as the balance between speed and power. The faster, lighter pellets produce less energy and the heavier pellets produced a minimal increase in energy.
Most pellets shot well at 25 yds. and some not too bad at 50 yds. Today, I shot five different ~16 gr. pellets at 25 & 50 yds. trying to decide on ‘the one’. Previously, I had been shooting Hades because they, preliminarily, shot best of the two brands I had at the time.
Todays trial included JSB Hades, H&N Baracuda 15, JSB Jumbo, AA Diabolo Field, and FX Atomic. I weigh twenty pellets from each tin to get an actual average weight. I shot seven shot groups (magazine size), then shot another set of seven shot groups just try to eliminate good or bad shooting luck the first time around.
After the twenty-five yard round of shooting, it was difficult to pick a winner. I’m not a great shooter, so my skill always leaves some question as to wether or not a group is bad due to the ammo or my technique. But all were pretty decent by my standards.
I repeated the two rounds of seven shot groups at fifty yards. Again, my skill confused the issue. For example, Hades were still shooting good, but the second group at fifty was just bad. I went back and shot a third group of Hades after I finished and that was back to good.
The AA Diabolo Field and FX Atomic shot well, but I have a lot more Hades, so that’s why I was giving them another chance. Hades is what I’m going to shoot until I run out of them and they are shooting right around one inch at 50 yds., so not too bad for me.