Pellet Sizing and Removing Variables

[oledawg]

Howdy All

At 63 I have decided to take up Air Rifle Benchrest, 25m & 50 yds to begin with along with hunting. I have not previously owned an air rifle but many years ago did do 10m air pistol with a Hammerli pistol. 

After a month or so of researching I am now on a waiting list for a FX Crown .22 with the green lamimated stock at Airguns of Arizona along with all the other things I need. Although having to wait a few months is difficult, it is probably a good thing as I have been spending time learning about precision shooting.

I understand when doing precision shooting you need to remove as many of the controllable variables as possible and it makes sense to weigh and size the pellets. I have found blogs and forum posts about sizing, some Pro some con. Checking this forum I found people saying they have a sizer or have recently ordered a sizer but I missed any information on suppliers who sell sizers and have not been able to find any for sale on the net. 

I know I will have to spend time shooting various pellets to find the pellet and size that works best with my FX. I would appreciate any information on pellet sizers and the process of sizing. I also read that washing the pellets is a good process to do any thoughts on this? What do you wash then in and what is the best way to dry them? 

I realize that AOA can provide information about this but I like to get a consensus from various sources. I hope to get out to the monthly benchrest match at Rio Salido next Saturday and attend one of the days for EBR the following week as well. 

Thank you you for your time and sharing your knowledge. 

 

[Tominco]

I'll post 2 of my 4 videos below. I've noticed that "Sizing pellets" is a term that's used in two different ways. On one hand, sizing pellets means to push them through a devise in order to change the diameter. On the other hand, sizing pellets means to measure the size of the head and sort them into groups. 
Pelletgage.com sells a great sizing (head size measuring) devise.
As far as changing the diameter of the pellet. Those are vary hard to find. In fact, the shooters that choose to do that often turn to powder burner bullet making equipment. They'll use a press and die to push pellets through. 
I have seen (and have) pellet sizers for sale on eBay from time to time. Zeeman pellet sizers will rarely pop up on the classifieds, but they're usually for .177 cal. 
Be careful searching the internet for one. There used to be a guy over in europe making a punch disc that would size many pellets at once. If you pursue wanting to purchase, it'll pop up some virus emergency scam thing. It's too bad because the system looked like it would have been a nice one.
I've found JSB head sizes to be pretty darn consistent, by the time I get to that step of my sorting process, and all of my FX rifles are happy shooting them.

Happy shooting!
Tom

Edit: Part 3 video (sizing) is loaded and ready to post. I'll post it up here in a few more days. 

 

[oledawg]

Tom this is great info and exactly what I was looking for and your presentation was excellent looking forward to part 3. I had previously subscribed to your YouTube channel but had not seen these videos. I also appreciate your clarification of sizing and how there can be 2 different methods. Thanks for the tip about the sizing tool on the internet I did think that was a great design, thanks also for the  

 

[Tominco]

Cool! I'm happy to help.

 

[oledawg]

Although a newbie to this sport and not having put a pellet down range with the rifle I don’t have yet, it seems after spending the time to wash, inspect and size to be counterproductive to then put them all back into a single container where they could get slightly abused bumping up against one another. Any thought or observation about that?

 

[Percula]

Some thoughts...

Resizing, i.e. changing the diameter of the head and skirt is VERY dependent on your gun and what it likes. I have (2) BR rifles, both like smaller than the typical JSB head size, so I resize my pellets. For resizing gear I use NOE die for my 30cal and TbT for my 17cal. But before you go looking too much into this, see what your gun likes.

Sizing; with something like the pelletgage you can get a fairly accurate measurement of the head size of a pellet. When you start sorting them into the same size piles, what you'll find is a bell curve with the majority in the middle with small number of either size. The middle of the curve will almost certainly not be what's printed on the tin lol. You now have a assortment of sizes to test in your gun.

Wind; it's likely the most important factor in accuracy! So when you get to testing out settings, pellets, etc, you need to do it in "no wind", ideally inside with no big drafts. It's hard to find an indoor space to shoot at longer rangers, so do the best you can.

Cleaning and lube; I'm in the camp of its a good idea to get the lead debris off the pellets before you shoot them, as I'm pretty sure those list bits of lead will lodge in the barrel resulting in less than consistent/accurate POI. Lube, again its what does your gun like. Both of mine throw some of the wildest flyers if I lube my pellets. So you have to find out what your gun likes.

"What you gun likes"... Remember your gun is the gun in your hands, not the make, model or caliber of the gun in your hand. You can definitely get an idea of what your gun will most likely like by talking others with the same make, model, caliber as you, but its not a "sure thing".

 

[Percula]

"oledawg"Although a newbie to this sport and not having put a pellet down range with the rifle I don’t have yet, it seems after spending the time to wash, inspect and size to be counterproductive to then put them all back into a single container where they could get slightly abused bumping up against one another. Any thought or observation about that?

As long as they aren't banging into each other, placing pellets together is not a problem. Keeping them in say a plastic pill bottle that would double for a rattle, bad idea. Put them in that same plastic bottle and pack it with cotton so they don't move around, just fine. Then handle with care, no dropping, throwing, etc.

 

[oledawg]

Great info Percula. Yes, first step see what my rifle likes then go from there. With all the adjustments on the Crown and properly preparing the pellets the only thing in the way of great shooting will be me and the wind. I do hope to find an indoor space to do the testing. Good idea about packing with cotton.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insights.