Pellet sorting and sizing??
- Thread starter peaceful_ruler
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Lots of posts already covering this question. Lots of opinions as well. Sort of depends on your commitment to precision pellet placement on targets. For hunting, not so much.
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That depends on what you're happy with.
EVERYBODY sorts.
The broadest example would be guys that only buy and shoot pellets that their gun likes (be that weight, caliber, lot#, brand name, etc).
Next step into the crazy would be the shooter that looks at pellets during shooting, culling out the deformed heads, parting lines, etc.
The next stage would be the guys that will only shoot washed and lubed pellets.
Some where at the bottom (or top) of the sickness is the guys that are spending hours and hours and hours weighing and inspecting every single pellet out of every single tin.
For me, it depends on the gun. I've tried the uber-crazy pinnacle of OCD and weighed and sorted entire tins.....I don't anymore. I arrived at the conclusion that a crappy batch could be made to shoot better by only shooting pellets within a certain weight from that tin, that also had no visible deformities, but those "sorted" pellets from a sub-par batch still didn't shoot as good as pellets straight from the tin of a known "good" batch.
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Depends how crazy you want to go. I usually just give them a quick sideways glance to check for obvious issues and if they pass that test they get sent down range. It takes a pretty decent amount of deformity to significantly change the pellets velocity. I played around with PelletGages and weighing a bit and I personally didn't find it worth the time I put into it. If you're trying to knock off every 1/10 and 1/100 of an inch you can or shooting at longer ranges the time and effort may be worth it to you though.
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Determine what you want for accuracy, and then figure out how much time that you want to spend on that endeavor. I'll weigh sort pellets and that is it. Before shooting they go in a tin with a squirt of silicone oil on the foam to roll lube them.
I've found that weighing pellets will matter for long range accuracy; because consistent weight and speed matters, and it seems to cut down on fliers. Some tins are very consistent in weight, some are not. If I start weighing a tin and everything is within .2 of a grain then I stop and don't waist my time. If there's a whole grain or more of difference in the pellet weights I sort the whole tin.
I've found that weighing pellets will matter for long range accuracy; because consistent weight and speed matters, and it seems to cut down on fliers. Some tins are very consistent in weight, some are not. If I start weighing a tin and everything is within .2 of a grain then I stop and don't waist my time. If there's a whole grain or more of difference in the pellet weights I sort the whole tin.
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As rsfrid mentioned there are lots of posts on this subject. Here's a link to a post I started on October 16, 2022 that had lots of good feedback from AGN members. https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/first-time-sorting-pellets-by-weight.1275719/
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A phrase from cemterfire bench rest I believe......It's the arrow not the Indian. Buy good pellets, test to find what your rifle likes then concentrate on your bench manners. If shooting outdoors....flags......every time.
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I did my first experiments with it last week. I weight sorted, head sized sorted, and roll sorted some JSB 44.75 and FX 44.75 pellets.
I shot them in 5 shot groups indoors at 20y from a bench rest.
The closely sorted groups shot barely any better than my pile of culls that were too high or low. The rifle and pellet combo are in my opinion “good” accuracy but not ready for benchrest competition.
Now of course if I had a wickedly accurate gun and pellet combination, then sorting should help eliminate flyer shots. But I have not had that opportunity yet, still working on it.
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AS i said B4 , i only sort for competition day, then at least i know ALL the pellets are the same .
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pellets.are mass produced and will not all be the same if they were all exactly the same I couldn’t afford them they shoot extremely well imo for what they cost most flyers are most likely something I do tried weighing and still had flyer’s so I just shoot them
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