Question about using Pelletgauge

[ctshooter]

So I got a Pelletgauge in .22 a few weeks back and tried to size some pellets. I got a little frustrated with the process and have a question for those with more experience.

When you go to put a pellet in do you go from small to large or large to small?

Also - do you choose the size based on the smallest hole the pellet freely goes through? Reason I ask this is it seems many pellets fit right through one size and when you go down one the pellet 'almost' goes right through freely and will go through easily with just a little wiggle. I'm not sure which one of those two sizes is the right one to choose. Is it based on the actual diameter of the head, or just that the pellet isn't 100% concentric and needs to get past a bump.

Appreciate input from those who size regularly.

Thank you.

 

[Ranchibi]

I have one in .22 and believe it is the ones that just barely "wiggle" thru!

 

[bigHUN]

The most important is to group the pellets that are consistent same size.

 

[rsfrid]

The smallest hole that the head drops freely through is the approximate diameter of that pellet’s head.

 

[Revoman]

"or just that the pellet isn't 100% concentric" In most cases, this is the real issue. bigHUN is correct in that it makes sense to keep the group of pellets that are the same size
The gauge in not supposed to 'shave' anything off of the pellets, so if it falls through, that's what I use. No wiggling for the way that I use the Pellet Gage.
YMMV.
mike

 

[Bigragu]

And to add to Revoman’s advice, make sure you aren’t tilting the pellet as you slip thru a hole. Hopefully Ranger1 pipes in as that dude is the guy that got me into head size checks, and he has his methods down.

 

[Ezana4CE]

I go from the larger holes to the smaller holes until I find the right fit.

 

[ctshooter]

I appreciate all the input. I had already figured that keeping the groups of a particular size together made sense. I'll go with the smallest hole it 'falls' through as noted. That was the whole reason for the question - I didn't want to be 'shaving' a pellet and wasn't sure if the wiggle was also going through just because the head angle changed.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@ctshooter The best person to ask is Jerry @JCup. He’s rally cool to talk to and is responsive if he doesn’t have life stuff stopping him from responding. He helped me. You can email him also. He’s responded on here in the past. Hope it helps you sort your pellets better.

 

[Vana2]

I go from smallest to largest when sorting - saves a lot of time not having to shake the pellet out of a (now obviously) too large a hole.

I put a spacer (two washers) between the plastic guide plate and the metal guage to raise it to tip the pellet more vertical to guide it better.

I've found that SLIGHTLY chamfered (just rounding the square edge of) the hole in the guide plate helps the pellet load as well.

I put matching colored dots on my pellet gage and my sorting tray... pellet from orange hole on the guage goes into the orange bin type thing LOL! .,,It's quicker that reading the numbers and there's less chance of dropping the pellet in the wrong bin.

Consistently is important. Find a procedure that works for you and stick with it. I like holding the guage horizontally, dropping the pellet in and giving the head three taps (from the bottom side of the gauge) to see if it will settle in the hole.

I never push on the skirt and the pellet should drop in place fairly easily. You'll learn to judge what you see as a proper the "fit". The guage is for sorting to a consistent size, not head-sizing the pellet... that's a different tool

I use the hole size as a reference label and don't get hung up on the actual "true" dimension. I figure that for my guage, and my method and my airgun I just need to know what works. That someone else might measure a pellet as a different size doesn't really matter to me.

Hope this helps!
Cheers!

 

[bigHUN]

I was sorting pellets with that gauge for over a year long and I got tired of it. Invested into pellet re-sizers and I am good now

Still wanted to improve these tools and became a real project to tighten the tolerances to my liking.

No more weight sorting or rolling or head sorting, all the pellets I shot into a paper I just resize the head all the same.

 

[Vana2]

I was sorting pellets with that gauge for over a year long and I got tired of it. Invested into pellet re-sizers and I am good now

View attachment 383417
Still wanted to improve these tools and became a real project to tighten the tolerances to my liking.

View attachment 383418

View attachment 383419

No more weight sorting or rolling or head sorting, all the pellets I shot into a paper I just resize the head all the same.

I need to quit procrastinating and order a tapered reamer to finish my pellet sizer.

bigHUN, what size reamer did you find worked best?

 

[bigHUN]

bigHUN, what size reamer did you find worked best?

What is in the pictures is a tapered endmill, but the inch sizes were either large to fit into a hole or short flute. Later I ordered in milimeters 1.5 degree conical hand reamers from aliexpress and finished the job by hand. The re-sizers working well but still slow for the volumes I am capable of shooting . Maybe over this incoming Canadian winter I will catch some time to redesign, I will be sourcing to a local CNC lathe shop I meet the owner not long ago. I want to make also a re-sizer for my slugs as well.

 

[beerthief]

" I never push on the skirt and the pellet should drop in place fairly easily. You'll learn to judge what you see as a proper the "fit". The gauge is for sorting to a consistent size, not head-sizing the pellet... that's a different tool "
this is correct , i sort and find what is The Best size for the gun .
But then i do THIS straight from the new can .

 

[bigHUN]

But then i do THIS straight from the new can .

you can do that consistently @ 30 yards but try it again @ 50 meters or maybe 100 and that will be an eye opener ???

 

[Racer-X]

What's the ID difference between each color on the Pelletgauge?

 

[beerthief]

you can do that consistently @ 30 yards but try it again @ 50 meters or maybe 100 and that will be an eye opener ???

consistently @ 30 yards ,close but no cigar , not to sure for 50 , i can hit 1 inch spinners @ 40 / 8 out of 10 (they don't spin , only wiggle )

 

[beerthief]

What's the ID difference between each color on the Pelletgauge?

color ? mine is silver with head size numbers on each hole .

 

[Revoman]

"color ? mine is silver with head size numbers on each hole ."
I believe that the color referral is related to Vana2's reply and picture showing colored corresponding sorting cups matching the colors put on the gauge.

 

[JCup]

What's the ID difference between each color on the Pelletgauge?

The gage plate incremental diameters differ by 0.01 mm, (0.0004 in), the Pelletgage has ten apertures, or a span of 0.09 mm (0.0035 in) from smallest to largest. Apertures are guaranteed within 0.0025 mm (0.0001 inch) of nominal sizes. They are checked with class X plug gages. Note that "gage" is the more widely used spelling for a physical reference tool. And, since quality pellets are historically European, the Pelletgage was designed with metric increments to match the way they are sold by those suppliers.