Slugs in gas piston break

[Jasoncaine39]

Hi. I'm new to air rifles. I've got a black ops .22 break barrel nitro piston. Rated at 1000fps with alloys.

I bought some slugs but wanted to research using them first. Found this forum and here I am. I have read all the comments on slugs and have two questions. 

Does anyone know if for some reason specifically the black ops I have will be damaged by slugs i.e. getting stuck in the barrel? 

Also, it makes sense here that the heavier ammo will decrease the fps but I'm guessing it would up the fpe… is this correct? Being new please be kind if that's a dumb question lol.

Thank you

 

[Sergey1972]

 

Points for you, that you acyually thought about it and asked.

Use airgun energy calculator to calculate the power of you gun based on projectile weight and current velocity. Double check if you have a choke - push a pellet through with cleaning rod breech to muzzle. Then push a similar weight slug. If it all feels reasonable then try it. If the choke is very tight you will have to learn more than what i posted.

The challenge with break barrels is that they compress the air for each shot. That is a violent and mechanically stressful action. You don't want to exceed what the engineers intended.

In principle the gun doesnt care about the shape of projectile but it cares about air cycling through the system. Dry fire and you slam the piston (similar to a too light projectile) Seal the barrel and fire - you build too much pressure in areas that werent planned - similar to too heavy a projectile or slug stuck in choke.

Good luck with your project.

 

[Jasoncaine39]

Thank you

 

[DesertSilver]

Slugs also have a lot more drag than a pellet. 

 

[SteveP-52]

You've done the research to see mileage varies and they work in some break barrels, yet not others. Only way you'll know for sure is buy some to try in your rifle and see what happens when you do, which is basically how I did it. They'll either work for you or not

In my case, the rifle is a Turkish built Webley Tomahawk .177 they rate for 1000fps. Over the chrony with RWS R10 Match heavy 8.2gr, it averages 975 for 17.3fpe and with H&N Sniper Medium 8.5gr, it averages 952 fps for 17.1.

I bought and tested the NSA 12.5gr .177 slugs in it out of curiousity. Over the chrony, they average 658 fps for a hair over 12fpe. Shooting was at 25 yards and while not shotgun patterns, definitely not cloverleafs either...lol. Maybe with more time and work I could get better groups with it but it shoots the RWS and H&N so well, I figure at least in the Tommy, why bother.