My Caiman X likes H&N Baracuda 18 pellets the best of any I've tried. Better than FX and JSB 18s as well as heavier and lighter JSBs and heavier H&Ns. I've been shooting it at a lot of 30 yard challenge targets and achieved (3) 199 scores including one with 17 Xs but no 200. So I decided to weight sort and then head size sort first a partial tin of about 150 pellets. I sorted only for weight at first and found most pellets were 18.1 or 18.2 grains on my scale with a few at 18 and a little more at 18.3 and 18.4 grains. I next shot a target with the 18.1 grain pellets and got a 197. Pretty good for me but not what I wanted. So I sorted the remaining 18.1s by head size and found a few at 5.49mm, and the most pretty evenly divided between 5.50 and 5.51 mm. So I shot those and found no difference between the head sizes. Next I shot a target with the 18.2s and got another 197.
The most interesting part of this exercise was when I shot the more unusual 18.0, 18.3, and 18.4 grain pellets. I attached a target showing one of the two tests I did of weight. The top row of 4 targets is the 18.0s (all I had). The next 3 rows are 18.3s. The last two rows are 18.4s. 75% of the targets with 18 grain and 18.4 grain pellets were 10s. 50% of the targets with the 18.3 grain were 10s. 75% 10s would equate to a score of 195. 50% would equate to a 190 score. Not a tremendous difference but I decided it was worthwhile to do the weight sorting and sorted another tin yesterday. I shot another 199 with 17xs with it. Good but not better than the best with the unsorted pellets. I'll probably keep doing it until I get a 200, however.
I've tried sorting the H&N Baracuda Match my P35-22 prefers and found no advantage. But the match pellets are a little more consistent than the plain Baracudas. I think it's something worth checking if the last little bit of improvement is important to you.
The most interesting part of this exercise was when I shot the more unusual 18.0, 18.3, and 18.4 grain pellets. I attached a target showing one of the two tests I did of weight. The top row of 4 targets is the 18.0s (all I had). The next 3 rows are 18.3s. The last two rows are 18.4s. 75% of the targets with 18 grain and 18.4 grain pellets were 10s. 50% of the targets with the 18.3 grain were 10s. 75% 10s would equate to a score of 195. 50% would equate to a 190 score. Not a tremendous difference but I decided it was worthwhile to do the weight sorting and sorted another tin yesterday. I shot another 199 with 17xs with it. Good but not better than the best with the unsorted pellets. I'll probably keep doing it until I get a 200, however.
I've tried sorting the H&N Baracuda Match my P35-22 prefers and found no advantage. But the match pellets are a little more consistent than the plain Baracudas. I think it's something worth checking if the last little bit of improvement is important to you.
