Who resizes their .22 cal pellets and to what size

[ThomasT]

Hello everyone,

1) I Would like to know who resizes their .22 cal pellets and what Size diameter are you using?

2) And what brand of Pellet Sizer are you using?

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[dizzums]

ive thought about it .. really, at least with the barrels on the guns i have, the issue is the choke being tight and the rest of the barrel usually being loose so its a catch22 .. the solution i think is removing 'some' of the choke .. lopping it off at just the right place without removing all of it and refacing and crowning is the strategy im working on, where im at with it ...

 

[elh0102]

ive thought about it .. really, at least with the barrels on the guns i have, the issue is the choke being tight and the rest of the barrel usually being loose so its a catch22 .. the solution i think is removing 'some' of the choke .. lopping it off at just the right place without removing all of it and refacing and crowning is the strategy im working on, where im at with it ...

You shouldn't alter the choke. It's design is based on the very fact that it is tighter than the rest of the barrel. Most rimfire match barrels are made the same. The fact that it's choked may alter the optimum pellet diameter, but it doesn't change the fact that there is one. In most cases, the best diameter will be the groove diameter of the non-choked portion of the barrel, or within .001" either way. At least that was my experience with RF. Choked vs. non-choked barrels has always been an ongoing discussion. But, if you have a good shooting barrel, leave it as is and then fine tune with pellet selection or sizing. Just my opinion, but I don't believe I'm alone in that thinking.

 

[rsfrid]

I haven't messed with altering my pellets except to smooth out some bent skirts. I run every pellet through a PelletGage and sort baded on the gauge's reported headsize. My RAW seems to shoot all of them pretty much equally. I only sort to keep pellets in a batch as consistent as possible. I tend to shoot only a certain head size at a session. But I don't really care which head size that will be.

 

[ThomasT]

Hello Ross,

Well it looks like not too many folks do resize their pellets. I would like to try several mags that have been resized just to see if there is any real improvement in accuracy. I have shot one full tin of the Redesigned 25.39 and almost a second tin, and I know there is some difference in size. In loading the mag some of the pellets drop in without any hesitation where others need a little help. However my rifle is shooting all of them very well.

Thanks for the info and have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[elh0102]

Thomas, good luck with your testing. I'm almost sure you will not find enough difference to make it worthwhile as on ongoing thing. Unless you are involved in very high level precision BR competition. I'll offer one suggestion that I learned doing a lot of different kind of sorting and testing. Meaningful results require consistent conditions, and a large sample. If you shoot two or three groups and reach a conclusion, it's probably wrong, or, at least unfinished. I once culled out a certain lot of Eley RF ammo based on test groups. But, I had taken a short cut and failed to clean the barrel to start fresh with that lot. I cleaned the barrel, planning on next testing some Lapua ammo, so I wanted all the Eley lube out of the barrel. Then, for no real reason I tested the ammo I had culled out, and it shot great. I'm not saying it won't be worth your time, but it's a process that requires patience. Ultimately, you have to be sure that the ammo/pellet is the only variable that changes, and that's difficult.
Ed

 

[nervoustrig]

Pellets from the tin with very consistent head sizes are usually a good sign they have the potential to group well, at least from one or more proven barrels.

Unfortunately I can’t say the same for pellets that have been swaged to a consistent size. I don’t know the reasons why but I suspect it has to do with other inherent flaws that come along for the ride. Meaning if the heads are inconsistent, there are very likely other defects like material imbalance (e.g. thick/thin sections or voids), geometric defects (e.g. head and skirt relationships promote an initial yaw angle when seated), or molding defects (flashing / parting lines).

Granted I’ve had some success in making woefully unacceptable pellets perform better but no luck making a “pretty good” into a “great”.

In terms of barrels having a distinct preference for a specific head size, my experience has been that as long as the head is fully supported in the rifling, it has as good a chance to group well as anything. Some tins that group great will show distinct engraving around the head. Other tins that group great will barely show a slight burnishing.

 

[ThomasT]

Thomas, good luck with your testing. I'm almost sure you will not find enough difference to make it worthwhile as on ongoing thing. Unless you are involved in very high level precision BR competition. I'll offer one suggestion that I learned doing a lot of different kind of sorting and testing. Meaningful results require consistent conditions, and a large sample. If you shoot two or three groups and reach a conclusion, it's probably wrong, or, at least unfinished. I once culled out a certain lot of Eley RF ammo based on test groups. But, I had taken a short cut and failed to clean the barrel to start fresh with that lot. I cleaned the barrel, planning on next testing some Lapua ammo, so I wanted all the Eley lube out of the barrel. Then, for no real reason I tested the ammo I had culled out, and it shot great. I'm not saying it won't be worth your time, but it's a process that requires patience. Ultimately, you have to be sure that the ammo/pellet is the only variable that changes, and that's difficult.
Ed

Hello elh0102,

I do a lot of testing and just simply enjoy getting involved and learning whatever I can. The extra time involved is something that I have learned to expect. I really appreciate you experience and help, this is how I learn, from the input from others.

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[ThomasT]

Pellets from the tin with very consistent head sizes are usually a good sign they have the potential to group well, at least from one or more proven barrels.

Unfortunately I can’t say the same for pellets that have been swaged to a consistent size. I don’t know the reasons why but I suspect it has to do with other inherent flaws that come along for the ride. Meaning if the heads are inconsistent, there are very likely other defects like material imbalance (e.g. thick/thin sections or voids), geometric defects (e.g. head and skirt relationships promote an initial yaw angle when seated), or molding defects (flashing / parting lines).

Granted I’ve had some success in making woefully unacceptable pellets perform better but no luck making a “pretty good” into a “great”.

In terms of barrels having a distinct preference for a specific head size, my experience has been that as long as the head is fully supported in the rifling, it has as good a chance to group well as anything. Some tins that group great will show distinct engraving around the head. Other tins that group great will barely show a slight burnishing.

Hello nervoustrig,

More good information that I can consider. My RAW HM1000X was tuned for the JBS Jumbo Monster Redesigned 25.39 and it does shoot them very well. So far I have only shot the pellets right out of the tin with no sorting of any kind ( other than a really bad skirt that I throw away ), and I have received great grouping so far. I just would like to do a bit of comparison.

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[Franklink]

I've tried some of the .22/25.4 MRDs in a TR Robb. It's a tapered sizer that keeps the skirt slightly bigger than the head.

The main goal was to make some of the crap batches of MRDs shoot better. The outcome? They still shot like crap. Experimented with incrementally smaller sizes and couldn't get any improvement.

I've not tried to size down good batches though. And probably won't! Lol.

One barrel and only a couple batches of pellets. My results don't invalidate the idea though, and eventually I may swing back around to revisit it.

 

[ThomasT]

I've tried some of the .22/25.4 MRDs in a TR Robb. It's a tapered sizer that keeps the skirt slightly bigger than the head.

The main goal was to make some of the crap batches of MRDs shoot better. The outcome? They still shot like crap. Experimented with incrementally smaller sizes and couldn't get any improvement.

I've not tried to size down good batches though. And probably won't! Lol.

One barrel and only a couple batches of pellets. My results don't invalidate the idea though, and eventually I may swing back around to revisit it.

Hello Franklink,

Thank you for this information.

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[nomojo65]

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find why some lots of the same pellet shoot so differently through my barrels?, sizing head and skirt through custom dies, sizing just the head, buying several different lots of the same pellets looking for larger than normal head size (4.54 or larger) that I was sure shot better though my LW poly’s.
I thought I was on to something with seating depth and made a custom seating depth tool that I could experiment with for each specific lot of pellets.
This over and above weighing, cleaning, lubing, rolling etc. etc.!
Then shooting inside in the winter to eliminate as many of the environmental influences as possible!
All this in a attempt to shoot more consistent scores in USARB matches. In the end I can’t specifically say why some barrels love some pellets and other barrels don’t?
Some matches, some cards, some days I shoot great and have confidence in my equipment and my ability’s others I just shake my head? Good luck and hope others find the secret that has eluded me.

And I have tried tuner’s that I purchased and made myself, no confidence that those work either?

 

[rsfrid]

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find why some lots of the same pellet shoot so differently through my barrels?, sizing head and skirt through custom dies, sizing just the head, buying several different lots of the same pellets looking for larger than normal head size (4.54 or larger) that I was sure shot better though my LW poly’s.
I thought I was on to something with seating depth and made a custom seating depth tool that I could experiment with for each specific lot of pellets.
This over and above weighing, cleaning, lubing, rolling etc. etc.!
Then shooting inside in the winter to eliminate as many of the environmental influences as possible!
All this in a attempt to shoot more consistent scores in USARB matches. In the end I can’t specifically say why some barrels love some pellets and other barrels don’t?
Some matches, some cards, some days I shoot great and have confidence in my equipment and my ability’s others I just shake my head? Good luck and hope others find the secret that has eluded me.

And I have tried tuner’s that I purchased and made myself, no confidence that those work either?

This was perhaps the most enlightening post I have read in a long time. I agree whole-heartedly! Why can I go through a complete winter indoor shooting season with every pellet through same hole at 25 yds then try outdoors with the same pellets at the same distance with the same targets and not shoot same hole? It's not the weather. Perhaps I am not holding my tongue the same way?

 

[ThomasT]

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find why some lots of the same pellet shoot so differently through my barrels?, sizing head and skirt through custom dies, sizing just the head, buying several different lots of the same pellets looking for larger than normal head size (4.54 or larger) that I was sure shot better though my LW poly’s.
I thought I was on to something with seating depth and made a custom seating depth tool that I could experiment with for each specific lot of pellets.
This over and above weighing, cleaning, lubing, rolling etc. etc.!
Then shooting inside in the winter to eliminate as many of the environmental influences as possible!
All this in a attempt to shoot more consistent scores in USARB matches. In the end I can’t specifically say why some barrels love some pellets and other barrels don’t?
Some matches, some cards, some days I shoot great and have confidence in my equipment and my ability’s others I just shake my head? Good luck and hope others find the secret that has eluded me.

And I have tried tuner’s that I purchased and made myself, no confidence that those work either?

Hello nomojo65,

It can be frustrating and maybe there is no single answer. I keep searching and reading what others have shared on the Forum and like you stated, the secret eludes me....but in a way it is fun to keep trying.

Have a great evening and thank you,
ThomasT