Pellet Sizing Die

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STO

STO

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Sep 30, 2018
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So there are a couple of guys who make and sell what is essentially a swaging die to resize pellets. This seems to be the most popular example, by sales numbers, I could find:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Original-TTS-Pellet-Sizers-for-all-air-rifle-pellets/132043609188?

I searched this forum and maybe my search-fu is letting me down, but I couldn't find much on them. A lot of accuracy in a given barrel seems to come down to pellet/slug diameter and roundness, which this would allow you to adjust. 



Has anyone tried them and is willing to share their experiences? What size, pellet, and barrel did it work well with? Basically is this a good idea, a bad idea, or we don't really know and I ought be the space monkey to generate some data for the community? 
 
I have had good results with the throbb pellet sizer as far as I know it’s the only adjustable one out there. It’s time consuming but I do have mor consistent results with tighter groups when I match my pellet to as close to exact copies of each other. I first sort by weight then resize them

https://www.trrobb.com/product/adjustable%20pellet%20sizer%20177
 
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Thanks for the reports everyone. 

I pressed a pellet into my STX barrel from the breech, just a couple pellet lengths in. It strikes me the initial pressure rise would blow the skirt open to seal, and you'd want the head to ride on the lands. I measured the JSB 18.13 as about a 5.49mm head diameter before. After I measured about 5.48mm in the grooves and 5.43mm across the flats of the lands. Of course I'm perfectly happy to say I have no idea WTF I'm doing, because the lead is awfully soft to grab without deforming on both my calipers and micrometers. So who knows? 
 
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STO and others :

What I THINK I know is that any measurement taken with calipers or micrometer will register less than the true lead diameter and for the very reason which STO implies.

And yes, the air blast will blow out the skirt to the extent that the pellet may even change shape from cone to bell profile in a powerful rifle. But do you feel it to be ideal to trust that air blast to achieve this sizing in a manner resulting in best concentricity with the bore? Then what if there is a bias to the entry of the head when IT engages the rifling. This is where the fine print of sizing heads and skirts may become relevant along of course with loading probe precision.

Anyone who has discovered a tin/s of pellets that seem to be just so very consistent in accuracy "out of the tin" must have mused over the possibility that those pellets' heads and skirts somehow fit that barrel in a more appropriate manner. The extension of that thinking leads to pellet sizing experimentation. For my part this is what lead to a three pronged approach to evaluation viz: precision grouping (of course); ballistic/drag coefficient determination; and at one stage pellet flight sound discrimination. (The last was used 200+ years ago by Turkish archery flight shooters downrange to assess shooters "loose" technique and arrow stability). My wife has a good ear for that buzz or zap, but you can use a tablet etc pickup located down range.

Example: This last sleeve of 10.34 gr .177 Heavy JSB pellets I bought are the most accurate grouping of any so far out of my RAW TM 1000. Guess what, the bc of these is 0.031 to 0.033, up from the more usual 0.027/8 average as a direct comparison weight for wt. And the bonus, you guessed - wind drift at 50 to 80 yards is noticeably less! .. yes I know that when taken across the spectrum heavier pellets with a higher bc than other lighter pellets may be or can be less accurate than the lighter lower bc pellet. Different discussion.

Anyway some may see something of interest there and add their thoughts. Kind regards, Harry.
 
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STO and others :

What I THINK I know is that any measurement taken with calipers or micrometer will register less than the true lead diameter and for the very reason which STO implies.

And yes, the air blast will blow out the skirt to the extent that the pellet may even change shape from cone to bell profile in a powerful rifle. But do you feel it to be ideal to trust that air blast to achieve this sizing in a manner resulting in best concentricity with the bore? Then what if there is a bias to the entry of the head when IT engages the rifling. This is where the fine print of sizing heads and skirts may become relevant along of course with loading probe precision.

Anyone who has discovered a tin/s of pellets that seem to be just so very consistent in accuracy "out of the tin" must have mused over the possibility that those pellets' heads and skirts somehow fit that barrel in a more appropriate manner. The extension of that thinking leads to pellet sizing experimentation. For my part this is what lead to a three pronged approach to evaluation viz: precision grouping (of course); ballistic/drag coefficient determination; and at one stage pellet flight sound discrimination. (The last was used 200+ years ago by Turkish archery flight shooters downrange to assess shooters "loose" technique and arrow stability). My wife has a good ear for that buzz or zap, but you can use a tablet etc pickup located down range.

Example: This last sleeve of 10.34 gr .177 Heavy JSB pellets I bought are the most accurate grouping of any so far out of my RAW TM 1000. Guess what, the bc of these is 0.031 to 0.033, up from the more usual 0.027/8 average as a direct comparison weight for wt. And the bonus, you guessed - wind drift at 50 to 80 yards is noticeably less! .. yes I know that when taken across the spectrum heavier pellets with a higher bc than other lighter pellets may be or can be less accurate than the lighter lower bc pellet. Different discussion.

Anyway some may see something of interest there and add their thoughts. Kind regards, Harry.
Click to expand...

Agree totally.
 
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So there are a couple of guys who make and sell what is essentially a swaging die to resize pellets. This seems to be the most popular example, by sales numbers, I could find:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Original-TTS-Pellet-Sizers-for-all-air-rifle-pellets/132043609188?

I searched this forum and maybe my search-fu is letting me down, but I couldn't find much on them. A lot of accuracy in a given barrel seems to come down to pellet/slug diameter and roundness, which this would allow you to adjust. 



Has anyone tried them and is willing to share their experiences? What size, pellet, and barrel did it work well with? Basically is this a good idea, a bad idea, or we don't really know and I ought be the space monkey to generate some data for the community?
Click to expand...

I bought one of those in 5.52 mm but did not like it. Very hard to push the pellets through. Made my own sizer with dies running from .215 through .220". I love it !!
 
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GoldenStateAIRGUNer said:
I bought one of those in 5.52 mm but did not like it. Very hard to push the pellets through. Made my own sizer with dies running from .215 through .220". I love it !!
Click to expand...
I know this is a very old post, but if you see this, I would love to make my own pellet/slug sizer for .215. Any diy video or instructions? Thank you kindly.
 
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Swildman said:
I know this is a very old post, but if you see this, I would love to make my own pellet/slug sizer for .215. Any diy video or instructions? Thank you kindly.
[
Simple answer is just buy a NOE sizeing die...they make all the weird airgun sizes...Lee will also make them in there custom shop they have sizes as.small as .221 on website... I'm in same boat...I think it's going to be cheaper to just buy a .224 cal barrel.and everything is standard and cheap... Like $25.00/for complete sizeing kit..cheap and available casting molds..hopefully not to far off...
Click to expand...
 
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Swildman said:
I know this is a very old post, but if you see this, I would love to make my own pellet/slug sizer for .215. Any diy video or instructions? Thank you kindly.
Click to expand...
Are you just trying to uniform the entire length of the pellet/slug to .215 dia? If so, a reamed hole and a pusher should work.

How did you arrive on .215? I’d start with a TR Robb sizer and test what diameter pellet shoots best for you. If you do the same with slugs, the Robb sizer has a 50:1 taper so one end will always be slightly larger dia than the other.
 
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dgeesaman said:
Are you just trying to uniform the entire length of the pellet/slug to .215 dia? If so, a reamed hole and a pusher should work.

How did you arrive on .215? I’d start with a TR Robb sizer and test what diameter pellet shoots best for you. If you do the same with slugs, the Robb sizer has a 50:1 taper so one end will always be slightly larger dia than the other.
Click to expand...
Yes.
I have a Nova Liberty and Freedom that are really accurate, but they slug out to .2155, so even .217 are really tight. I have alot of other pellets too that are .218 or larger and they are really hard to fit in and thus don't shoot well, so I want to experiment resizing different pellets to see if, when the size variation is equal, how they actually shoot.
 
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dgeesaman said:
Are you just trying to uniform the entire length of the pellet/slug to .215 dia? If so, a reamed hole and a pusher should work.

How did you arrive on .215? I’d start with a TR Robb sizer and test what diameter pellet shoots best for you. If you do the same with slugs, the Robb sizer has a 50:1 taper so one end will always be slightly larger dia than the other.
Click to expand...
+1. The only thing I'd add to that is some manner of tapered 'step' so that the pellet is pre-aligned before being pushed through.

GsT
 
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Swildman said:
Yes.
I have a Nova Liberty and Freedom that are really accurate, but they slug out to .2155, so even .217 are really tight. I have alot of other pellets too that are .218 or larger and they are really hard to fit in and thus don't shoot well, so I want to experiment resizing different pellets to see if, when the size variation is equal, how they actually shoot.
Click to expand...
IMHO it's the lead that is the problem. The liberty and freedom have a very sharp lead that makes longer pellets hard to chamber. Smoothing it out really helped my liberty.
 
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Swildman said:
I know this is a very old post, but if you see this, I would love to make my own pellet/slug sizer for .215. Any diy video or instructions? Thank you kindly.
Click to expand...
I made mine with a small pencil tapered reamer on a SouthBend lathe.

I made this sizer years ago.

 
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