Quality Question

[Bill_in_TR]

Just curious here. What do you consider to be the highest quality pellets available? For the sake of definition quality is considered to be consistency of weight, diameter, length,shape and finish.

I am not asking about what is most accurate or shoots best in your gun. The best quality pellet may not actually shoot well for you at all. But overall I would expect the best quality pellet to shoot well more often than not across a broad range of guns.

This is more than just a question about brands. Each brand has multiple categories of supposed quality reflected in the price.

This question popped into my head because I have come to question the quality of certain pellets that people seem to often tout. I have found inconsistencies in diameter, weight and finish. I won't say which pellets I am talking about and I am sure there would be people who felt the same about pellets that I have been very happy with.

Anyway I would love to hear some opinions.

 

[bikerdoc]

Crossman pointed fit my needs.

 

[fpgt72]

I have never sat down and measured in any way pellets.....I shoot air guns quite a bit, as it is just so easy to open the garage door and have a 200+ yard range, no wind, no rain just easy trigger time.

If while I am loading a mag or single loading them if I come across a "goofy looking one" I will toss it, but in truth I have not found many that have been to the eye "bad".

What I do is rank them by how they shoot out of a given gun....I have some guns that like "lower end" pellets, but most like JSB or H&N, and generally start there with a new gun.

I know H&N spec's their FTT in size 5.52,5.53,5.54 and I have never gone in and seen if they are really that size, I can say that each shoot different out of some guns, so something must be different.

 

[cslinger]

Most of the TRUE match grade pellets from any of the big boys are typically weighed/measured to be as close to identical to each other as practical. Some of them are the same as a “lower tier” pellet in the line just sorted much more meticulously.

As a general rule I have found H&N seems to be my personal sweet spot for cost, availability, quality and accuracy across their line. That said there are a bunch of players in that tier who are just as good across their lines.

For me personally, although I have shot some true match grade stuff, the precision is lost on my skill level. I might blind squirrel/nut a few more groups then normal but the overall reality is I don’t have the skill to utilize the precision offered by the very best pellets.

 

[Bill_in_TR]

Like everyone else who takes their shooting reasonably seriously I tend to look for what bullet, load, powder, pellet, whatever that shoots best in any of my guns. But I was mainly curious about observations and/or reputation of the various pellet brands and their different price levels. Often once I find something that shoots well in my airguns I don't look any further. But sometimes when I get the urge to look a little further it is nice to do that looking based upon reputation for quality.

 

[readyeddy]

I've never weighed my pellets but notice variations in seating and accuracy.

Crosman Premiers in .22 vary from very tight to fairly loose while seating. The frequency seems to coincide with flyers while grouping.

Kodiak in .22 has consistently produced the largest groups, averaging three or four inches at 18 yards.

Diablo 18 grain seats consistently and produces small groups in my .22 Hatsan 135.

But for all my .22's at 20 fpe or less, the most accurate has been Super-H-Points. Seating is always consistent. It's done well in a Mendoza, Crosman and Hatsan 95. The Mendoza and Crosman broke on me, so hopefully the Hatsan is longer lived.

 

[JohnKSa]

When you could buy Crosman Premiers from a single "Die" lot, they were very consistent. Crosman used to sell (maybe they still do) a large box of the Premiers (1250 count in .177) which all came off the same production die--they would even stamp the die # on the box so you could try to match up the next time you bought. The ones you buy in the standard containers come from all the dies currently in use, mixed together, so consistency is not as good.

I still have a bunch of the die lot Crosman Premiers and they are very accurate in some of my airguns.

I've had good luck with H&N pellets, but they have a broad line and I wouldn't go so far as to say that every pellet they make is super consistent. But these days, starting with the H&N Field Target, or Field Target Trophy pellets is a pretty decent strategy.

I've heard really good things about the JSB Exacts, but I've not really used enough of the JSB line to comment.

It sounds wrong, but if you can find some of the really good Chinese match pellets, they work pretty well. Not the run-of-the mill pointed or round-nose Chinese pellets--those are garbage. I don't know if the good quality match pellets are still coming in to the U.S. or not, but they used to be available.