With one kid at nursery, the other just fallen asleep and Mrs Mawders doing some housework I set about mooching, only not in the field but in my man cave otherwise known as the kitchen!
With that in mind I remembered that I had taken stock just recently of a tin of .22 Falcon Accuracy Plus pellets. The Tinternet a wash with raving reviews about these pellets and how accurate they were in most rifles I knew I just had to try a tin. Being a spring piston shooter I was also intrigued to see how they would perform in my rifle as they are one of the lightest pellets on the market and being as a springer loves the lighter pellets and PCP's preferring the heavier pellets I have high hopes for these jelly beans.
The field testing will have to wait for another day unfortunately but I'll start with pellet weights.
Pellet Weights? Really?
Now I have always prided myself on being the type of shooter that picks his trusty springer, grabs a handful of his favourite pellets, empties them in his pocket and walks out the door to begin his adventure. I have lost count of all the threads on forums and articles stating anyone that wants to get the best out of their shooting needs to weigh, separate, wash and lube their pellets. I have heard good and bad points from both sides but never done it myself till today.
Armed with my mates junkie scales and two brands of pellets I went about weighing each pellet individually on the junky scales. For the purposes of the test I grabbed a handful from each tin and counted out approximately 70 pellets and started putting them to the test.
Now the main reason for doing this is to actually see if what some people are saying about inaccurate pellet weights to whats listed on the tin is true. I have heard some horror stories about some pellets being weighed and being a whole grain to the two grains heavier or lighter than those stated on the tin. This in turn doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if you have a well calibrated rifle and scope and rely on pellet weights to keep chairgun figures optimised then having a pellet that doesn't quite weigh what your telling chairgun wont do what chairgun says it will. This in turn can cause your shot to fall low/high of the target and for those people that compete at the highest level this could be catastrophic.
Luckily I haven't reached those dizzy heights yet and very much just like a nice mooch now and again for some food for the table or the thrill of the hunt. However a recent hunting trip got me questioning this pellet weighing debate as a few shots presented themselves and I missed on both occasions. Now I put this down to adrenaline, hold technique could have been off slightly or numerous other variables that plaque the pop gun community.
Falcon Accuracy Plus
So first up were the Falcon Accuracy Plus weighing 13.43 grains according to the tin!
Now I would like to stress that I didnt weigh the whole tin but my first impressions were awesome. The long line in the middle are the pellets weighing 13.4 grains. Which is as close as I could get the scales to the advertised 13.43 weight. Each line either side is .1 of a grain so for instance to the right is 13.5 grains.
I can only assume having not weighed all the pellets that the theme would continue nicely. There were however no nasty surprises of pellets being a whole grain lighter or heavier and for that it could just reflect on the quality of the pellets and their manufacturer which I believe is now Air Arms.
Air Arms Field Diablo
Next to be tested were the AA Fields in 5.52 head size and weighing in at an advertised 16 grains.
Again, nothing scientific was done to select the pellets for testing, it was pretty much what was left in the tin actually. The longest line in the picture shows the pellets that weighed exactly what was reported on the tin of 16 grains. The lines to the left and right again show pellets in order of .1 of a grain size so taking the far right line shows pellets weighing 16.1 grains.
As with both brands of pellets, the picture and tests show that for these two brands alone on this occasion there was no big shocks in terms of extra light or heavy pellets causing massive accuracy issues. I am no expert but I am sure that .1 of a grain surely cant make that much difference to the point of impact on the target car or vermin.
Both pellets are considered to be the more quality assured pellet and are both sat at the top of the airgun pellet price list so its pleasing to see that there are no major concerns with what I tested. I would have liked to have had a brand of 'plinking' pellets or not as well known pellets to compare weights but unfortunately didnt. Maybe those results would have been far more shocking!
I got to the end of my test with the intention of separating the 13.4 and 13.3 pellets out of the Falcon Accuracy Plus and using these for hunting and target shooting at the range as I considered they would be consistent but in the end I just poured them all back into the same tin and put the lid on.
A Wasted Test
Maybe, who knows, I was bored, I needed to test a theory that us airgunners are being lied to on pellet weights and I had a spare few hours. I realised that if my strings of pellets ranged from 13.1 to 13.5 grains with the majority being 13.4 grains then that was acceptable for me. Had I of seen variations of a whole grain or two then I certainly would have left those separated for plinking purposes only.
I would love to hear anyone else's experiences of pellet weighing and coming across shocking results and the opinions of those that still think my weights are unacceptable or acceptable.
Conclusion
I'll remain that shooter that grabs a handful of pellets and empties them into his pocket whilst picking up the trusty springer for a mooch round the permission. Maybe in the new year when I try my hand at HFT I'll be persuaded otherwise but for now I'll leave the weighing or forgetting to weigh to the manufacturers.
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