Re: Pellet pistol update

"Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:102l19e$fdm1$1@dont-email.me... On 6/14/2025 2:37 PM, Snag wrote:

  When I heard air hissing from the bolt area when I pumped it up , I figured it was a worn seal on the pin in the valve assembly so I bought a new pin . Well , today I finally got to work on it (grand daughters came for a visit , brought their cold with them and I ain't been that sick in a long time so ...) and yes the seal was bad . Because there were nicks in the sealing surface inside the valve . Seeing as how new valve assemblies are around 40 bucks delivered , I decided to try to clean up that seat . Chucked it up in the lathe , put a 3/8" end mill in the tailstock chuck and made a super light cut , turning the chuck by hand and applying light pressure by hand .
   It worked ! I have about 5 or 6 different pellets to test , both for accuracy and velocity . I measured a few pellets of different brands and they vary ... I expect the larger ones will give both better velocity and accuracy .

Generally I've found that round dome pellets are more accurate then the standard Diablo style wad cutter, but at short range the Diablo wad cutter is plenty accurate and makes a nice clean hole in paper for target shooting.  That being said, any dome pellet is going to be at least a few grains heavier, so it will have more drop at modest range.
I would suggest a surprisingly good bargain pellet, but I have not tried it in .177.  The Crosman Premier Hollow point is an absolute tack driver in a lot of guns, but I have only tried it in 14.3 grain .22.  It shoots like a domed pellet.  Better than some.  One of my best days target shooting (DO NOT SHOOT AT GOLF BALLS WITH AIRGUNS) with an air rifle I was out at Adair Range stretching the legs on my BAM B-50 was shooting Crosman Premier hollow points.  From the shooting bench to the mountain is roughly 135 yards at the small bore rifle and pistol range.  My B-50 is an amazingly good air rifle for a single shot.  It might even be more accurate than my Marauder .25 with its Green Mountain barrel liner.
There are shooters who like to race a golf ball across the range and up the face of the mountain with their .22 powder burners.  I've seen older gentlemen bench shooting 10-22 rifles with bipods doing that a few times.  Like a kind of game. They don't usually bother to pick up their gold balls when they are done.
Anyway, I was there bench rest shooting the B-50 with a sled just to see how good the rifle is, and it kept surprising me.  Just at sunset the wind let off to zero and I decided to see what it would really do.  I had already chronographed my setup for the day, and from a full fill I was getting about five shots between 1054 and 1000 fps.  I pulled out my cell phone and plugged numbers into an ap (no longer available) called ChairGun.  I forget what my zero was, but according to ChairGun at 135 yards I needed to shoot 34 inches of elevation to hit 135 yards based on my zero and height above bore.  I guessed 34 inches using Kentucky windage (elevation) and dropped a pellet down range.  I was dead center and an not quite 2 inches low.  I adjusted, heard that satifying thunk of the pellet hit its target, and watched the golf ball roll up hill. With the same hold I dropped two more on target.   I had that feel I could have dropped two or three more right one, but after the third hit the golf ball took a different roll, and hid behind a rock.
There is an old .22LR brag that almost everybody is exaggerating or hasn't really tried or just lying when they claim they can do it. That's to put five in a row on a dime size target at 50 yards.  I think the B-50 could do it on a calm day.  Most good field grade .22 LRs (10-22, Model 60, Click Clack gun, etc) in good shape can drop 2 or 3 on a dime, but the group always has a couple that push past quarter size. Now to be fair I have actually tried the five on a dime at 50 challenge, but not with a .22LR or even with the B-50.  I did it with Kalibre Cricket PCP air rifle in .25 caliber shooting 25.4 grain Exact King domed pellets.  I consistently got 4 out of 5 on my traced dime bullseyes, but most of the time there was one that split the line or even just barely touched the line on the outside.  I couldn't fill up a whole card with consistent 5 shot groups though.
Anyway, in my opinion the Crosman Premier domed pellets (yes I have used them too) and Crosman Premier hollow points are inexpensive diamonds in the airgun ammo market.  Last I checked you could buy them at Walmart.
My best Kentucky windage shots were both with my .177 Marauder shooting 920 FPS with copper plated H&N Barracude 10.65 grain domed pellet.  I went on an anti depredation rampage against black birds and grackels when they wiped out all the seedlings in my winter garden one year.  I took out a gopher at 94 yards (paced) on the first shot (using Chairgun).  I thought I missed.  There was a plume of dirt beyond him, and the gopher ducked down out of sight.  When I walked out I found him with a perfect heart and lung shot through the body.  A few days later I could see some seedling eating black birds on the fence near my neighbors horse barn.  With the .177 Marauder resting across something I guessed both windage and elevation.  When I squeezed off the shot I could see the blackbird jump, and a millisecond later heard the thwack of the pellet striking hard.  He folded up and dropped like a rock.  112 yards paced off.  Both of those were very lucky shots.  The .177 Marauder is not as accurate as the B-50, the Cricket, or the .25 Marauder. Rather I think it shoots pretty good, but consistently has flier or two in a group.
I learned a trick, although not as much fun that doesn't require shooting all of them little thieves.  Leave just a couple dead grackles laying in plane sight around your garden and the rest stay away.
Oh, yeah.  Do not shoot at golf balls with an air gun.  At least not at modestly close range.  They will return the pellets to you with enough energy to sting pretty good.  What I found was just as much fun, and also good varying target distance practices is golf size wiffle practice balls.  They don't store and return energy like a golf ball.
Wow, this is a like a Jim Wilkins post with all kinds of tangents and asides isn't it.  LOL.
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Bob La Londe
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It would be, if your pellets weighed 168 grains.