Do you grade and pick your pellets?

[Uslanja]

Just finished browsing 10 pages of pellet pics.   Excellent photos but what surprised me is how lousy the pellet castings look.  Just from the photos the pellets look as if they would be out of balance and be difficult to place hole on hole.  I'm guessing the twist helps to keep them somewhat on target.  Does the lack of casting symmetry account for "fliers" or is that caused by something else?  Some of those pellets just looked down right mangled.  Do you go through your tin picking out the bad ones?  Should I expect a certain percentage of bad pellets?  Anyone balancing or cleaning up the skirted diabolo pellets?  I have seen some folks casting and/or swaging pellets but I understand those are the PPC folks.  Anybody casting break barrel, pump or CO2 gun pellets?

Dave

[MoWog72]

Hi. Yes there is quite a range in the quality of pellets. Not to be a wiseguy; but ya get what ya pay for. JSB pellets are considered top of the line in quality and uniform weight and their price reflects that.
For competition shooting folks will sort and weigh their preferred pellets because they have determined that is the best pellet for the gun. There are Youtube videos showing the process.
"Flyers" are to be expected, and it can be frustrating. Just my experience; sometimes you just need to run a cleaning patch or 10 through the barrel. 
As a Crosman "fan" I mostly shoot Crosman pellets and I am "mostly" satisfied.
As I indicated in the post to which you responded, I have been working off an abundance of vintage Crosman Copperhead .22 wadcutters. Even with a few bent skirts I still shoot them to see how they fly.
As a newcomer here myself I figure I should participate as best I can. I hope others will chime in.

[DHunter]

If the skirt is bent in, I've wondered if the pressure that pushes the pellet down the barrel might push it back out round, against the inside of the barrel.  I have not experimented; but I have pressed them with the round tip of this helicopter headset plug to straighten them out, and the limit to my accuracy is just how still I can hold the gun.  I'm using JSB.  People have thought it's not worth the time; but it takes less time than loading it into the gun or magazine.  (Hopefully the picture will show up here.)

[Uslanja]

Hi guys!  JSB pellets.  I'll have to try those.  There isn't much available around here for airgun stuff, need to order online for airguns, ammo and accessories.  I understand from reading on the different airgun sites that folks talk about finding the best pellet for their gun.  They must end up with alot of different brands and weight's after getting a few guns.  Is there a method to searching for the best pellet or just shoot them all

[Uslanja]

Hi DHunter.  The photo shows your technique real well.  Do you find that you are reshaping the skirts often?  Being as you have developed this process, may I ask if you shoot competitively?  If the skirt is spread out just a bit more will that cause the pellet to seat into the lands and grooves better?  Will that have a positive or consistent effect on velocity and trajectory? 

[DHunter]

Hi DHunter.  The photo shows your technique real well.  Do you find that you are reshaping the skirts often?  Being as you have developed this process, may I ask if you shoot competitively?  If the skirt is spread out just a bit more will that cause the pellet to seat into the lands and grooves better?  Will that have a positive or consistent effect on velocity and trajectory? 

I do not shoot competitively.  I suspect one reason JSB pellets do so well is because the skirts are thin, getting the center of mass farther forward and making them more self-stabilizing, like a badminton birdie.  An effect of the thinner skirts however is that they get bent in more easily in any rough handling in shipping.  I wouldn't say there are many pellets requiring this treatment.  I think the one in the picture is a .25-cal though, 34-grain.  If you can see the rifling marks on pellets you've shot into something that doesn't destroy the pellet, I'm sure that's the best you can do as far as the skirt pressing against the inside of the barrel.  The pellets in this not-so-good picture are 18-grain .22-cal pellets that were shot by my Crosman 1322:

[Uslanja]

Oh......I see what you mean.  I need to get some JSB's and give them a whirl.  18 grain: so do you like the heavier pellets?  I haven't tried many different brands of pellets but have been concentrating on the heavier ones on the theory that I will get better knock down energy.  I read somewhere that the domed ones are the most stable in flight.

[DHunter]

You won't get as much muzzle velocity (feet per second) from the heavier ones, meaning you'll get a more arched trajectory, but you'll get a little more energy (foot-pounds), and the higher ballistic coefficient means they'll keep more of their energy as they get downrange.