http://www.airgunshooting.co.uk AIRGUN WORLD 47O
n a rare calm day between weeks of awful
weather, I managed to get in some more
ballistic testing and was quite surprised by the
results. Even now, after many years of testing,
I’m still coming up against situations and
results I didn’t expect. This month, I’m looking
at what appear to be near-identical pointy
pellets, but from different manufacturers; the
JSB Predator Metal Mag in both .177 and .22.
I needed a similar pellet to pit it against,
though, and my thoughts instantly turned to
the H&N Hornet. At first view, these two
makes of pellet appear very similar.
First up, we have the .177 H&N
Hornet, which weighs in at 8.8gr
and has a total length of 8.3mm
- 6.1mm with the tip
removed.
The .177 JSB Predator
Metal Mag weighs less
than the Hornet in .177, at
8.5gr, but is actually a
longer pellet, measuring
9.1mm in total, and a length
of 6.5mm with the tip
removed.
Moving to the .22 pellets, the
16gr Hornet is 9.5mm long (6.8
minus head), whilst the heavier 17gr
JSB has a total length of 10mm (7.6 minus
head), which is a bit of role reversal with the
.177 variants of these pellets.
TESTING
As usual, I tested the ballistic characteristics of
the pellets by firing them at approximately
25m, into 40mm thick slabs of warmed
terracotta wax. To record the results, I had a
pair of R2A chronographs and I was using a
matching pair of excellent Daystate Pulsar
rifles, both of which had matching MTC Viper
scopes – not that it should make any
difference, but I like to take care of the details.
The wind was unusually calm, so I was also
able to gather
some very
important
accuracy data about
each of these pellets.
All four pellets are
essentially of the same design,
but as we’ve learned, looks can sometimes be
deceiving.RESULTS
Firstly, the ballistic characteristics:- The H&N Hornet in .177 actually arrived on
target faster than any other example, with an
entry velocity of 669fps. It shed 273fps
passing through the clay and exited with a
velocity of 396fps. Energy-wise it managed to
dissipate 5.69 ft.lbs. Compared to previous
ballistic results, this doesn’t appear massively
impressive. - The JSB Predator Metal Mag is 0.3gr lighter
than the H&N, but it arrived a fraction slower,
at 655fps – not much of a difference, to be
honest, but I think it owes something to its
coefficient of form. It shed a massive 424fps of
and 7.1 ft.lbs., which is actually quite
impressive.
I then switched rifles to the .22 Pulsar and sent
the next pellet downrange:- The Hornet 16gr pellet lost just 253fps of
velocity, and 6.8 ft.lbs. of energy, which for a
.22 doesn’t seem that great. - The JSB Metal Mag left the breech and
passed viciously though the unsuspecting and
totally innocent terracotta wax. The results
were a loss of 296 fps in velocity, and a hugely
impressive 7.64 ft.lbs. of energy.
If you look across the top row of the target,
with .177 H&N on the left, and JSB on the
right, you can see that the Hornets gave a
group of 15mm, and the JSB a slightly larger
group of 18mm.
Gary continues his relentless pursuit of pellet perfection
PELLET TESTING
»
Whoops! Mary Berry
would kill me for this
schoolboy error.Which are the most
impressive entry
wounds?Exit wounds tell
the full story.A Pulsar and a
summer shirt- what could be
better?