Pellet Expansion

[X78 7]

I'm sorry for those who have already read this, but the post was a victim of Sunday's wipe out and I thought it might be interesting to some people.

 

To cut it short, I've finally had a chance to recover a polymag .177 pellet from the head of a squirrel after a clean headshot through the brain (top of head to neck as the squirrel was coming down a tree).

I have also shot a bar of soap (it was also a clean shot and it didn't suffer ) for comparison.

 

 

The pellet in the middle is obviously a brand new polymag, the one on the left went through the soap and the one on the right through the squirrel. The rifle is an HW77k .177 with laminate stock, with what appears to be about 11ft.lbs of energy on chairgun (sorry, no chrony) and the shots were at approximately 25 yards.

 

Conclusions:

Some pellets do expand in the quarry if the range is sensible, but the soap "test" clearly gives exaggerated results. Another victory for common sense as it is obvious that squirrels are neither as hard as soap, nor as homogeneous.

 

My guess is that soft pellets like crossman destroyers, H&N terminators and BSA interceptor would expand quite well at sensible range. It's just a shame that none of these give me decent groups.

 

I love testing the performance of different pellets (I know, I've got to get a life). Precision might be the most important criteria, but this doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make an informed choice between equally precise pellets.

 

X

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Interesting stuff! Thanks for taking the time to test and share.

 

Jim

[charlie caller 3,654]

Yes very interesting, how do the polymags group in your rifle, I have some in .22 but I think I might like to try a tin in .177 to see how they group in my Gamo maxima?

[bilbobagins 92]

softer lead compounds like jsb / air arms tend to deform quite a bit and are usually accurate at longer ranges, if your only shooting rats at short ranges then cheaper flat head pellets work well

[X78 7]

Polymags are amongst the most accurate in my rifle, which I still don't understand as I can't believe they can achieve a consistent seating for the polymer tip and this must create an imbalance. But as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and so far it's been great.