Dunno how this came about......I was sorting out some old German pellet tins, and realised I had round shot in 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5 sizes (as well as some 5.5)...anyway, I expect most on here know the Anschutz and Haenel 4.4 bolt action guns......and how accurate they are at ranges at least up to 15 yards....at 6-8 yards they are normally bang on the money .......So, I am thinking about how the round shot would go in say, a prewar BSA.......now underlevers are out, because of the danger of rolling back through the transfer port, so I pulled out the breakdown for a spot of scientific research

In the interests of fairness, first I measured the H+N 4.5 mm balls......most were spot on .177 with only a few at .176......better than most "big name" stuff around now......I don't have pellet scales, so the next 20 mins was a headache as I tried to remember my maths, and find the density of lead....V = pye D3 over 6 etc. etc.....anyway, came up with bang on 8 grains,(assuming pure lead) which compared to the 8.2 grains of the R10 match pellets I was going to compare them with.....The balls were a good fit, and engaged lightly in the rifling (I used a short pellet seat....although it was not a necessity)

So what happened.......at 8 yards....the balls were grouping only slightly bigger than the R10's, and better than old eley wasps.......but on the chrono.........the R10's were doing a consistant 495 fps.........the balls were coming out at 540!

WHY.....less friction is the only thing I can think of...although you would think that a normal pellet would have a better seal at the skirt, and so use the available power more efficiently....

It would be interesting to see what they do at longer ranges, or in something like say a falcon single shot PCP.....

So there you go, that's how I wasted an hour today!


P.S.....one other interesting (well to me anyway) fact........you can "double shot".......ie. load two balls at once........at 8 yards, they go through the same hole!......but at longer ranges, It would be a sneaky way of getting an extra chance to hit something

(I will be banned from using this at bisley if John reads this)