ELEY WASP ... what is the story?

[max29aug]

guys guys guys were you all looking at these pellets through rose tinted glasses i remember eley wasps being a snug fit in old bsa rifles and that is it i still have few knocking around somewhere but please these were not accurate at all they were just the best of a bad bunch from the limited choice we had in those days like milbro ,marksman, bulldog,etc and i remember i would be glad at hitting a heinz beans tin at 25 yard with them now people like sub half inch groups at twice that distance so i think we have moved on alot since then guns aswell and yes i have put a few through my modern guns and no they are not as good as i once thought

[emin-j]

I recently sent a message to one of the sellers on #### asking if the ' Wasp ' pellets they were selling was genuine Eley Wasps I have copy and paste their reply --

Hi, yes these are 'genuine' Eley pellets, eley stopped putting eley on their tins (don't know why)
regards

shouldn't be allowed !!

[sbd]

i remember i would be glad at hitting a heinz beans tin at 25 yard with them

...then I suspect it wasn't down to the pellets

[max29aug]

...then I suspect it wasn't down to the pellets

probably about 15% the other 85% was just pot luck due to the fact of pointing the barrel in the general direction of the can

[Gambo]

I have it on good authority that John Rotherey Wholesale bought the tooling from the original manufactures of Eley Wasps, IMI (Imperial Metal Industries), and they continue to make the Wasp pellets.

That original tooling is still used to produce the current Wasps today, but unfortunately, the old guy that operated the machine for years and years retired, and no one is as familiar with the machine as He was.
A tweak on this knob, a tweak on that one, kept the consistency spot on.
That knowledge retired with the Guy.
That is why the pellets are now so very variable in their manufacturing quality and consistency.

The reason the old Wasps were so shiny, is because they contained a lot of antimony, which made them hard.
The shinier the pellets, the more antimony they contain! Simples!!

[Lakey]

I have it on good authority that John Rotherey Wholesale bought the tooling from the original manufactures of Eley Wasps, IMI (Imperial Metal Industries), and they continue to make the Wasp pellets.

That original tooling is still used to produce the current Wasps today, but unfortunately, the old guy that operated the machine for years and years retired, and no one is as familiar with the machine as He was.
A tweak on this knob, a tweak on that one, kept the consistency spot on.
That knowledge retired with the Guy.
That is why the pellets are now so very variable in their manufacturing quality and consistency.

The reason the old Wasps were so shiny, is because they contained a lot of antimony, which made them hard.
The shinier the pellets, the more antimony they contain! Simples!!

Hi gambo, Sorry but I cant agree with you.new 'Wasp's' are totally different from old ELEY wasp's. if you look at my photograph below you can see at a glance that the pellets are obviously different. the new Rothery wasps are longer, and the skirts are thinner. the head profile is different and yes they are not as shiny - in short ------ Different pellets!
I agree about the antimony in the pellets making them shiny, however these days the only thing the new 'wasps have in common with the original ELEY Wasp pellets is the name.

http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/h...t/P1090280.jpg

http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/h...t/P1090281.jpg

[Acid House]

I paid £10 for the last tin of true Eley Wasp .22 pellets.

HTH
Ian

What about the green tins?

very rare.........lets say £50

[I. J.]

What about the green tins?

very rare.........lets say £50

Lets not.

ATB
Ian

[Amac]

I bought a red tin of the .177 original pellets for the princely sum of four whole English pounds from McAvoys last week. They were the first pellets I ever bought about forty years ago. It is actually a used tin and most deffinately full of the original variety of our little waspish friends. Result !
Andy

[Gambo]

Hi gambo, Sorry but I cant agree with you.new 'Wasp's' are totally different from old ELEY wasp's. if you look at my photograph below you can see at a glance that the pellets are obviously different. the new Rothery wasps are longer, and the skirts are thinner. the head profile is different and yes they are not as shiny - in short ------ Different pellets!
I agree about the antimony in the pellets making them shiny, however these days the only thing the new 'wasps have in common with the original ELEY Wasp pellets is the name.

http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/h...t/P1090280.jpg

http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/h...t/P1090281.jpg

I got that info from someone in the trade, who spoke directly to John Rothery about this subject not long after the new Wasp production started, and that was the explanation given by John Himself.

I agree the new Wasps bear very little resemblance now to the IMI manufactured Eley Wasps (more to the pity), so maybe the tooling has been changed, or that indeed production has now moved abroad.

I can only say that the info I gave was correct at some stage in the recent past.

atb, Gareth.

[Amac]

Just been back to McAvoys and discovered one of the tiny 200 red tins of the .177 wasp. Delighted with it and will keep my usual ammo in it for top up purposes when out shooting. I had forgetten about the smaller tins so I am once again chuffed!
Andy

[Hsing-ee]

.

I agree the new Wasps bear very little resemblance now to the IMI manufactured Eley Wasps (more to the pity), so maybe the tooling has been changed, or that indeed production has now moved abroad.

atb, Gareth.

Where is the original tooling so we can buy it and make our own?

[Lakey]

Where is the original tooling so we can buy it and make our own?

Exactly! or better still have a word with john Rothery, and see if some new dies couldnt be made which would bring the pellets back into original factory spec. The payback for him would be far greater sales, and a more accurate pellet, and the payback for us would be a decent pellet to be able to use in pre-1960 british barrels ( in the form of the 5.6mm pellets)

Damn it, I would even donate some of my ever dwindling supply of original 5.6mm Eley Wasps, as a pattern for the new dies .

Anybody else got any idea's on how this could be achieved?? maybe have a word with Lincoln Jeffries (makers of marksman pellets)?
Lakey

[TomSteebs]

above

[edbear2]

above

All clear, over and out