4.49 or 4.50 - what should I use and why?

[hwtyger]

I have my testcard with the Steyr. Was shot with the smaller diameters. 49 or 50 I think.
Usually, pistols prefer smaller sizes, rifles larger.
Not all pistols respond to sizechange by the way. Many dont give any accuracy differences.

[zooma]

I have my testcard with the Steyr. Was shot with the smaller diameters. 49 or 50 I think.
Usually, pistols prefer smaller sizes, rifles larger.
Not all pistols respond to sizechange by the way. Many dont give any accuracy differences.

Thats Interesting Yana. So far the suggestion is that pistols are not as sensitive to pellet type or size - but maybe rifles are!

Is that because generally rifle pellets are heavier and the barrel is longer?

Would anyone who shoots match rifles at 10 meters (plus) like to contribute to this please?

I am guessing cheap and lightweight pellets such as the GECO and Hobby are not an ideal choice for use with match rifles and maybe the heavier pellets such as R10 and JSB yellow in the 4.50 or 4.51 sizes would be a better option?

[RobinC]

Zooma I'll try and answer.
Rifles? now that is different.

Its not that rifles are more sensitive to size or weight than pistols, it's that the targets are so tight the difference can actually make the difference between a 9 and a ten. The width of the ten at 10 mts is 0.5mm, 20 thou in old money! and with world records running at max possible 400 ex 400 Ladies and 600/600 men, and the top shooters are all capable of shooting that. Good national levels are 380, 570, that's averaging 9.5.
The difference between a 9.5 and a 10 is around 1 mm, any one at that level must look for that last 0.5 mm in group size, its the difference between first and tenth! And to ensure it they must test for group size, and use electronic targets and Scatts to measure it.
The factors at that degree of precision are pellet size, weight, and consistancy, with barrel length, velocity, and cleanliness a factor. Top shooters looking for that degree will clean a barrel after every shoot.
Yana is not quite right, size will be a factor but weight is generally but not always more critical in a rifle, rifle pellets are usualy a bit heavier at around 8.3 gr whilst pistol are usualy around 7gr.
Do ordinary rifle shooter need that degree? Probably not, but would you be happy not knowing wether that squeaky nine was you or the pellet? So we do take care in selecting the pellets.
Interestingly you may not be aware that most of the new air rifle barrels are not a lot longer than pistol barrels, Both mine and my wifes Walthers are shortish barrels with the sight base on a carbon tube, this is done to shorten the lock time as the velocity is optimal in a pistol length barrel, we use RWS R10 4.5 size 8.3 gr weight.
And before you ask, the different weights of rifle pellets make little difference in a pistol, my guidance as I've already said is go for a quality make and try what suits your gun, it may or may not make any difference to a pistol grouping, but a rifle is different purely because of the tightness of the target.
Good shooting
Robin

[RobinC]

Not Quite sure how I duplicated the post! but now I'm here deleting it I'll add some thing else!

Backwards pellets? As an old fart who uses shooting glasses it's not an uncommon thing for me! To see what would happen I did some test groups with the pellet backwards in my Steyr LP2 compact, yep you've guessed, no difference in group size or shot location!
Good shooting
Robin

[zooma]

Hi Robin, thanks for that very informative contribution.

[dieselten]

I would test-shoot any pellets from a rest to see what they were capable of doing in any given weapon, pistol or rifle. FWIW I shoot two FWB 700s, both group equally well with RWS match or R10 but my preference is to use R10 4.5mm pellets weighing 8.2gr. Usually buy a "brick" of ten tins so they're from the same production-run.

That said, the RWS match issued by my club perform extraordinarly well in both rifles. I just prefer the R10.