Is there a real alternative to JSB for Top Accuracy?

[Herx77]

Generally I have found that the older pellets are better all round.All 8.44.
Early crosman premiers from the worlds 1990 FT comp time batches, excellent in pcp or springer.
About 2008 the Daystates were good in all my guns,(the 500 in a tin,not the 400 where you paid for someone else to have 100 free, ) then the Selects ok, but not as good .The Air Arms were a tad better around the same time.
I found a batch of old,old, RWS Superfields box covered in dust , now 5 years old 8.44's, bought 25000, used in all guns but now reserved for my GC2.
Was supposed to be on the RWS test team but they decreased the tail dia and increased the head dia of the pellets;they shoot like ****,now use Air Arms pellets weighed.Not as good as the old pellets but you use the best you can, .
An interesting observation regarding the AA v JSB's,if you look at the heads, the curve of the JSB is not as pronounced as the AA, noticeable when loading a Daystate it catches;and I would suspect as the air flow is broken earlier than the Air Arms might be generating more air turbulence as the Air Arms allows better flow.Certainly my guns don't shoot as well with JSB's.All my testing is done at 55yds,and I expect tight groups.The HW77 does 3/8inch groupings,most of the time!.
HERX77 .

[DJP]

Someone else said It further up .... Have a go with h&n snipers meds

I was quite surprised

If I didn't have 20+ tins of jsb .... I'd give em a long term trial

Those Snipers look like JSB Heavy - which have always performed well in my guns (particularly PCPs).

As for the AA vs JSB debate, I've always found them pretty near identical - as in one hole groups with either out to any range that I'd consider shooting at.

[Dragonboy]

I have found JSB & AA work best in my rifles with Lothar Walther barrels and H&N (inc. Bisley, Weihrauch) & RWS in my rifles with BSA barrels.


All PCPs.

[KeithW]

I've concluded that my .177 Air arms rifles prefer AA pellets. My .177 Daystate rifles prefer AA pellets too. My Phoenix rifle prefers H&N FTT.
In .22 my Phoenix rifle likes Crossman Premier.

AA pellets are NOT re-badged JSB's, as some people believe. As someone on this thread has already said they are a different profile. The dies are Air Arms' own - which is sensible when you come to think about it, as they can move to another manufacturer if necessary.

One thing I did notice when comparing AA and JSB is that the JSB's have a lot more swarf in the tins - there's little or nothing in the AA tins.

I have done the wash weigh and lube thing and I don't think it makes a big difference to my results - but if i was a top shooter maybe I'd notice it.

I have also noticed that different batches of supposedly the same pellets fly with different velocity - as much as 10 fps

[Amac]

Having fallen into the "JSB rules the world" camp for many moons now, I am pleased to report that my latest gun prefers H&N FTT. The Accupel FT are even better, no doubt due to the lube, as they are exactly the same product.

Andy

[slugger]

this topic makes my shit-itch every single time.....
you see ive had well over 100 air rifles over the years........ [i had 14 just last year all in one go ffs] lol ...... and over the years ive tried pretty much every pellet under the sun .......
some of the pellets you guys regularly recomend [like rws fields for example] have been utter garbage in every single rifle ive tried ....... same goes for h&n ftt / bis mags etc etc.. the only pellets that gives really good results [and in pretty much every gun ive owned] are jsb exacts and AA fields !
i will admit there are good and bad batches....... [same for any brand] but in the long run these 2 pellet-brands have given good groups in every gun ive had....
now i cant work out if you guys are saying 'x' brand groups well [when you mean at say 35 yds max] ???? because there are dozens of brands that will group well at these short ranges ! all of the ones above that i have just slated will infact group quite well at shorter ranges........ maybe thats why you guys recomend them ?
regardless , for me [target shooting only] 35 yds doesnt cut the mustard. i judge a pellet by how small a group it will print at 80+ yds and in those circumstances the AA fields and the jsb exacts are definately more accurate imho

[Blackrider]

I have a few spring guns which AADF's in 4.51 and 5.51 are edging the JSB's.
I have a .22 Fenman which prefers Defiants in med. head to anything else out there.

And three older Airsporters, one .177 and the other two .22, prefer Superdomes !

I'm trying to standardise to as few a brands of pellet as possible but air guns are "fickle choosey blighters" arent they !

[TonyL]

Having fallen into the "JSB rules the world" camp for many moons now, I am pleased to report that my latest gun prefers H&N FTT. The Accupel FT are even better, no doubt due to the lube, as they are exactly the same product.

Andy

I thought Accupell and the FT derivative were Crosman Premiers, Andy?

[dayglowfroggy]

Falcon acuracy are made by jsb and since I bought the worst tin of jsb rs from an seller ever ,should have sent them back .
I got some falcon s and they are amazing at least as good as my first rs this is all in .22 .but then I haven't tried xtream range with any pellets.

[DJP]

In .177 I find JSBs to be pretty much unbeatable and all of my .177s have given their best groups with JSBs – to the extent that I no longer bother to try anything else.

In .22 it's more of a mixed bag: A couple of my Air Arms (springers and PCPs) have shot tighter groups with Accupells and several of my Weihrauchs grouped better with Superdomes or H&N FTT.

[bozzer]

Having fallen into the "JSB rules the world" camp for many moons now, I am pleased to report that my latest gun prefers H&N FTT. The Accupel FT are even better, no doubt due to the lube, as they are exactly the same product.

Andy

I thought Accupell and the FT derivative were Crosman Premiers, Andy?

Tony

These rifle manufacturers don't half confuse things by keep doing different deals with different pellet manufacturers.

Crosman ( New York, USA ) have been banging out the 'Premier' style pellet for a few decades now. The 1250 in a box ones were all the rage in FT in the 90's. The boxed Prems are apparently from selected dies and they only use those dies for a certain run time. When you buy a box of 1250 Prems you are apparently getting 1250 from the same die ( the variable sizes make me doubt that these days ). Apparently when they've finished the run of Prems they use the dies for a while longer. Those used to be Crosman Accupell and you may have got mixed dies in a tin of 500. These were/are all 7.9gr pellets in 0.177. They look like they are two halves stuck together with a line down the centre and there's a tiny step at the back end of the tail. Shiny shiny pellets with a lot of infill inside the tail.

Webley then had pellets made by Crosman in New York and called them Webley Mosquito ( 7.9gr ). It said 'Made by Crosman in the USA' on the front tin label.

Webley then seemed to do a deal with JSB as the UK importer and started selling Webley Mosquito Express. These were a lighter version of the JSB Exact ( 8.44gr ) at 7.87gr. Maybe that deal expired after a while as Webley stopped selling that label and JSB were selling JSB Express at 7.87gr ( same pellet ).

Webley also seemed to take over the Accupell brand name from Crosman. Webley sold those as Webley Accupell ( Prem style 7.9gr pellets made in New York, USA by Crosman and originally Crosman Accupell ).

Webley now sell Accupell FT. These are exactly the same weight and style as the H&N FTT ( 8.64gr ). These are undoubtedly made for Webley by H&N in Germany and are basically FTT.

Daystate have done similar things. They jump from Crosman Prems ( Daystate Rangemaster Li ... 7.9gr made in USA ) to JSB Exacts ( Rangemaster Sovereign ... 8.44gr made in CZ ). Daystate do the Rangemaster Kaiser which are 8.64gr and will be made by H&N and will be FTT.

[lensman57]

I have given up trying to find the "best pellets" to suit my guns. It is pointless. I have tried almost all the mainstream pellets and their imitations and some that I bet very few people have tried before. Yesterday I was shooting at the AIR up in north Mnachester, @ 45 Yards and I had taken a tin of H&N barracuda Hunter Xtreme along with the usual AA Field and my HW 100 KT. I don't hunt but I love testing hunting pellets. The Xtremes printed a 20mm pattern @45 Yards edge to edge and I tested about 50 of them. Each string 10 of shots fired @ 755 ft/s out of the muzzle. The AAs were slightly better @ about 15mm edge to edge. I didn't have the best of the shooting conditions either as I have noticed that I seem to snap at the trigger yesterday. Perhaps because the two gentlemen to my left were very rough with the cycling their rifles and were shaking the communal bench rest so neither my breathing was as calm as usual nor my mind at peace. I am sure that both pellets are capable of better accuracy even in my hands. But for a Philips head hunting pellet such as the Xtremes the 20mm pattern @ 45 Yards is pretty good. Up to 50 yards in a sub 12 rifle it is sure to send the usual quarry to their heaven judging by the very loud whack of impact on the spinners. In my experience I get a slightly better pattern with JSbs than with AAs.

Regards,

A.G

[secretagentmole]

It depends on the gun! I have had guns where JSB did not work (in one gun no pellet worked but hey that was a BSA Scorpion SE). I have only switched to JSB Exacts because H&N are not doing the Ogive pellet anymore.

I have a gun where the Ogive was the best performing pellet by far in terms of efficiency and accuracy, my BSA Super 10 .177! That was tested by Bowkett at 50 metres, so before any JSB Fan starts to yell, not my testing!

Currently I am using Exact heavies for my .177 Galatian and 10, AA Field 4.52 in the Daystate, RWS Super Field in my Galatian .22 and Crosman Premier Ultra Magnums in my Rapid, Hatsan 60 and 900X.

[mart46]

I too have been 1 pellet user (AA field) in my R10 until recently, when I got so fed up with the number of deformed skirts, I thought I'd try something different. I also had more jams with AA filed, I'm sure down to the soft lead. I've ended up with RWS Super fields (.177) and they shoot a 1 hole group at 25 yds.

[bozzer]

A number of BSA S10 0.177 owners raved about the Ogives. A number of S10 0.177 owners also said that JSB/AA etc wouldn't group in their rifle.

It just leads me to a point worth noting ( I think someone's already mentioned it ) ...

Most shooters just wade through different pellets looking for the one that gives the best accuracy in their barrel. A number of barrels, and specifically the Cold Hammer Forged BSA barrels, may benefit from a really good clean and a polish. They may then be less pellet sensitive.

I agree with the FT guys comments that you just find the right batch of pellet for your barrel and then buy several hundred quid's worth of that batch. Not everyone can afford to spend a small fortune finding that right batch and then buying dozens of tins of that batch.

I think for those folk I would give the barrel a good clean and polish and experiment with sizing/weighing pellets and see if that tightens your accuracy. As I've said before I think there are pellets in most batches that will shoot well in your rifle. Your groups are ruined because there are also pellets in that batch ( tin ) that are different sizes/weights etc.

You decide whether you prefer finding the right batch and buying loads ... then use straight out of the tin ... or you can use various batches but you have to be more selective with the pellets in those batches/tins.