HW45 .177 - Best Ammo?

[oling]

Hi oling, it's a 2010 dual power model. Originally it made 5.5 with Webley Express and Falcon Accuracy+ in the early dieselling days! I stripped it, made some minor changes and dry lubed it late last year, details here if you're interested
http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ling-with-a-45

This reduced the power a bit with a new, resized seal and spring guide reversed but it is now much smoother to cock and very consistent shot to shot. I'm sure it would make 5.5+ if I fitted the spring guide back in the original position, inside the piston, but this just makes it graunchy to cock and not so nice shot cycle.

Anyway, I was a tad bored yesterday so put a whole load of pellets through it as I was surprised at the pellet energy v. weight results I had in the past. Results below:

RWS Hobby (6.94gn) 4.58 (slightly tight in barrel)
RWS Superdome (8.26gn) 4.27 (tight fit in barrel)
RWS Superfield 4.51 (8.35gn) 4.97
RWS Superfield 4.52 (8.52gn) 4.47
JSB Heavy (10.33gn) 4.56
JSB Exact 4.52 (8.45gn) 4.99
Webley Express (7.84gn) 5.17
Falcon Accuracy + (7.32gn) 5.28
Crosman Accupel (7.94gn) 4.99
H&N FTT (8.21gn) 4.73 (slightly tight fit)

These are average 10 shot figures, each pellet weighed to 0.02gn accuracy and shot though a Skan Pro 1 series 3 chrono.

I revise my earlier comment and now agree that it does make better power with the lighter pellets. My older results were taken using the manufacturers' stated weight for the ammo and were quite a bit out in many cases. Hope the results are useful to the GB2017

Thanks for that write-up. You're absolutely right that actual pellet weights and manufacturer's stated weights can vary greatly which is very frustrating.

[GB2017]

thanks to both oling and sevorg for the tests and explanations both extremely helpful, will certainly be following up on Toms blog later

[Arthur John Smithsplease]

177 Hobbies were an unpleasantly tight fit in my HW45 barrel.

Now I use German match pellets (R10, H&N) and get good results.

I agree with an earlier post about keeping oil off the aluminium action. It will result in faded patches. A clean dry cloth is all you need to wipe away the finger prints.