Pellet Skirt Tool

[Cicero]

Just wondered if anyone uses one of these and, if so, what type?

So often these days pellets arrive with deformed skirts and I was thinking of flaring them out/rounding up prior to loading in the magazine.

Any opinions gratefully received ...

[Murphy]

Just put them in the barrel the air will do that job.

[angrybear]

Round down a pencil down with sandpaper or use an old pen etc,
once it's mostly flared out the air will do the rest.

[xraiderx]

The cap off a pen

[pjinoz]

Just wondered if anyone uses one of these and, if so, what type?

So often these days pellets arrive with deformed skirts and I was thinking of flaring them out/rounding up prior to loading in the magazine.

Any opinions gratefully received ...

Hi all,
I use one which I made in .25 cal for my Webley Patriot project which sizes the nose section (fixed diameter to just engage/ride the rifling) and the rear (skirt) section which is adjustable to any SET diameter. This is built somewhat like a bullet swaging die and I use it in my Rockchucker Junior press and can exactly size every pellet;12-15 per minute. Why? Well being a retired research of 40 years experience I just have to know how how things really work. For my Patriot project I have amassed over 70 pages of data regarding what makes these tick, some of which is pertinent to all airguns FAC or otherwise and probably for PCP as well. Ok, I'll admit many folks will think I'm nuts for going to these great lengths; but what have I achieved? 1. Power levels of 37 fpe. 2. Extremely good accuracy; less than 1" at 50 yards. 3. Never thrown out a dodgy pellet (these cost a fortune in Australia-must be the Gold alloy in them). 4. Very uniform shot to shot velocity. 5. And perhaps very important to those sub 12 fpe folks; skirt diameter has a very Large effect on power output (certainly in the Patriot; 3-4 fpe changes are the norm), too large skirt diameter and velocity will go done, too small likewise, but the sweet diameter will result in BOTH optimum velocity and Accuracy. Yes the blast of air will "blow out" skirts but this has little to do with improving uniformity and velocity. Expand the skirt with a pen? How do you keep expansion uniform? What about the effect on velocity if you are already near the 12 fpe limit? How far have I gone in skirt expansion? a. All pellet noses are sized to 0.251" (land diameter is 0.250-0.2505" as measured), have not measured the groove diameter. b. Skirt diameter is up to 0.282", that is correct! b. This is not necessarily the optimum accuracy diameter but not far off. Recovered pellets when fired vertically into a wheely bin containing 35 inches of water certainly showed skirt blow out in the 3 types of pellets I fired. Whilst the H&N FTT pellets did not contact the bottom (no nose dent) the other two JSB 25.4 grain and H&N Baracuda did both had no effect on their skirts. However, please keep in mind that these results were achieved in a much modified gun especially internally and may not have as much effect in lower powered guns. Finally, the type of die I use cost me a lot of time to make (I did not want one of those tapered dies that could not do what I wanted) and that as pjinoz is actually pjinUK at the moment and some to be pjinEU I have not got access to my hard data in Australia at this time. Maybe I can find some summer while I'm here; ha, ha!

Cheers to all

[Phil Russell]

A standard jack plug does a good job on deformed .177 skirts.
Or stick a round head map pin in a short length of dowel .. perfect for the .177 pellets.
Or a pop rivet mounted in a dowel ... select rivet according to .177 or .22.

Cheers, Phil

[angrybear]

Hi all,
I use one which I made in .25 cal for my Webley Patriot project which sizes the nose section (fixed diameter to just engage/ride the rifling) and the rear (skirt) section which is adjustable to any SET diameter. This is built somewhat like a bullet swaging die and I use it in my Rockchucker Junior press and can exactly size every pellet;12-15 per minute. Why? Well being a retired research of 40 years experience I just have to know how how things really work. For my Patriot project I have amassed over 70 pages of data regarding what makes these tick, some of which is pertinent to all airguns FAC or otherwise and probably for PCP as well. Ok, I'll admit many folks will think I'm nuts for going to these great lengths; but what have I achieved? 1. Power levels of 37 fpe. 2. Extremely good accuracy; less than 1" at 50 yards. 3. Never thrown out a dodgy pellet (these cost a fortune in Australia-must be the Gold alloy in them). 4. Very uniform shot to shot velocity. 5. And perhaps very important to those sub 12 fpe folks; skirt diameter has a very Large effect on power output (certainly in the Patriot; 3-4 fpe changes are the norm), too large skirt diameter and velocity will go done, too small likewise, but the sweet diameter will result in BOTH optimum velocity and Accuracy. Yes the blast of air will "blow out" skirts but this has little to do with improving uniformity and velocity. Expand the skirt with a pen? How do you keep expansion uniform? What about the effect on velocity if you are already near the 12 fpe limit? How far have I gone in skirt expansion? a. All pellet noses are sized to 0.251" (land diameter is 0.250-0.2505" as measured), have not measured the groove diameter. b. Skirt diameter is up to 0.282", that is correct! b. This is not necessarily the optimum accuracy diameter but not far off. Recovered pellets when fired vertically into a wheely bin containing 35 inches of water certainly showed skirt blow out in the 3 types of pellets I fired. Whilst the H&N FTT pellets did not contact the bottom (no nose dent) the other two JSB 25.4 grain and H&N Baracuda did both had no effect on their skirts. However, please keep in mind that these results were achieved in a much modified gun especially internally and may not have as much effect in lower powered guns. Finally, the type of die I use cost me a lot of time to make (I did not want one of those tapered dies that could not do what I wanted) and that as pjinoz is actually pjinUK at the moment and some to be pjinEU I have not got access to my hard data in Australia at this time. Maybe I can find some summer while I'm here; ha, ha!

Cheers to all

What are you on about ?
This is for a quick repair to pellets with damaged skirts, to use them rather than to bin them, not about resizing

[Murphy]

What are you on about ?
This is for a quick repair to pellets with damaged skirts, to use them rather than to bin them, not about resizing

My way is even quicker still.

[Lagomorpheus]

If you have any catalytic repair putty in the house. mix a pinch and make a teardrop shaped blob. Push the pointier end into the skirt of a perfect pellet and press down to make an impression of the skirt's rim and leave the pellet in place. Pinch the rest into a piece you can hold between thumb and finger. Allow to set then remove the pellet. You now have a perfect former which will re-shape damaged pellets and smooth the skirts of slightly ragged ones.

[MartynB]

If you have any catalytic repair putty in the house. mix a pinch and make a teardrop shaped blob. Push the pointier end into the skirt of a perfect pellet and press down to make an impression of the skirt's rim and leave the pellet in place. Pinch the rest into a piece you can hold between thumb and finger. Allow to set then remove the pellet. You now have a perfect former which will re-shape damaged pellets and smooth the skirts of slightly ragged ones.

Actually, that is a rather good idea

[Solvo]

My way is even quicker still.

I've always used what i shall now think of as "The Murphy Method"
Never had any issues for regular shooting.

I rather suspect this tread will follow the same line as the regular discussions on washing pellets.

[pjinoz]

What are you on about ?
This is for a quick repair to pellets with damaged skirts, to use them rather than to bin them, not about resizing

Angrybear, perhaps you did not read my post in depth; yes whilst I agree that pellet skirts might be made somewhat more "round" by pushing a pointed object into the skirt, have you taken the time and effort to measure any changes in MV, shot to shot, accuracy and as I mentioned skirt sizing my take you over the 12 fpe limit. I do not have to worry about this limit only finding that MV usually increases as well as uniformity and accuracy improvement.
The method I have described makes EVERY pellet uniform and not a somewhat hit and miss method of pellet recovery.

Cheers

[angrybear]

Yes I did read your post, which is why I made the comment that this is just for a quick reshape of a pellet that would otherwise be chucked in the bin as "damaged/deformed",
it has zero effect on MV or POI because it's not being resized only pushed back in to shape.

[pjinoz]

Yes I did read your post, which is why I made the comment that this is just for a quick reshape of a pellet that would otherwise be chucked in the bin as "damaged/deformed",
it has zero effect on MV or POI because it's not being resized only pushed back in to shape.

Angrybear, have you actually chronographed pellets that were/were not "pushed back into shape"? I have chronographed at least 200-250 Shot Strings in my research and even a few thousands of an inch make a difference. If you are happy to do what you do I'm happy for you but I shall continue to happily do what I do.

Cheers