Defiant Vintage in 5.6mm have ceased production. The machinery was bought by H&N but I have been struggling to find out when they intend to commence production. Personally, I have found the old Defiant pellet not quite up to the standard of a number of 5.5mm pellets, so far as accuracy is concerned (but have a slight edge in terms of power), and I have found that Superdomes have the edge in many old .22 calibre rifles (5.6mm) and are also pretty good from a power perspective too.
A
Certainly, there is room for improvement by H&N; perhaps they can tweak the pellets to match their Sniper Light, which I have found to be highly accurate. However, they appear no further forward with production. This is unfortunate when one considers that there must be hundreds of thousands of air rifles and air pistols in the UK that were manufactured to the old .22 (5.6mm) size. Not least, there is no significant competition.
At the prices the proper eley wasps fetch on evil bay i might take a punt and put mine on there. Some have gone for £45 plus postage
I held extensive correspondence with them in 2019. They bought the Defiant moulds and machinery, which they must have done with a view to production. However, they needed to adjust it/upgrade/repair it and needed an expert from the UK to do this. The correspondence then became bogged down in the translation and I have not revisited it, which I must do at some stage.
I explained to them that with the demise of Eley Wasp and the absence of any competition, they could mop up here quite simply. It sounds like a no-brainer to me. It merely needs the go ahead.
Hi Andrew,
What I dont understand is why any prospective manufacturer doesn't get hold some original 5.56mm ELEY Wasp pellets, and just replicate them specifically for the No.2 bore English vintage market.
This would involve analysis of the original lead alloy used, and re-manufacture of replica moulds. ELEY wasps were a short pellet in length, and had thicker than average skirt thickness. Also it is my understanding that the lead alloy had higher that average amounts of antimony, which made it harder.
Most vintage shooters regard 5.56mm Eley Wasps, as close to the ideal pellet for older english barrels, so surely, there is your template ???
Lakey
Why would they need to buy the moulds in the first place, surely a pellet company like H&N or even JSB can design a mould pretty easily for a 5.6, considering JSB already offer 3 different head sizes in 5.5, if a small company like Pax can get them made then surely one of the big companies that are making gazillions of pellets everyday can do it easily.
Pete
Far too many rifles to list now, all mainly British but the odd pesky foreigner has snuck in