Hard and Soft Pellets

[Phil Russell]

So we have to start somewhere: Gleaned from this post

HARD: wasp
Silhouette
Meisterkugeln
R10
H&N FTT
Barracuda FT
Cross Premier
Hobby
Superdome

SOFT: AAF
JSB


The order of pellets in the list is not a measure of 'how hard' or 'how soft' so comments are welcome to fine tune the list or add new types. Indeed I always thought AAF were quite hard?

Could it be tested? What if, a big 'if', say 10 pellets were melted into a cube or whatever and a known weight/pointy implement dropped onto/into the cube? The impression left could be measured for depth which would give a comparison between pellets but not a truly scientific measure.
Or would the hardness change due to melting? I can't see why it would other than due to separation of the components ..

Oh the things we do in Lockdown.
Cheers, Phil

[BTDT]

So we have to start somewhere: Gleaned from this post

HARD: wasp
Silhouette
Meisterkugeln
R10
H&N FTT
Barracuda FT
Cross Premier

SOFT: AAF
JSB
Hobby
Superdome

The order of pellets in the list is not a measure of 'how hard' or 'how soft' so comments are welcome to fine tune the list or add new types. Indeed I always thought AAF were quite hard?

Could it be tested? What if, a big 'if', say 10 pellets were melted into a cube or whatever and a known weight/pointy implement dropped onto/into the cube? The impression left could be measured for depth which would give a comparison between pellets but not a truly scientific measure.
Or would the hardness change due to melting? I can't see why it would other than due to separation of the components ..

Oh the things we do in Lockdown.
Cheers, Phil

Hobby and Superdome are in the wrong list, Phil.

[Phil Russell]

Hobby and Superdome are in the wrong list, Phil.

Have put Hobby and Superdome in the Hard list. But this is only leaving 2 examples in the soft ....

New idea for testing: Thin sheet of pellet material. Tube with a 1mm (?) punch in it, punch end at open end of tube. Tube has a threaded top end e.g. M6 with a screw through it to push punch down. Dial gauge on top of tube, small torque wrench on M6 screw. Record depth at which punch goes into the pellet material for a set torque.
Oh the things we think of ... ... but I do not have a wrench. ... I have a 1/2" drive one from motor maintenance days but that is most likely too big.

Cheers, Phil

[Murphy]

Heavy prems where made out of some kind of stone lead!

[TonyL]

Hobby and Superdome are in the wrong list, Phil.

Yep.

And, re measuring them, Phil, a much more fun way will be to shoot and retrieve the pellets. Short range with low to medium powered guns or long range with higher powered guns will be fine. The amount of deformation will give a good idea. I've found that pellets retrieved from a pellet trap are very malleable and give a good clue as to the hardness. Not definitive, of course, but certainly gives an idea.

And you're very right, maybe Uncle Terry could entask Mr Wain to do some more measured testing?

[Phil Russell]

Good idea. I have been toying with taking a pellet, standing it on its skirt and then dropping a weight on it. Measure the deformation. Might work. Might try it tomorrow.
Cheers, Phil

[TonyL]

Excellent idea, Mr Russell.

I shall look forward to reading your observations.

[BTDT]

Good idea. I have been toying with taking a pellet, standing it on its skirt and then dropping a weight on it. Measure the deformation. Might work. Might try it tomorrow.
Cheers, Phil

The problem is the very thin and fragile JSB pellet skirts, I'm afraid, Phil. The idea is to measure the lead rather than the design.

I can't see an alternative to melting pellets down into a mould, sizing it precisely, then applying a force and measuring distortion.

[Phil Russell]

The problem is the very thin and fragile JSB pellet skirts, I'm afraid, Phil. The idea is to measure the lead rather than the design.

I can't see an alternative to melting pellets down into a mould, sizing it precisely, then applying a force and measuring distortion.

As Mainwaring would have said, 'I wondered who would spot that ...'.
You are quite right. A similar criticism applies to using a rifle (sorry TonyL) in that the rifle power / pellet velocity becomes a variable. I wonder if this factor could be reduced by, in effect, squashing the head of the pellet so bypassing the skirt effect. The extra variability introduced might be far less. But for a definitive answer:
I think I need to find some small moulds ...

Cheers, Phil
PS I have some oak strip. I wonder if that could be used ... easy to make a multiple mould.

[Steyr]

There is a guage that measures how soft lead is. I prefer softer lead.
Antimony is added to make lead harder among other things but in certain barrels it can lead to flyers as the barrel gets a skin after each shot that is then picked up by another pellet somewhere down the line. It tends to be a pedictable pattern as to when a flier appears but not always.

IIRC JSB includes antimony in their production but the % may of course be tweaked depending on various factors.

There is no need to use a phosphur bronze brush on airgun barrel. A brush like that is to deal with burnt powder residues and fouling from copper jacketed bullets. It does nothing apart from wreck probe o ring seals.

Some barrels like to be clean. Some dirty. Do a 5 to 10 shot group and keep it to compare later at a distance that begins to challenge ypur group size but alloes you to be consistant in placement. Too close and you wont see the group change. Too far and your errors disguise the real grouping potential.

Pull trough the barrel with .22 lr patches making sure NOT to touch the crown. The chordd can very easily damage the crown the most vital bit of a barrel.

Usually, a barrel might need to lead up again. This might be 40 shots or so either way. Do another 10 and see if the group has tightened or loosened it will say if the barrel likes to be clean or run in with lead.

Every 100 or 200, do another test string to see if its still tightening, staying the same or loosening again. You will work out how many shots you can get away with and how many shots you can shoot before another clean is necessary.