How many pellets?

[Mzee]

Some months ago I bought, at a very reasonable price, a 1906 BSA Standard from a friend on here. It looked as though it had spent quite a part of its long life in a garden shed or maybe a barn, hence the price, & hadn't been used for years. I recently got round to giving it some TLC, starting with the rust & grubby stock, giving them the Ballistol & 0000 wire wool treatment & soon had it looking quite presentable. On stripping it down it was bone dry with bits of dried out grease in odd corners & the spring had what might be called a negative preload in that it was sitting a good inch inside the piston. It was still in one piece but well & truly compressed. The piston seal was bone dry, of course, & fell apart as I handled it. The cylinder & barrel were in good condition once they'd been cleaned & the trigger looked fine as well. The loading tap just needed the crud poking out of it with a cocktail stick & relubing with some sticky 'assembly oil'.
I replaced the spring & leather piston seal, sizing it dry so it was an easy, smooth sliding fit, reassembled everything, then ran a bit if Ballistol down the barrel to lube the piston seal & left it standing muzzle up for a couple of days to let it soak in.
Now, I appreciate it needs 'shooting in' to bed everything down & get the piston seal working efficiently.
Gentlemen, how many pellets would you reckon it will take to get this old treasure up to maximum efficiency & how can I tell when I've achieved this. I'd love to know what your learned consensus is. The old girl is firing smoothly after a few dozen shots & the bit of surplus oil from softening the seal seems to have gone now. Thanks for reading this & looking forward to reading your considered opinions. Glyn

[Geezer]

I have no real evidence behind this, but I’ve always thought that a full tin of 500 is a good idea properly to bed a springer in after a service. Often less, in my limited experience, maybe as few as 50-100, but I wouldn’t take that as definitive.

[micky2]

First of all, well done for getting another old BSA up and running again. as for how many pellets it will take to settle down l don't know. but l would have thought a few hundred should do the trick. but l think you should be able to tell your self with how it preforms. enjoy it great rifles.

[Shed tuner]

yeah, with leather I'd say a good half a tin.