ELEY WASP ... what is the story?

[Hsing-ee]

In one's youth the Eley Wasp pellet was a top-quality dome-head pellet, which did good service in both .22 (5.6) and .177 calibre. They were really nice, consistent pellets which suited alot of barrels.

I am not sure, but they may have been the same pellets as the BSA 'Pylarm' pellets, although I am happy to be corrected.

Then there was some transitional period and the .22s were joined by the 5.5mm size for the German barrels.

And now they do or don't exist? And the recently made ones are poorer in quality than the old ones? This is what I heard, and there are those ones with the additional sub-calibre layer of lead on their heads, what is that about?

What is the story? Who has the dies or whatever, who is making them now and will the lovely little red tins of .177 be available again ever?

Why should the quality go down when things like JSB are setting the mark in quality?

Have they been religated to the role of plinking pellets?

I know the design was somewhat dated, they seemed too short - the distance between the skirt and the head band was very short, but they worked extremely well in some rifles.

[Herpquest]

Eley Wasps 5.6 are still available. I get mine off ####. Ideal pellet for earlier BSA's which were 5.6mm barrels. I get them to use with my '82 Airsporter Mk1.
ATB Eric

[Hsing-ee]

Eley Wasps 5.6 are still available. I get mine off ####. Ideal pellet for earlier BSA's which were 5.6mm barrels. I get them to use with my '82 Airsporter Mk1.
ATB Eric

Must be an Airsporter 'S' Mk 1. I think they were onto the Mk 5 or 6 by 1982 for the standard model. Unless yours is a '52 Airsporter Mk 1?

I will get some for my older BSA .22s. Thanks for the advice, I will post pictures!

[Herpquest]

Must be an Airsporter 'S' Mk 1. I think they were onto the Mk 5 or 6 by 1982 for the standard model. Unless yours is a '52 Airsporter Mk 1?

I will get some for my older BSA .22s. Thanks for the advice, I will post pictures!

It is an '82 'Centennial' Airsporter Mk 1.

[harvey_s]

Eley Wasps 5.6 are still available. I get mine off ####. Ideal pellet for earlier BSA's which were 5.6mm barrels. I get them to use with my '82 Airsporter Mk1.
ATB Eric

They are not ELEY any more, look at the tin - it just says 'wasps' and quality is poor compared to original Eley ones.....

[Herpquest]

Description Price

Wasp (5.6mm) Eley Wasp (5.6mm) .22 Pellets

Copied and pasted from a well known suppliers web pages.
Someone is going to receive a visit from the Trading Standards if they are not
Eley!

[Lakey]

Unfortunately if it doesnt say ELEY on the tin, it wont be ELEY in the tin. Modern tins - where it just says Wasp on the lid , are still available in 5.6mm and 5.5mm in the same coloured tins as before, however the pellets are totally different.

Sadly the new 'Wasp' pellets are no way as good as the old ones. Their build quality is nowhere as good and they are not as accurate in most guns. I ordered some of the pellets off fleabay that are advertised as ELEY Wasp, only to find out that they were nothing of the sort.

ATB

Lakey

[edbear2]

Hi Eric......as Lakey rightly says, IMHO as well,the "new" Wasp pellets are nothing to do with eley, they are made on different dies, and the quality and consistency are frankly, rubbish compared to the Eley/ICI originals.......someone has bought the trade name.......if it says "bisley.co.uk" on the tin, it is the new pattern.......

There may well be some NOS tins of 5.6 (blue) Wasps out there, but I know of the seller you mention on that auction site, and in my opinion he is misleading buyers (possibly unintentionally, as the picture he shows is actually of the later tins)..

Easy to spot the difference on the tins with a cursory glance;

"proper" wasps;
http://www.dowlings.uk.com/acatalog/PELLETWASPS.jpg

"new wasps";
http://www.gunspares.co.uk/images/products/PEL033.jpg

Evolution of the tin lid label design (for anoraks like me)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3122848...7607964699940/

Don't think the new type are totally useless, they make good paperweights, doorstops, or you could melt them down for fishing weights, but don't expect them to group past 15 yards

[Herpquest]

Yep Edbear and Lakey, you're spot on. I see exactly what you mean. The ad that I copied and pasted wasn't off fleabay, so there are a number of outlets effectively 'ripping' customers off by advertising 'Eley Wasps' and supplying the customers with 'Wasps', ATB Eric

[MRVEG]

I bought some .177 Eley Wasps in the red tin from Chambers. They look original and are pretty good quality. Good enough for my old Webley pistols and BSAs

[coburn]

I bought a tin of the new Wasps in 5.6mm, they were so bad that I threw most of them away. The tin however is useful to use for keeping those lovely German pellets with the awful tins in.

I have half a tin left of .177 Eley Wasps purchased by me in the early 80's which still has the shop price sticker of £1.30 on it. If only there were more.

Finally BSA Pylarms were certainly in the 80's the same pellet.

[pennineway.fswo]

The Eley Wasps and the BSA Pylarms were the same pellet as far as I am aware and both performed very well. As well as the 5.6mm head diameter, the skirts were arround 5.84mm and sometimes exceeded 5.9mm
This is why they performed so well in the old Webleys and BSA's with loading taps

Several suppliers of the Wasp pellets are advertising them as Eley Wasps. Possibly because they are ignorant of the fact that Eley do not make them or possibly that the word Eley was associated with a good quality pellet .

All a bit naughty really as the modern Wasp pellet in both cals. .22 and .177 are only just good enough for plinking at very big targets .

The tins however as stated above are useful.

[harvey_s]

and in my opinion he is misleading buyers (possibly unintentionally, as the picture he shows is actually of the later tins)..

Oh, it's intentional...as at least two of the regular sellers I have emailed asking if they were actually 'Eley' as described - to be told they were not.
But neither ammended that or any subsequent listing I noticed.
I assume they work on the basis it will cost you too much to send back to warrant a refund....

[r4bob]

Hi,
I emailed Bob Rothery the guy who now makes Wasp pellets, as some of the 5.6mm pellets measured only 5.3mm,this was part of his reply. Dear Sir

We are sorry to hear you are unhappy with one of our products.

We are at a loss to understand how you can have 5.3mm pellets! As you can imagine we sell millions of these pellets across the country and if a batch had somehow been made in 5.3mm we would have an epidemic of power and inaccuracy claims such as yours. Yours is the only complaint we have at this time

[coburn]

Well you can tell the makers that some of my 5.6mm Wasps were so bad they fell through the barrel on my Premier. I couldn't be bothered to complain.

The screw lid tin is still very useful though, mines full of Superdomes at the moment