Non toxic, is .22 the new .177

[32:1]

My issue so far trying various eco friendly pellets is that their woefully inaccurate in all the rifles I tried, best use was jsb .25’s at sub12 for ratting, but extra care was needed as through shots became an issue with it ricocheting around the stables. Ive not been able to get a group of pellets under 50mm with any at 40yds with some not hitting a card at all..

Not sure if the pellet manufacturers need to supply something that works or barrel manufacturers need to change to work with the best alternatives, but for sure your target or hunting ranges will cone in quite a bit and we will need to rebarrel our guns to suit.

Chris

[merlin]

Unlike shot guns there is no cheap [debatable as i hear iron shot destroys the barrels] alternative for us and i would expect to see many leave the hobby or otherwise shooting sessions drastically reduced due to spiralling costs which is bad enough right now as it is

forget any pellets with plastic involved this has been tried, tested and binned years ago and iam personally not looking to repeat my experience with those awful Prometheus plastic skirted things that crapped up my barrels with plastic wrecking the accuracy and proved a nightmare getting out

and yes i can see .177 becoming redundant due to non lead pellet weight issues...no way around it really, all the advantages swing back to the larger calibres

as things stand there isnt many lead free pellets to choose from anyway so iam hoping the powers that be will see sense and only ban the use of lead around livestock as IME that DOES need to happen if it hasnt already [no idea i dont do that type of shooting], how many times have i watched vids of pest control in milking sheds and thinking well those spent pellets are dropping into the cattle feed arnt they.

[angrybear]

Unlike shot guns there is no cheap [debatable as i hear iron shot destroys the barrels] alternative for us and i would expect to see many leave the hobby or otherwise shooting sessions drastically reduced due to spiralling costs which is bad enough right now as it is

forget any pellets with plastic involved this has been tried, tested and binned years ago and iam personally not looking to repeat my experience with those awful Prometheus plastic skirted things that crapped up my barrels with plastic wrecking the accuracy and proved a nightmare getting out

and yes i can see .177 becoming redundant due to non lead pellet weight issues...no way around it really, all the advantages swing back to the larger calibres

as things stand there isnt many lead free pellets to choose from anyway so iam hoping the powers that be will see sense and only ban the use of lead around livestock as IME that DOES need to happen if it hasnt already [no idea i dont do that type of shooting], how many times have i watched vids of pest control in milking sheds and thinking well those spent pellets are dropping into the cattle feed arnt they.

er No, The spent pellet is largely going to remain inside the carcase of the vermin,.

[merlin]

er No, The spent pellet is largely going to remain inside the carcase of the vermin,.

ideally yes but we both know thats not always the case, non lead around livestock isn't a perfect solution either as could also present issues due to over penetration and ricochet's in confined areas.

[johnnytheboy]

Which guns have chrome lined barrels! Mr steyr has this the gun shop said, I should think chrome lining would help against wear!

Mentions above is tungsten as an alternative, this is probably out as Denmark banned tungsten as well as lead, see article below, bismuth should be a suitable alternative, I’ve used it loads and it doesn’t shatter like it used to. Bismuth shot is manufactured in hull by gamebore and shipped to America and loaded into cartridges that are cheaper than steel shot cartridges, so it’s not as expensive as we pay in the uk!



https://www.shootinguk.co.uk/news/da...n-tungsten-250

[Rativity]

Which guns have chrome lined barrels! Mr steyr has this the gun shop said, I should think chrome lining would help against wear!

Mentions above is tungsten as an alternative, this is probably out as Denmark banned tungsten as well as lead, see article below, bismuth should be a suitable alternative, I’ve used it loads and it doesn’t shatter like it used to. Bismuth shot is manufactured in hull by gamebore and shipped to America and loaded into cartridges that are cheaper than steel shot cartridges, so it’s not as expensive as we pay in the uk!



https://www.shootinguk.co.uk/news/da...n-tungsten-250

That is correct I have a chromed barrel on my steyr.
I have never bothered with lead free pellets, we’re is the evidence that lead free pellets cut right through vermin and then bounce around.. just curious!

Even still the chrome in the barrels will eventually wear down, steyr barrels are not cheap

[angrybear]

Assume you mean where is the evidence.

Well at a colloquial level, I've had a .25 JSB non lead pass through a squirrels head & then through the bird feeder behind it,
at a range where I regularly shoot them with the same (sub 12fpe) rifle using lead pellets with no pass through, I've not used them on prey since.

I've also had ricochets when the Pb free hit solid objects where the lead pellets just splat.

In the photo below all pellets have been fired in to my sub 12fpe trap, which uses 15mm of old magazines (3 thick) sandwiched between 9mm ply & a face of 8mm tongue & groove to which the target fits,
so the pellet passes through the T&G & the paper stops it before it hits the ply backing, the T&G is simple to replace while the pellets are easy to recover from the paper.

Note all the lead pellets are flattened & generally are found embedded in the 2nd magazine thickness,
OTOH the only damage to any of the lead free is where the skirt has been struck by following shots,
in several places where multiple shots hit around the same spot they had reached the ply backing & a couple even passed through to dent the sheet steel frame behind it.

[BC312]

JSB .25 Pb free 16.54gn, my Scorpion sub 12 loves them,
the problem is they're still way too hard & hardly deform at all on impact with a hard target, there's zero expansion on prey, they just punch straight through without pausing.

Not sure of the exact PB free material they use but i am sure they can manufacture a pellet in the future that could be a little softer just by adding something to the melting pot. Once its known that PB free lead is definitely established and law, hoping its not, then manufactures will continually make improvements over time and new airgun barrels will be made to suite the new projectiles. Pellets and slugs will most probably be matched to the normal weights of the old lead projectiles, so they are bigger in length, so a .22 21 grain slug would match a standard .22 14 grain pellet, not sure what the weight ratio is of lead and lead free.

[angrybear]

Well I just had a play with some JSB Pb free .22, 11.75gn in the Rapid, across the chrono - 663fps ave for 11.47ftlb,
compared to FX (JSB) 16gn 580fps for 11.87ftlb, so nowhere near the relative energy loss of the .25 Pb free in the Scorpion SE.

target
https://ibb.co/k0Fy03N

[maximus]

Well I just had a play with some JSB Pb free .22, 11.75gn in the Rapid, across the chrono - 663fps ave for 11.47ftlb,
compared to FX (JSB) 16gn 580fps for 11.87ftlb, so nowhere near the relative energy loss of the .25 Pb free in the Scorpion SE.

target
https://ibb.co/k0Fy03N

Not bad groups from the pb free, what was the distance AB?

[angrybear]

They were all freehand at 25yds, of course they still suffer the issue of being too hard, I think I need to try a few other brands to see how they compare.

I'm also going to have a more serious go with pellet lube & a rest, and stretch the range out a bit.

[gsxrman]

Im a .177 shooter. Shoot the calibre for target and all quarry.
I am not worried at all about the future.
What will be will be.
R&D will defo ramp up when laws are passed.
If .22 becomes the future so be it.
If its catapult and crossbows, so be it.
What will be will be.
There is a long way to go yet, so for now, stop trying to fix the future without the tech to do it, and enjoy your shooting now.

[MartinJG]

Looking at the options some of the .22 pellets are 10 grains, this is similar to a heavy .177 pellet, does this mean that we will be using more .22 for hunting and having to crack the power up on these guns?

Does this mean that .25 becomes a real hunting option in sub 12ftlbs if the pellets are lighter

I’ve been having exactly the same thoughts myself. 0.177 lead free are around 5grn which is absurdly light

[flyingfish]

Just shot a non toxic .22 through the MFR
2 inches low at 18m.
Not impressed
I will try them in the TX mk1. Maybe the weight will suit the springer better

[prosport.177]

Just wondering how the lead free is working in the small bore 22mm and 21mm stuff? Any feed back from the small bore crowd?