I love airguns. I have a few Red Ryder BB guns, collectible editions; I prefer to shoot more powerful air rifles. I will save discussing airguns for another time.
Airguns, especially the more powerful versions, can be very particular about the pellets they are fed. Like firearms, each gun is an individual, and will shoot well with some pellets and not as well with others. Yesterday I was reminded of this during a particularly frustrating shooting session.
I have a new Ruger Airhawk airgun, imported by Umarex, in .177 caliber. Spring-powered airguns like it need a break-in period of 200-300 shots before they reveal their best performance. I bought a package of inexpensive pellets containing 300 pellets; the package was on sale, and seemed to suit my needs. I was more concerned with cost since I didn’t expect the rifle to do its best until these pellets were used.
The pellets were packaged in lots of 100, so I shot the first hundred a week ago and the rifle performed well, eventually achieving dime-sized groups at 20 yards when I did my part. These pellets were pointed in shape and average weight, about 8 grains.
Yesterday, I opened the next partition of 100 pellets and began to shoot them. I was shooting at twilight, and rushed to get some shooting in before dark. After checking the first group of ten shots, I found not a grouping, but something more like a shotgun pattern! Thinking back, the pellets did feel a little looser in the barrel and felt a little lighter.
Turns out I was now shooting a lightweight hollow point pellet intended for lower-powered pump airguns. These pellets were not designed to be shot at speeds exceeding 1,000 feet per second. My rifle certainly did not like these pellets!
The lesson I was reminded of is how important it is to match pellets with the airgun. My gun is too powerful to shoot lightweight pellets well, so I need to stick with heavier pellets from now on!
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