Why Can’t JSB Leave A Good Thing Alone?
I got 12 tins of JSB 25.4 grain pellets from PA a few weeks back. I thought that I would weigh sort a few tins. When I opened them up, I noticed that JSB has changed the shape of the cavity inside of the skirt. On the new ones, the rim of the skirt is fatter, first angle in the skirt is lower and the second angle goes much deeper into the pellet. The old style’s cavity doesn’t go as deep into the skirt and the base is much wider.
The new style pellet is on the left. The OD on both skirts were the same, around .257″ using my Starrett calipers. In the pic, the new JSB’s skirt looks like it has a smaller diameter. The observed difference must be due to the angle of the camera when I took the pic.
I still have a few tins of the old style JSB left so; I weighed out around 300 of the old and new style each. Both the new and old style pellets were from the new red top tins. I sort pellets by 1/10 grain and I took around 300 pellets that weighed 25.4 grains, in both the new and old style to the range.
I started shooting at the lower right hand target and worked right to left and then started the next row from the right. I shot 5 shots with the old style and the next 5 shots were with the new. I kept alternating the 5 shot groups to try to lessen the effects of the varying wind speeds. Each 5 shot group is numbered the order shot. I was shooting at 100 yards with light and varying wind conditions. The winds started to pick up some as the day continued.
I threw out the worst 5 shot group for each. The new pellet’s worst group was #18 at 4.125” and had one very bad flier that tumbled and really opened up the group. The worst 5 shot group, for the old style pellets was #13 at 2.143”
After averaging the remaining 9, 5 shot groups for each:
The old style averaged 1.436”
The new averaged 1.808”
I got 4 sub 1 inch groups with the old style pellets and 2 with the new style.
Anybody have any red top tins of the old style JSB 25.4 grain pellets that they are willing to sell me?
All Replies
H+N makes a nice pellet,the 14.66 FTT shoot well in my P-rod but still
in premium barrels LW,BSA,custom BR barrels 90% of shooters using
JSB.I wish JSB would make a premium pellet w/closer tolerances,all
this weighing,rolling,and sizing to me is a pain.Obviously JSB doesn`t
think this is cost effective or big enough market or is too difficult?
I earlier tested the Edgun vs JSB 18.1 pellets @ 50yds in my Edgun
and groups were similar.Recently I tried testing w/m-rod w/.630lw
barrel indoor shooting BR target and the JSB`s were better than the
Edgun pellets?I have seen many posts of different head sizes on JSB`s
yet have never seen them advertised other than 5.52 on any sight?
Ted says his shoots 5.50-5.51 better.They say the key to rimfire BR is
finding the right lot of ammo.I guess AG`s are the same(frustrating)
regards,mark
In the end, pure on cosmetics of the pellet, is H&N much nicer then the crappy JSB’s..
Nice and shiny, no damaged skirts, not as soft as JSB, …
A Dutch friend of mine, one of the regular 100 m indoor contestants, together with some of his mates, is trying to inspire a “co-production” with H&N in order to conduct some long range tests for their pellets using the highly suitable 100 m facilities available in The Netherlands.
We shall see what happens ❓
Yeah, not much companies take it to 100m to test 🙂
Ed does, but not officialy, seen from his youtube vids!
But what I mean is: is a gun factory not allowed to test at higher speeds then officially is agreed?
Kazzz, – I don’t think there is such a thing as a “standard” applied among gunmakers. Rumors are the for instance that Daystate only testshoot at 25 mts. I believe ED is testing at 50. What the others do I don’t really know…. 😉
😀
I know a lot of people use the Barra’s but also the AA diabolo field pellets.
They do better then the JSB’s Kings in a lot of guns.
Zoco, is that limit also for building and testing a gun in a factory?
And normally you testshoot without stock attached :/
In CZ the maximun legal power without a licence is 16 J. Not fun with a .25 pellet. I am therefore very curious about how they test. They certainly have the facilities to do so:
Their tunnel is 50 mts long:
We know how good the old shape was. And there must be a reason for the change of the .25 pellet shape. But how much did they test the new shape and with what ??? 🙄
Tedd, btw did you ever seriously test the Barracudas in .25 (31 grs) ??? I know a lot of people think the JSB 25.4 is a better pellet, – especially at higher velocities. But at “medium” speeds I find they group quite well shot through my Rapid….
May be worth a try ????
😀
Yes, I saw that post. I read the TAG, Yellow and a couple of other forums daily.
Yarrah (Harry) is the man on the Yellow.
I tried doing the Yarrah pellet roll, I couldn’t get consistent results. When I say consistent, I mean that the same pellet would sometimes roll into a different location when I tried it again.
I have fitted a BSA 25 cal barrel on my R3 25 cal Matador long and the BSA barrel is actually .243” so, I think that it would resize any pellets that were pushed into it. I am trying to get the best accuracy that I can out of my Matadors.
I have redone the inlead on the BSA barrel and then polished it. The pellets seat very smoothly.
Ed has said that I need to clean the barrel, shoot 50 shots and then test the new JSBs. I will try that.
I really want the new JSB pellets to work as the older versions will soon cost out of the ass to buy!
I also have a Lee Precision sizing press and a butt load of sizing dies that go from .258” down to .241”. I plan on testing the new JSB pellets that have been resized down to .250-.245 range and see how they do.
some of you may have seen this on the yellow.
The test should work regardless of caliber.
My testing of pellets by sorting by weight, head size, whatever did not make as big of a difference in groups as sizing by skirt/head ratio.
I found the smaller ratio (head to skirt diameter) I had better consistancy when used in my .22 Marauder which is most pellet picky gun I own.
It’s at least worth a try…
I think with the power of the pcp, solid projectile is the future of airgunning.
Pellets is always a risk. Indeed, from mold to mold, and begin and end of a mold, you have differences, EVEN in the SAME batch!
That’s why I look at the batch always. When I open a new tin and the batch number corresponds, then most of the time there is almost no difference. But when I open a new batch, there is almost always a difference.
This difference you don’t have with solids. I really do think the solids are the future!!!! (and I hope too!)
It is a well known thing that one shouldn’t mix the pellets even made by one manufacturer but at different time due to the lead. The lead of the pellets can have different structure from delivery to delivery. It is normal. So, having shoot pellet made of different lead you have worse accuray. The best thing is to clean the barrel, then shoot about 50 shots, to let the barrel “get used to a new structure of the lead” and then shoot accuracy.
Ted, 19 Tins of JSB .25 KIngs for sale on the Yellow. # to call 210-422-1853. The question is, “are they the older pellets” May be worth a call.
Good luck.
kind regards, mike
The reason I’m stuck with .22 is exactly what you’re experiencing now … 😉
We have a very limited supply/variation of .25 available in Norway. The .22 is far more widespread. Also I’m led to believe that more R&D have gone into the .22s than the .25s. The European manufacturers (JSB and H&N) certainly sell a lot more of .177 and .22 than .25. I’m really not sure what JSB has been doing now and wonder how ED reacts to this sudden change…..
Keep us posted please….. 😀
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Every gun is different so yes, – you have to experiemnt and find YOUR pellet(s). Even two guns of same make and model may be different…..
And you may find that one pellet is good for long range shooting while another one is better for short range paper clipping….
The H&N Barracuda Match comes in four different head sizes for cal.22 only: 5.50, 5.51, 5.52 and 5.53…. While certainly not a big differnce, you can easily tell when you shoot YOUR gun……….
The JSB 18 grs is probably one of the best pellets ever made for cal. 22 at speed levels from 880-940. This is too much for their H&N Barracuda brothers which in general group better at speeds around 750 -850 fps.
The H&N FTT spreads like a shotgun in my PCPs but deliver well in my springers. Has to do with velocity again where the FTT is better at lower (springer) speeds…..
Then there are variatons between batch numbers (different lead quality may be one). Once you’ve found a pellets that is really good for you, – it may be a good idea to go back and secure the rest of that very same batch.
The H&N Barracuda 6.35 is as far as I know available in one head size only. I guess this has to do with demand and size of market which certainly is smaller in cal.25 than in cal.22……
Also as Kazzz says, they generally look much better (finish) than the JSBs….
Whatever pellet you end up with, – you’ll still see differences over time in YOUR gun. Has to do with the gun settling in over time, cleanliness of barrel etc…
This is a “science” of its own where every man (and gun) is out there “on his own”. Also partly the reason why this hobby is so facinating…… 😉
😀