15.89 JSB v 16 grain Air Arms
Here’s an odd one. My R3M\.22 loads the JSB Jumbo 15.89 pellet without issue. I thought I’d try the AIr Arms (5.51mm) 16 grains pellet, and immediately ran into loading issues. Very rough loading after the first pellet was loaded and shot. I had to remove the magazine, which was very difficult. I found a damaged pellet inside the magazine. I tried using these pellets on two different occasions with the same result. Time to do some science shit and find out why. Initially I was just glad to get them out of the gun. Tossed some Jumbos back in all all went well. Phew. Of course it’s back to the Jumbo Heavy,as that’s what it likes best. Interesting result, though. The Parker-Hale is not so particular(?).
darryl
edited: it was pointed out that I had stated the wrong pellet weight for the JSB Jumbo. Corrected now. 😳
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Of course JSB makes the AA pellets – like several other branded ones like EdGun and FX pellets. Idk about EG but AA and to my knowledge even FX has their own tooling at the JSB. These aren’t put thru near the stress JSB’s own tooling is and thus have no wear and tear on even close the same degree.
Idk about FX but AA is said to have their own lead alloy as well.
What is certain is that FX pellets are less gunky than JSB’s and FX wants them that way – cleaner.
This has been on the top of my head for a long time..time to get it off.
I am 99.9 percent sure that JSB makes AA pellets, I could swear I even watched a video a few years back, where some big shot at air arms admitted that JSB makes their pellets, of coarse with a slight little twist of with some special little changes. I just envision JSB having 10 pellet making machines spitting out pellets out of 10 machines and dumping them into our tins of pellets. Then they put in a SPECIAL Air Arms mold and run in in a machine or 2. There have been at least 10 videos on the size of peller head/skirt/ect. effecting accuracy. I agree just from personal testing my edgun(.22cal) prefers the smaller 5.51 or 5.52 pellets…5.53-5.5…go all over the place.
I prefer AA, over standard Jsb because….
When ordering JSB’s…some are 5.52..up to 5.5..(look at the sticker on the bottom of your tins)
AT Pyramid air..you can stipule AA in 5.52 and a few other sizes..its probably not a perfect measurement, but its better than nothing.
My Edgun likes 5.51-5.52
My Talon is as good as its going to get with 5.51-5.55
The Cricket..i don’t know, but shoots the 5.51-5.52 very well.
I would prefer to shoot the 18.1’s, but being able to pick the 5.51-5.52 is a big plus and more important to me than than extra few in weight.
They even cost a buck or 2 less a tin
Ps where does this 15.69 stuff come from? its 15.89..15.9 vs 16 darn near the same pellet
The cocking issue was really a lube issue. Got a tip from Keyser to try a bit of something like Ballistol. I did. Problem solved. Using 18gr AA pellets with no issues. the 16g pellets work fine too. I’ll do some more testing of the AA pellets.
It make sense because JSB makes batches from time to time and produce many different batches. Sometimes is it good but sometimes not because is very difficult find (hit) the correct batch of JSB….
Someone told me AA only does one bigger batch each year. Idk if there’s any truth to that but it could also explain the very uniform quality.
Maybe the high supply and demand for JSB has them pumping them out without as much QC.
All in all AA is better then JSB in everyway.
I have a lot of old batches of AA and compared to the new they look and perform as well, unlike JSB.
JSB I need to look for a good batch, when found they perform well.
AA seems to be much more carefully made and just an overall better performer.
In my Matador & Crickets AA seem to be able to handle greater speeds then JSB and not loose accuracy/stability…
Not all that sure about your loading issues with AA.
Might be the size difference and its getting caught into the O-ring groove in the mag before finding it’s way into the breech.
Use a black marker and color the OD on the pellet head and skirt, load them into the mag and push them out with a pencil.
Note any visible marks made if any ?
I’d suspect that it would be the skirt that has the marks and might be the size/problem of ………..
Also not fully cocking the Matador can cause advancing/loading issues as well.
Make sure the pellets are well placed into the mags, to far forwards or backwards will end up binding against the breech when rotating/advancing.
~ Greg
I agree AA´s being better shooting than plain JSB´s. Much more uniform in quality.
thanks Bee, maybe I won’t give them up completely.
darryl
Not sure if it answers your query but I have found these Air Arms pellets to be as accurate ( if not more so) in all my Airguns. Problem I found is the skirts in the batches I have are all very thin, as compared to the JSBs. I mean one false move and they bend…Could be the high pressure air straightens out any bent skirt, but who knows. I find myself being very careful with them when handling.
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I corrected the weight in the OP. Thanks to Mrnewbie for pointing out that I had the weight wrong (by a teenie bit
). It points to the really small weight difference (our guns are shooting somewhere around 30 fpe in the main, aren’t they?) between the two pellets. It also seems to point to a generally more favorable pellet head diameter for our Edguns. I wish the AA 18g came in tins of 500. 250ct for $10.00 USD isn’t too bad compared to $9.65 for the JSB Jumbo Heavy (over at PyramydAir). Anyone got a better price source for the AirArm 18g?