For a while I thought I was going to be a pellet head and do the whole shebang of washing, sizing, weighing and lubing. My time is limited though and I actually don’t think I can’t sit still enough to offset any possible gains I may acquire from doing all the above work.
I can understand the point of doing all the above and if it gives you confidence in your shooting then I’m of the mind to say knock yourself out. If I was doing Bench Rest or 10m then I think it would be a different story for myself.
Jerry for Pelletgage asked me if I wanted to testing out the Pelletgage, I said I was up for giving it a go because I know people who would use one of these and would be very interested in what its got to offer.
The Pelletgage is easy to build and is pretty fast to use. The Pelletgage is cut from 0.20 mm thickness fine grain stainless sheets using a diode pumped fibre optic laser. The apertures are within 0.0025 mm (2.5 microns) of the nominally indicated size. Inspection and control of Pelletgage production is accomplished with class X precision plug gages.
The intention behind the Pelletgage is to give the shooter a good chance to sort and measure their batch of pellets, I think we are all aware that some batches shoot better than others and no-one seems to have an answer why! Maybe the Pelletgage will get us closer!
The Pelletgage has 10 holes marked from 4.46 to 4.55, has protective plastic covers and sits on four legs so it’s easy to use on any surface and there’s enough room to get your fingers underneath retrieve the pellet once it’s passed through the hole.
For my testing I used my best batch of JSB’s .177 8.44 4.52 34070016, I usually use these straight out of the tin, they group well at 55yds and in the wind, so it would be interesting to see what they all measured.
To measure each one I started with the 4.49 hole and worked my up until the pellet dropped through the Pelletgage, with it being such a small measurement I also double tested a lot of the pellets. So, if I pellet went through the 4.51 hole I’d go back to the 4.50 hole to see if the “wear” would enable it to pass through, it never did. The Pelletgage is quicker to use than you’d think and to test 500 you are looking at 
spending 2hrs of your time.
My testing isn’t scientific because I’ve only tested one tin from one batch and I don’t have several guns plus a long windless range to test for any difference. If anything it did prove that the head size number on the back of each tin is a pretty worthless number if you take these numbers into account.
4.49=0.59% 4.50=15.98% 4.51=51.48% 4.52=27.22% 4.53=2.96% 4.55=1.78%
That’s 27.22% accuracy from the stated head size!
But then again can you expect JSB to produce a pellet with that level of accuracy using soft lead and costing 1p, I’m not sure that you can, so where does that leave us?
Well, Pelletgage enables you to accurately measure your pellets heads for the first time ever and that for some has to have some value to some shooters.
I know some Field Target shooters will suggest that you’re wasting your time but often these are the same people who spend forever on the range testing pellets and changing their guns barrel to get better accuracy, the paradox isn’t lost on me. How much difference it will make I’m unable to test but at least it’s a step forward in having accurate numbers to hand because if anything pellet development is woefully behind the times and current needs of most modern field target and bench rest shooters.
I can see the Pelletgage being used and being developed further to allow shooters to sort their pellets quicker and with a higher level of accuracy than we have ever had before because let’s face it, nothing like this has been available before and I think it’s a step in the right direction because it puts the accuracy back into the hands of the shooter and not that small sticker on the back of the tin. Which I think with the help of Pelletgage I’ve proved is pretty worthless information.
Pelletgage Site
Available in Europe Via Intershoot
