shooting pellets that are deformed or to tight...

[bprid]

I just recently purchased a gamo cfx rifle.  When I purchased the rifle the pellets that I bought for it did not fit in the barrel right, they were way to tight, I had made another post about this asking if this was normal and what I could do.  Anyways in order to get the pellet into the barrel I had to use a pell seat to push them in and it ended up deforming them also, they were impossible to push in with my finger.  I was wondering that because of me doing that, shooting pellets through the gun that are way to tight and or are deformed will that scratch or mess up the barrel at all and in turn make the gun less accurate?  I know that a deformed pellet will not be accurate but will a deformed pellet scratch up the barrel or mess up the rifleing and cause damage to the barrel and make pellets that do fit right not be accurate because of any damage caused by a deformed pellet.  Basically will a deformed pellet do any damage to the barrel or the rifleing that would cause the gun to be less accurate.

[Big_Bill]

Hey Brad,

There are different sized barrels and pellets out there. You didn't mention what pellets you are using ?

As long as the pellets are not getting stuck in the barrel, it's O.K., but it will affect accuracy, deformed pellets do not shoot accurately !!! Try Crosman Premier Pellets, JSB Exacts, Gamo Hunters.

Bill

[bprid]

Sorry I didnt really word my question correctly after I went back and read it.  What I meant was that if I shoot deformed pellets through the barrel will it scratch or affect the barrel or damage the riflleing when I eventually do fire the correct size pellet?  I was just wondering if by me firing bad pellets that are deformed would nick up the barrel at all and make good correct working pellets shoot inacurately because of any damage that the deformed pellets may have caused.  Basically will deformed pellets do any damage to the barrel at all and affect the accuracy of future pellets that I will fire through it.  I was thinking that because the lead pellets are so soft that even if they are deformed they will get bent back to the size of the barrel after traveling a short distance through it and in turn not scratch it up or anything but im not positive about that and was wondering if anyone knew the answer to it.  Again thanks for everyones help and sorry for all the dumb questions im still a noob at air rifles  :-)

[bprid]

does anyone have any info on this?  I just hope that by me shooting deformed pellets didnt hurt the barrel.

[daveshoot]

There is no way lead is going to hurt steel, at least in the short run. However, Pellets that fit that tightly are going to cause more back pressure on the spring, and might act like overweight pellets, which are (by most accounts) going to shorten spring life.

But what you are describing does not sound normal to me.

I am wondering if you have the wrong caliber, or the super cheap Chinese pellets that are only suitable for fishing weights (these are included with some Industry brand guns and absolutely sucketh).

What brand and weight of pellets are you using, in which caliber? I know next to nothing about Gamo rifles, but I can't believe that any standard quality pellet would consistently load as tightly as you are describing.

I have a box of Crosman Premiers that are marked ".20 cal." and then stamped "5.5mm" which is very incorrect. The pellets really are .20, but the 5.5mm was a mistake and wouldindicate .22. If you are inadvertently cramming .20s into a .177 breach, that is going to be trouble. Also, the Industry pellets that came with my QB57 were just misshapen gobs of lead and I wouldn't shoot them out of anything I own.

[Progun]

Hey Brad, daveshoot speaketh the trutheth. Lead is softer than steel and even deformed pellets will re-size as they travel down the bore. Now on the other hand, if you were shooting a non-lead pellet(PBA Raptors come to mind) they are pretty hard and might be abrasive to  soft steel  or brass air rifle bores. Air rifle bores aren't as hard as firearm steel so just find a pellet that your barrel likes and stock up in that lot# if you can. FWIW, Thomas aka TJK had a report a while back about some mendoza brand pellets that were so fat he had trouble seating them in the breech.Try different pellets or lot #'s. Keep shooting and Luck to ya'.

[bprid]

The pellets that I bought that did not fit were RWS Superdomes 8.3 grain in .177 cal.  The PBA Raptor pellets that came with the gun also had a very tight fit just like the superdomes.  I know they are the correct size they just fit super tight.  I have heard other people say that rws superdomes either fit very tight in their gun or cant be seated at all like the problem I had.  Maybe the rws superdomes are just a bigger pellet than most, im not sure.  But I would have thought that the sample 50 pack of PBA raptors would have fit though.  Since I made this post I did try a different pellet and they did fit ok.  I tried the RWS-R-10 Match 8.2 Grain Wadcutter and those work just fine.  Im just gonna have to keep trying some different pellets and see which work best which is what I needed to do anyways.  I didnt want to have to choose pellets based on if they fit in my gun or not I wanted to choose based on their performance, I figured all .177 cal pellets would fit but it seems thats just the way it goes. Thanks everyone for all the help.