Beeman Trophy Pellets - Uniformity of weight

[TCups]

Shooting today with my Diana 34 Panther  (P. Watts Tuned) which prefers Beeman Trophy pellets.  I was shooting to see how the Trophy's (I still have 3 sleeves on hand) that are now apparently discontinued compared to Crosman Premier Pellets.  In the process, I shot from an open tin of Trophys to collect the initial data I needed, then, decided to go ahead and weigh a second new tin of Trophy's to get a larger sample for weight distribution.  

I know this happens, but it is the first time I have seen such variability between two obviously different lots of pellets.  The weights in the partial tin, Tin A were significantly heavier than the weights in the unopened tin, Tin B.  The weighed Trophy's I test fired in the Diana 48 Panther were from the first tin and weighed 14.25 grains.  The 14.25 gr Trophy's significantly out-performed the CP's weighed at 14.30 grain, but that's a different  matter.  FYI, here are the distribution curves for the variations in weight in two different tins of the Beeman Trophy .22 cal pellets.  Hmmmmm . . .

[tjk]

Dang T, You've got this $#it down to a science!!!! Can you spare a tin of them for me at the next fun-shoot. Had I known they would be discontinued, I'd have bought a few tins for "keepers" sake!!!! Worked great in the 392,..too bad I wasted the rest in that 'less than stellar barrelled" Mendoza. The gun was pretty good too, but the barrel QC was terrible!!! And the search continues for the ideal round,....kinda makes thing interesting huh?!?! tjk
PS,...Still think my Crosman "Black-Bird" pellet would be a success,....but to Crosman I'm just some idiot shcmuck with dumn-@$$ed ideas!!! LOL's

[TCups]

Dang, Thomas.  First it's my swizzle sticks, now it's my stockpile of Beeman Trophy's.  I had hoped that the CP's would be close, but nooooooooooooooooo!
The Di 48 is shooting 14.25 gr Trophy's consistently at around 680 fps and will group them 0.4 in CTC at 25 yards.  With 14.30, 14.35 gr CP's, the fit is just a bit looser and the muzzle velocity drops to 650-655 fps and the groups open up to around 0.8 in CTC at 25 yards.  I also chronied at the target, with Trophy's whacking at 593 fps or 87% of muzzle velocity.  The CP's are hitting the target at about 590 or about 90% of the muzzle velocity. So, apparently the CP's have a little bit better BC than the Trophy's, but they surely won't group as well for me.  Maybe I will have to get really jiggy and start washing and drying the CP's, but I so far I have refrained from joining the Weight Washers club.

[tjk]

Weight Washers Club,....that's funny. Nice range by the way. How are your groups shooting free-hand/off-hand?!?!? HeHeHeHe,   tjk

[TCups]

Off-hand/free-hand?  Why would I shoot off-hand/free hand?  Actually, when J finishes with my "special project", I should have some 10-M targets to brag about again. (PS:  It's pretty boring to weigh pellets, but it's absolutely boring to weigh Vogel Match pellets).

[tjk]

For the challenge maybe?!?!?!? Just my personal preference of shooting style. But to each his own!!!!! Weighing pels doesn't seem to be that exciting of a task, but the pros do it I hear. And also measure the skirts too. Been thinking of building a pel press to flare out the skirts some with out changing the head configuration/diameter. tjk

[Schmidty25]

Interesting results.  I wonder how much of an effect the different pellet weights have on consistency with accuracy

[TCups]

In general, I think, the higher the pellet velocity, the longer the distance to the target, and the lighter the pellet, the more difficult it is for me to hold tight groups.  No mystery there.  In my efforts to improve my accuracy, I think eliminating the variability of the weights of the individual pellets is a fairly easy thing to do, but I don't know how much absolute difference a quarter of a grain or so makes.   Probably, it makes more difference with lighter (ie .177 vs. .20 or .22) pellets.  And occasionally, I have run across an individual pellet that looks OK, but then found it's weight is way off -- certainly enough to theoretically cause the occasional flyer.  I do know that when I shot weighed pellets, my velocities seem more consistent and I do know that if I am not grouping shots well, then I can now cross "variable pellet weights" off the list of potential causes.