S1K .177 loves Tomahawks?

[davee1]

My S1K is doing 1000-1011fps with Tomahawks(8.5gr). I have tried pellets from my vast assortment but this Tomahawk pellet is the best. Even CPLites can't get there.  Accurate at close range (15-20yrds), long range I haven't tried yet.

By the way, this pellet is the fastest in all of my airguns.  There's something about their design that makes them cut through the air. And they are cheap!!!

Has anyone else tried these with good or bad results?  

The Tomahawks have been excellant on Blackbirds for me. I've been using them in my Gamo Viper.

[shadow]

Yes they are a good pellet, all of my babies like em and looking back on my past Hunting post you can see the result's of these pellet's. Happy Hunting. Ed

[vinceb]

...they're probably not 8.5gr. Gamo (for some reason) overstates the weight of the .177 Hunter, which (in my experience) shoots faster than their Match pellet.

The advertised weight of the .22 Hunter seems a lot more realistic.

[Gene_SC]

Hi Dave

The likely hood of your S1K shooting Gamo Tomahawks at that FPS is kinda high. I own 4 S1K's and two of them are .177. I get in the high 800's and low 900's with them, RWS Superdome and Gamo Hunter Rounds. Could it be you have a leaky seal or like Vince said a mismarked batch of Tomahawks. Or maybe even a mis calibrated chrony. Generally chronies can be a plus or minus 1%. I know because mine is and I calulate that in win I am checking my power range. You will be more likely to hit your mark at 40 yards at 800fps to 950 fps better than at 1000 plus with that kind of pellet.

Check things out, try different pellets at the same weight and see if your fps is still over a 1000..

Good luck
Gene

[davee1]

Yep Gene, somethin' aint right.  I bought 4 tins from MidSouth a couple of weeks ago, and one from Pyramid, I've got 5 tins altogether. Stocked up on 'em because they are so awesome.  They look like Tomahawks.  The package says they are Tomahawks. But none of them weigh in at 8.5gr.  They are weighing in at 7.7~8.1  avg 7.9!!!  WTF...am I gonna have to weigh my pellets now before I make my claims?  Sheesh!!!!
That's funny...I got the 8.5gr reference from Pyramid because Midsouth doesn't have the weight, and Midsouth doesn't list them as Tomahawks, they are listed as: GAMO AIRGUNS POINTED HOLLOW POINT .177 CAL. 750 PK LEAD PELLET.  Went to the GamoUSA site and they are listed as 7.8gr  SO PYRAMID IS WRONG!!! (and sheepishly...so was I).

Not complaining though, it's a great pellet for a great price from a great place. I'll have to be more careful next time and do some checkin' before I burst my buttons...

By the way, I'm measuring muzzle velocity. The barrel is about 2 inches away from the Beta Master Chrony.  Is there a standard distance that you guys use, or is that setup ok?  

[CharlieDaTuna]

Hey Dave... 2 inches is very close... in fact too close. I suggest that your muzzle should be at least 18-24 inches from the 1st sensor for springers and at least 24 inches when clocking Co2's. The muzzle blast can have an impact on the and create false readings, especially when using Co2.

[Gene_SC]

Ya those are Tomahawks you have there from Midsouth.. I have over 4000 of them and all my S1K's .177 love them that I bought from them. They are very accurate in my S1K's as well up to 40 yards. I generally get under a 1" group consistantly. I never weighed them but I assume the weight will vary like most pellets do. I shoot alot of RWS Superdomes as well and they chrony about the same. And I have to agree with CDT on the chrony distance, only because he showed me the differences..

Mistery continues...

Gene

[DanoInTx]

......I agree with Bob about the distance of the muzzle from the chrony, but please remember that when you shoot through your chrony at 24" the line of sight is much different than the angle of the barrel bore.  I watched a very smart airgun bud get carried away while doing a chrony string with his PCP and shoot the chrony...which we were borrowing from another friend:)

To get the most accurate readings shooting from a gun vice across the chrony will give you the best results.  If you shoot at even the slightest angle up/down/left/right you will be effectively increasing the distance that the pellet has to travel from sensor to sensor.  So one straight through, next shot slight angle, next shot straight, next angled....it will show as a spread between shots.  I know it isn't a huge increase in angle possible, but when you are measuring the time it takes for a pellet to go 18" and now it is going 18 1/2" that's a difference between 1000fps and 972fps.

[davee1]

Yep, my chrony already has a little war wound on it. Didn't break through though, just kinda made a dent in it.  Now I have some 4x4 blocks in front of the sensors just in case I ever droop too low again. I'll try the 18 inch distance and see what happens.  From now on my numbers will be quoted as such.

[DanoInTx]

I think you missed my point.  I'm not saying to hold your gun with the muzzle 18" from the first sensor, I'm saying that any angle other than a perfect 90degree angle over the sensors changes the distance the pellet has to travel from one sensor to the other....as in a square is longer conrner to corner than flat to flat.  So if you don't shoot the gun at the exact same angle across the sensors every time you will get a variation....maybe not much, but could be enough.  The 18" reference I was referring to was just an off the top of my head number to describe the distance between chrony sensors.  Sorry, I get ideas in my head and sometimes don't explain them as well when I type them.
Here's a quick image of what I am saying:

[davee1]

I understand Dano, thanks for pointing that out. I was primarily concerned about the distance from the muzzle to the first sensor, which from what I gather here, is supposed to be 18 to 24 inches.  A man must also take into consideration, that the pellet should fly straight across the top of the sensors. Any flight angle other than perpendicular to the sensors results in a longer pellet travel between sensors. Luckily my sensors are about 12 inches apart CTC so hopefully my ballpark perpendicular, should keep me in the ballpark, keep dents off of the sensor housings, and not affect the fps readings by too much.    

[DanoInTx]

Yuppems, you get it.  Just wanted to make sure I wasn't misunderstood.  Chronies also as you have pointed out do not handle being shot very well, although the one we managed to shoot registered a good speed and continued working just fine afterwards.  Have you ever seen where people will place a microphone under the muzzle, then another at the backstop and record the sounds on a computer and measure the time between pulses?  Pretty cool, and I would say fairly accurate, except the pellet might slow down a little during its travel.  Also have to be using a fairly high resolution recording format.  Anyways, just rambling now, have fun!

[davee1]

Dano, no I haven't read about that yet, this a first!!!  Wow, that's really quite interesting. Ideas are flowin'...but for now I'm having fun setting up a jig where I'm 19 inches away from the first sensor CTC, and getting the barrel perpendicular to the sensors.  19 is easy, but perpendicular is hard. I have no bench or vise. So lumber spacers are sufficing...of course NOW I can't get above 1000fps with Tomahawks. Oh well it was fun while it lasted. At least my P17 is still in the 400 range...

[DanoInTx]

Hehe, the sound thing is pretty cool.  Forget where I first read about that.

I had a conversation a few months ago with a fellow forum member and we were talking about chronographing our various guns.  Basically we both decided that it's good to chrony a gun when new, post tune, and when you suspect problems such as shifting POI...or of course when finding the "perfect fill curve" on an unregulated PCP.  So basically once you've established that the particular gun is shooting consistant, there's no more reason to chrony it unless it's tuned or breaks.  You can chrony yoursself to death and unless it's to discover that you've fixed a problem, it will never make you shoot better:)