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Post by Who? on Aug 7, 2023 20:35:04 GMT
Been hearing good reports on the H+N Baracuda 8 pellets. They were out of stock for a good few months, but finally got a tin to try. Usual observation about performance - "in my gun" etc etc. I used my Pulsar with a Rowan Engineering single shot loader. I usually clean the barrel before using different pellets - I was lazy this time and didn't. I just marked a cross on a piece of paper, put it at 26yds in my shooting tunnel and shot the first pellet. It took a little more, but noticeable, effort to insert the pellet into the single shot loader, but it then slid into the barrel nicely with the side lever. So far negligible difference to the usual JSB I use currently. phtt, bugger, where did the pellet hit? it's either dead on the cross or missed the A4 sized paper. Can't be bothered to walk to the target. Just aim at a blank bit of the paper. phtt, what! that hit right on the aim point - well the aim point, it hit directly behind the reticle centre dot. Four more pellets and I'm very happy:  The FPS of the five pellets were 774, 770, 775, 769, 778. No worse than the JSBs I'd spent time selecting a good batch of. Shot about another thirty pellets, but still a bit of work needed to build the confidence, but looking positive. As it happened I saw a sample tin of iHunter 10.5gr slugs for sale. Been curious about slugs in a sub 12ftlb gun - a lot has been written about them. You'll understand from the pic above, I'll not pursue it any further. Besides they're a bugger to pick up out of the tin. |
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Post by Bri M on Aug 8, 2023 7:15:20 GMT
Slugs. I don't get them and suspect The Emperor's New Clothes might be putting in an appearance.
I suppose it's possible that they have advantages at FAC power levels but for sub 12 folks they seem like an expensive way to get poorer accuracy.
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Post by Who? on Aug 8, 2023 9:42:06 GMT
Slugs. I don't get them and suspect The Emperor's New Clothes might be putting in an appearance. I suppose it's possible that they have advantages at FAC power levels but for sub 12 folks they seem like an expensive way to get poorer accuracy. I had sceptical thoughts, which is why I gave them a try. Now I can say “based on experience, in my gun, the slug I tested is not acceptable”. There maybe other brand/type/weight/diameter that performs better, but I’m happy to stay with the Diablo design. Diablo vs ‘bullet shape - I’ve found the JSB Heavy to be very good (only having a more pronounced ballistic curve) which, while called a Diablo shape, has a very limited ‘waist’ to it. Experience has shown the “dome head” to be better than the pointed, hollow or other shaped pellet heads. As the slug is not waisted and it had a pointed hollow nose, I wonder if it is the head design or the ‘waisting’ that is the dominant feature affecting accuracy. It would be misleading not to record that I have tried some brands of dome headed Diablo pellets that have (some times much) worse accuracy than the slugs I tried. |
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Post by Who? on Aug 30, 2023 19:30:56 GMT
Well.
Having proven to my satisfaction that the H+N Baracuda 8 (B8), out to 26 yards, is better then even the best batch of JSBs I have tried, I sought to confirm their performance beyond that distance. Getting a still day to shoot out to and beyond 50 yds is rare, not quite Hen's Teeth, but not yet achieved. So I've been comparing my scores when shooting rounds of HFT; this has indicated the B8's are no worse, but I will confirm this on a still day, when we have one.
With regard to consistency of head size and weight, I was very pleasantly surprised. I randomly took 50 pellets from a tin (and noting H+N label them as 4.51) I found 47 to be 4.52 and 3 to be 4.53. Only JSB Heavy and the JSB Premium Exact came close to this consistency. Then I weighed them - remember, I'm not saying the scales I have are accurate, but they do repeatedly give the same weight for the same pellet. The result, all of them within 0.16gr of each other (including the 4.53 pellets). I have never seen this consistency in any pellet before. I've tried 2 batches of B8s, too small a sample size to draw any meaningful conclusion, but both batches perform the same.
I'm not saying anyone should swap over to B8s on the basis of my experience, I am suggesting it may be worth trying a tin of them.
I bought a supply at £10.25 a tin, but I don't expect them to remain at that cost when JSBs cost £16+ a tin.
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Post by Saxondale again on Jan 14, 2024 1:40:57 GMT
Just weighing in on the slug element of this chat (I've snagged some Barra 8's too and will be testing) Was in Grantown on Spey the other day, swung into the fishing/gun shop there looking for a HFT legal scope... (Rat Catcher turning to the dark side?)
Somewhat predictably they had nowt but the service was really good so I wanted to put some pennies through their till. Enquired if they sold .177 pellets and the bloke asked me if I had a favoured brand. Yeah H&N. Bara Match through my pathfinder? Thing o beauty! Hunter extremes do damn well too.
Ah OK, yeah I've some H&N in. Bara Power and Bara Rabbit Magnum.
Oh. Errrrrrm they're copper. I'm sceptical of copper and after disastrously trying JSB Knock Out slugs (4ft/lb on the Pathfinder and about 5ft/lb on the Dreamline and were duly donated to Russ) I'm on the nope side o the fence about sub 12 slug.
Ah screw it, I'm feeling flush, and experimental. I'll have a tin of each. Paid slightly over the odds for the magnums, but paid slightly under for the powers so the universe is in equilibrium. Got home and gassed up the BRK and FX, powered up the chronograph and went to work.
Powers. Lovely. No warped skirts, chambered in both rifles with just the tiniest bit of resistance. Snug. Nice. 11.4 on the BRK, 10.6 on the FX. Will group test next I'm at Denwood. Rabbit Magnum. DO NOT PUT THESE THROUGH A DREAMLINE. bloody things got stuck and I had to bodge rod em out. On a Pathfinder though, different story. Similar chambering as the powers. 11.6 min 11.8 max, 10 shot string. Denwood group test to follow, if anyone knows a cheap source for ballistic gel or modelling clay please let me know, be interesting to see penetration (hrrrr hrrrrr hrrrrrrrr) and deformation of copper vs lead for the powers, and just penetration of the magnums due to the nature of them
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Post by Who? on Jan 16, 2024 11:16:06 GMT
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