Same Difference!

Gary Wain continues his unswerving quest to find that perfectly performing pellet.

Last month, I looked at four different types of pellet, each of them weighing in around the 10 grain mark. I showed that the Hunter Extreme, whilst not as accurate as the standard domed pellet at longer ranges, was accurate enough up to 35 yards and produced a truly devastating wound track in the ballistic material we used for testing, whilst at longer ranges you were better off with a round-nosed pellet purely because of its more consistent accuracy.

So, having looked at domed, flat head, hollow point and expanding pellets, of different types but of the same weight, and with an onwards and upwards approach in mind, the next thing was to look at was the differences between pellets of the same type but of varying weight. I’m hoping to get closer to finding out which is the best hunting pellet, or at the very least answer the question, ‘Which does the most damage when it hits the quarry?’ The smaller, lighter, faster pellet, or the larger, heavier, slower pellet? Think you know the answer? Well, it might not be as obvious as you imagine.

USUAL SUSPECTS

To get things started I first needed to get together what I’ve come to think of as the usual suspects. Having decided on domed profile pellets I set about gathering together four brands that would give me as big a weight spectrum as possible. I chose .177 for this test and after a bit of searching found four good options. As before, rather than buy full tins I visited one of the many websites that offer the shooter the option to select numerous packs of 25 pellets from a huge selection. OK, so I might be paying slightly more than if I’d worked out the cost per pellet on a tin of 500, but then I’m only spending a few quid and getting exactly what I need, rather than a tenner for a shed load of pellets, most of which I’ll probably never use after this testing is completed.

GETTING HEAVY