JSB Hades

Hi Folks,
I’ve been using the JSB Hades for some rabbit control, and although they fly straight and group ok (for a hunting pellet), I’ve been a little disappointed in their terminal performance.

I was hoping they would open up, flatten out and dump all their energy into the target, like a hollow point expanding bullet would, but in reality they just seem to flatten ever so slightly.
I’ve been doing some rabbit control around horses, so have the pcp tuned down to 13.6fpe, shooting a 15,89gr .22cal Hades at about 620fps. I’ve recovered a few pellets and my findings have been as follows:
Most head shots out to about 40m are through and through, I’ve only recovered one pellet from a rabbits head so far. It had expanded from 5.5mm to 6mm.

On a shoulder shot, the pellet penetrated about 4cm, going through the scapula and ending up close to the spine. Fatal shot and the pellet again expanded from 5.5mm to about 6mm. One “petal” broke off.
On another shoulder shot the pellet did not go through the scapula, didnt even penetrate 1cm and was just under the skin, but did break the leg. Not a fatal shot but did expand to about 6mm against the scapula.

With the same pellet, out the same gun but on another power setting giving 930fps and about 31fpe, I shot a possum in the eye and the pellet was recovered down the neck just forward of the shoulder blades. Penetrated about 10cm. It expanded from 5.5mm to 6.5mm. See the attached pictures.

Although they are doing the job, I was really hoping for better deformation and a harder “thump”, giving a better knock over. Maybe a pellet made of softer lead would expand better?
Has anyone else had any experiences with the hades, or with another make and model which gave satisfying results in thumping bunnies?

There's a chap called Gary Wain in the Airgun World magazine who has done extensive tests with all kinds of pellets over the past 2 years - many many good articles by him!

Thanks Myson,
I find pellet testing and performance very interesting.
I’ll see if I can find some of his articals.

Hi Kruza,
Interesting article/review, thanks 👍🏻
The don’t give the exact velocity of their test rifle, all they say is it’s a “1000 fps” break barrel, but the expansion they got in a block of soap is similar to what I got at 31fpe in a possum.
The picture they show of a pellet looking like a M&M is the kind of performance I’m looking for 👍🏻😂
But they needed a 60fpe rifle to get that performance 😳 I don’t have one of those

They seem to be impressed with the expansion rate of the hades though thier results arnt anything significantly differnt to yours. So maybe your hope of finding a exceptionally well expanding pellet may not actually be something that will be found in a pellet.
That 60fpe at 10m seemed a bit of a. Waste of time to me. As you say you'd think they would go slug. I imagine a pellet would pass clean through small game at that sort of distance. Goat might be a differnt story.
The other thing I think helps the hades is with its knock down on birds (which is my primary use for them) is that when the pellet hits its rotating and that pellet head becomes a cutter due to its shape.
I also read and interesting artical where a guy was using a deablo pellet on game and recording the results.
He had markedly better one shot kills dropping his pcp power level to where the pellet wouldn't pass through the animal.