Air Chief, Target Flat Tip pellets.

Oh boy...
Did I have a "WOW" moment with these pellets today!!!

I'm still tweeking and refining my ultimate sparrow set up, so I was playing around with pellets today, well actually was more playing with and refining my scope set up for sparrows, which required rezeroing my sparrow tune, so I thought while Im re-doing it why not just double check some different pellets to make sure I have the best (most accurate) pellet for this power level (around 4.5FPE), and that it is zeroed at the optimal distance.

So I was using JSB Exact Espress 7.87gr because they seemed to be the most accurate at that power level.

Then I decided there wasnt much difference in group size between the Express 7.87gr and the Exact 8.44 gr, and it would be really nice to be able to quickly switch profiles on the scope and turn the transfer port adjuster from max to min and go from rabbits at 70 yards in a paddock to rats at 15 yards in the shed as I'm walking past, with out having to change pellets in the dark, just click click, turn knob and keep on shooting...
Well it was a good thought, but after months of having this set up available to use, I'm yet to still use it.
The rats I usually see at night are in hedges, trees or out in the paddocks with the horses and the rabbits, so just shoot them with the same 12.4FPE rabbit set up...

I have had some more calling for sparrow control in warehouses, so I decided to go back to a dedicated sparrow set up optimised for accuracy at around 4.5FPE out to 20yards. Hence my testing and playing today.

Decided to test 4 pellets for grouping at 15yards, and then out at 30yards, all on min power setting, around 4.5FPE.
Tested JSB Exact 8.44gr
JSB Exact Express 7.87gr
JSB Diabolo Master flat nose target pellet, about 8ish gr
and the Air Chief Target Flat Tip 8.18gr.
My experiences with flat nosed "wad cutter" style pellets in the past have always been that they are usually on the light for caliber side, intended for lower power guns, and for 10m target shooting. They are usually great at 10m, but start to wonder wider out past 10m.
Today I had my eyes opened.

I'm sure your initial thoughts when you read "Air Chief" were the same as mine... Cheap crap, rite?
Well cheap, yes, at $20 for 500 you cant complain, but these pellets are made by H&N, which is the only reason I bothered to try them in the first place.
I dont know if "Air Chief" is a Gun City brand, but Gun City has their own house brand which are just H&N pellets relabeled as "Gun City" pellets, and some of them are pretty good.

Any way, back to the review... I was completely blown away by the performance of these pellets!!!
Zeroed at 15yards its a one hole group, and they are still dead on and tight at 20yards.
My best 30yard group was also a one hole group!!! and thats with a muzzel velocity of 494fps, 4.4FPE.

I shot about 50 of them to make sure it was'nt just a one off flook, and it wasn't.
So I've now changed my sparrow set up from my beloved JSB exacts and express's, over to the "H&N" Air Chief Target Flat Tip, And I'm very happy with them from 6yards out to 30 yards.
This will be good for sparrows out to 30y, rats and even rabbits (head shots) out to 20ish yards.

And as a bonus, after zeroing the Air Chiefs and getting them all dialled in and set up, I tried some 8.44gr Exacts (with all the Air Chief low power settings), and what do you know, the POI is almost identical out to 20 yards, close enough that I'd still be comfortable using them on rats, so I can still just turn the power down, click click, and carry on shooting if I ever need to...

That's a bonus. I am guessing that being a wadcutter they might be less likely to pass through too?

100% kill rate, nice.

Wow, at $8 for 500, makes you wonder how we can justify paying $38 for 500 JSB Exacts, or $47 for 500 JSB knockouts!!!

Nunga, can you remember what caliber and foot pounds you were using?