Pellet sizing

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   I bought a pellet sizer recently.
This one...
https://fentonshooting.co.uk/products/fenton-pellet-sizers-precision-cnc-made
Mine is the 4.53 stainless steel jobbie.
My 9015 has a bit of a tight breech, plus the barrel is choked...which you would think would 'size' a pellet as it was fired. But I noticed that my favourite pellet (H&N FTT) took a good 'thumbing' to make it enter the breech. I thought maybe I was bending/damaging the odd skirt or two as I loaded the pellet as generally the H&N shoot fine but the odd flier was a worry.
I measured the skirt and all pellets were over 4.62 diameter...so I had to start somewhere...and bought the 4.53 sizer. It only sizes the skirt, and that's OK for now.
I have done a batch of the H&N FTT pellets, plus some JSB Exact, and Exact Heavy too. The JSB all load nicely in the breech, but I did put some through the sizer too.
The JSB's all went nicely through the sizer with just a whisker of a bright lip around the skirt edge.
The H&N were a mixture. Some pellets dropped in about 1/2 way down the sizer, others would sit up on top of the sizer's tapered entry port. They all took a good shove to move them through (harder material too maybe).  
Will have a shot tomorrow to see if there is any difference between the various sized and unsized pellets.
If nothing else it may help keep the velocity of the pellets more even if they all start out down the barrel at the same diameter.

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Grey Kiwi Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 09 Jan 2022 Location: Richmond Status: Offline Posts: 60	Post Options Post Reply Quote Grey Kiwi Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Pellet sizing Posted: 13 Dec 2025 at 10:14am
	I bought a pellet sizer recently. This one... https://fentonshooting.co.uk/products/fenton-pellet-sizers-precision-cnc-made Mine is the 4.53 stainless steel jobbie. My 9015 has a bit of a tight breech, plus the barrel is choked...which you would think would 'size' a pellet as it was fired. But I noticed that my favourite pellet (H&N FTT) took a good 'thumbing' to make it enter the breech. I thought maybe I was bending/damaging the odd skirt or two as I loaded the pellet as generally the H&N shoot fine but the odd flier was a worry. I measured the skirt and all pellets were over 4.62 diameter...so I had to start somewhere...and bought the 4.53 sizer. It only sizes the skirt, and that's OK for now. I have done a batch of the H&N FTT pellets, plus some JSB Exact, and Exact Heavy too. The JSB all load nicely in the breech, but I did put some through the sizer too. The JSB's all went nicely through the sizer with just a whisker of a bright lip around the skirt edge. The H&N were a mixture. Some pellets dropped in about 1/2 way down the sizer, others would sit up on top of the sizer's tapered entry port. They all took a good shove to move them through (harder material too maybe). Will have a shot tomorrow to see if there is any difference between the various sized and unsized pellets. If nothing else it may help keep the velocity of the pellets more even if they all start out down the barrel at the same diameter.

RangerPete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 19 Apr 2023 Location: Cambridge. Status: Offline Posts: 1038	Post Options Post Reply Quote RangerPete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13 Dec 2025 at 9:40pm
	Interesting post. I’d be very interested to know what your findings are after doing a few test groups of unsized pellets, then a few sized groups… 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
	Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.

metallicsting Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Member Joined: 15 Aug 2025 Location: Wellington Status: Offline Posts: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote metallicsting Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Yesterday at 10:25pm
	I've been wanting to look at these. How did it go? Thanks for posting

Grey Kiwi Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 09 Jan 2022 Location: Richmond Status: Offline Posts: 60	Post Options Post Reply Quote Grey Kiwi Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 hours 30 minutes ago at 6:30am
	It works fine. I found that the H&N pellets were quite variable in skirt diameter. Now they are much better to load into the breech (the Anschutz 9015 is a single shot only). I cleaned the sizer internally at first just in case there was any machining swarf sitting in there. Then (just because I could) I gave the inside hole a squirt of CRC PTFE dry lube. After doing about 500 pellets I ran a cotton bud dipped in isopropyl alcohol down there and it came out black (layer of lead from the pellets passing through). Gave it a good clean again. Anyway...at first it looked promising. No more weird fliers until yesterday! Couldn't figure out what was going on. Tried some older unsized pellets and they were the same. It was more like a shotgun 'grouping'. Got home, checked scope, etc and then looked at the front rest. A wobbly bearing in there and also the main column had a bit of back & forth movement. I had intended to get around to fitting new bearings for the start of the next shooting season, so I did that last night. All good, nice and smooth and no more wobbles. So I'm back to the range soon to try again. I think the sizer is working OK and doing it's magic. The wobbly bearing in the front rest sort of skewed the testing. I will report back.

metallicsting Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Member Joined: 15 Aug 2025 Location: Wellington Status: Offline Posts: 4	Post Options Post Reply Quote metallicsting Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 5 hours 53 minutes ago at 5:07pm
	Nice. Might look to get one also now. So they do then for slugs as well as pallets? I couldn’t see anything on there for slugs. I’d love to buy a slug press but they are so expensive. I’ll weigh up how much I spend on ammo next year and decide if it will pay itself off or not in the long run.

Grey Kiwi Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 09 Jan 2022 Location: Richmond Status: Offline Posts: 60	Post Options Post Reply Quote Grey Kiwi Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 4 hours 12 minutes ago at 6:48pm
	I did have one wee problem. I did a batch of pellets and some did not shoot well. Looking at the remaining pellets I noticed the head on some of them had a bright spot on one side while the skirt had a complete ring of 'bright spot' all around. I had obviously not pushed the pellet through straight, but had entered the probe at an angle and just gave it a big shove. Which had bent the pellet. Lesson learned...keep the probe straight onto the main body of the sizer, then give the pellet a push through. To be fair...a slightly fatter shaft on the probe and it would have entered the sizer straight and not been able to force the pellet over at an angle. I may have a play with that, and may also make a wee lever gadget...sort of like a mini reloading press that will hold the probe and sizer body in a nice straight line with each other.