OK...my needs are probably not the same as yours.

I need the best accuracy I can get from each pellet.

Some time ago I read an article about washing/weighing/lubing pellets, and decided to give it a go (nothing to lose really).

I don't buy 'el cheapo' pellets of the backyard plinking genre.

Tried a lot of 'quality' pellets and two stood out. The QYS Olympic (probably the best you can get), and the RWS R10. Both of these shoot to the same POA (in my rifle) which is good.

But I noticed the R10 had little specks and slivers of lead and lead dust in the bottom of the tin. 

The QYS are hand inspected and sorted in packs of 200. They do have a very tiny amount of lead specks in the plastic box (2 layers of 100 pellets with each pellet held separately in a foam layer).

So...I poured all 500 RWS R10 into a warm soapy bath (2 litre ice cream container). Gently swirled them by hand for a minute or so, then out into a fine mesh colander for rinsing under running water.

Let them air dry over a few hours, and inspected/weighed them (weighed on my trusty Hornady beam balance...and yes it takes some time).

Then a quick squirt of Dry Film PTFE lubricant (don't want wet lube in a 3000psi environment).

Did the same for 100 of the QYS.

Yes, I did get a lot of loose lead from the R10 pellets, and a very tiny wee smudge or two from the QYS.

Weighing showed me that the QYS are exactly as stated on the box...8.18gr, while the R10 8.2gr were close but had up to .2gr weight difference per pellet.

Does all this bother help?

Yes it works. I can see the shots are now sitting in a closer spread to the 2mm dot I'm aiming at.

I have gained more 'centres' now and no more funny fliers that the R10 would give now and then.

QYS are $20 per 200 (so a bit spendy), while RWS R10 are $21 per 500.

I'm not shooting for Olympic Gold so the washed/weighed/lubed R10 will do me for now (although I do have about 1000 QYS to go yet). 

So if you are wanting the absolute best you can get from your pellets then washing and weighing does give rewards.

Probably not much use if you just shoot tin cans, or knock of the odd possum or two.

   

When Air Arms and other pellets are costing $60 a tin you would hope that the quality is sorted.

The R10 and QYS are available but my stockist has maybe 20 of the QYS Olympic, and 100 of the R10.

Guess I should stock up before telling everyone where I shop.

My 9015 does 'sort of' like the JSB pellets too, but they have lost some of their quality in the last year or so.

The QYS Domed are OK too, but are harder to mark with the plug gauge.

Using a floor mounted machine rest my rifle bunged 10 QYS Domed into a single hole little bigger than a single pellet (at 25 yards). Be nice if I could hold that POA so well! 

The old JSB Exact 8.44gr I have are almost as good too.

I only checked the weight of the first box of QYS Olympic.

Waste of time that was...they were all absolutely the exact same weight.

Now I trust them so much I have been shooting straight from the box.

Only started to wash and dry lube 100 last week to see if that makes any difference.

Early days but on my 2nd to last target shoot I reckoned there was a slight 'tightening' of the spread.

Might be worth a couple or so more 'centres'.

Had the barrel band screw come loose during the last shoot of that day and got a couple of 9's that I couldn't understand.

Get home later on and check things out...and found that loose screw. Yet I check the screws every few weeks after one came loose many weeks ago. 

Must be quite a shock runs through the barrel. It is choked so maybe that induces a shock wave as the pellet hits it?

Sorted now...Loctite to the rescue.

It does pay to check. During my days of shooting FT, poi shift has been changed by something as simple as a small grass seed head getting lodged between floating barrel and tank.

  

They are available in limited numbers and randomly too.

It's a matter of luck, and sometimes you need to be a member of a shooting club, etc to buy what you want.

I will put up a couple of photos of targets I shot 25 yards away.

One photo shows our normal target card (1 shot at each target roundel, with sighters in the middle rectangle area). It scores 100.6 and I have done 100.7 but never kept that target (usually throw them out when I get home).

Once with my CZ I did the magic 100.10 which was all centre shots. Now that felt really great!

The blank paper marked QYS has 10 shots in that hole in the paper (disregard the ripped bit). This was shot from a floor mounted machine rest to test the pellets and the rifle.

I now prefer (for the cheaper line of pellets) to get H&N Match as they are better (for me anyway) than the latest JSB pellets.

Those H&N are readily available and would suit both a hunter, or a target shooter, who didn't want to break the bank buying QYS.

I did have an H&N trial target somewhere. Will try to find it.

Yes, I knew what you meant but I haven't bothered to keep any treated pellets/untreated pellets cards.

I just knew that I could see a wee improvement.

Not enough to be of use to a hunter, etc but would make a difference to a target shooter.

When I sold the CZ457 I went to PCP as that was similar to using a rimfire. Aim, fire, reload without breaking the entire body position.

A springer needs a lot of changes to your position, and then you have to get yourself aligned all over again for the next shot and you only have 11 minutes for the sighters and the 10 scoring shots.

Or...we also shoot the double targets where you have 2 targets side by side and no sighters allowed for the 2nd target. You get 22 minutes for that combo.

I think a springer would not like being fired from a front rest either. Sure to be some bounce happening there.

I use an AR250 front rest but some folks just use a modified scissor car jack!

https://ar250.sebrests.com/" rel="nofollow - https://ar250.sebrests.com/

No magazines allowed for rimfire or air. Single load only.

I think the rimfire .22 is easier but good ammo is spendy (although my CZ liked Tac22...about $13 per 50 round box). Rimfire has a shorter 'barrel time' and a shorter 'flight time'. The PCP air rifle pellet has a longer barrel time, and flight time and I 'think' that as I'm surrounded by rimfire shooters at the range that their shots push my tiny wee pellets off target a tad too (disturbed air currents). I wait until I hear the 'bang' from each side of me before committing to my shot (or get it done nice and quick before they shoot).

Just weighing the pellets (and the rimfire ammo too) knocks out a few fliers.

I use a Hornady beam scale mainly although I have a digital scale too. Keep the pellets that are in spec in 1 container, with separate container for heavy (overweight) and another for light (underweight) pellets.

I've been watching 'The Red Stag Timber Hunters Club', and in slo-mo you can see the game animal feeding quietly then you notice the long grass in front of it start to move (a lot) as a wave of air hits it.

Then you see the bullet strike a fraction of a second later.

That bullet (300 Win Mag I'm told) has pushed a large wave of air ahead of it as it flies towards the target.

Yes, there is air disturbance going on, and our benches are only about 1m apart.

It will take quite a few targets to build up a baseline of washed/unwashed pellets so will keep on and see what happens. The lube I use is a dry PTFE spray (Supercheap Auto), and is only used to seal the washed pellet surface to stop lead oxide forming on it.

They do look nice and shiny! Any lubricating qualities are a bonus, but not why I use the spray.

I do now use a Carnauba wax/Beeswax paste furniture polish on a patch once my barrel is cleaned.

It's said to fill the microscopic pores in the barrel to make it smoother. The jury is still out on this as only had one shoot with it. I know the UK and USA guys use Carnauba wax flakes dissolved in Mineral Turpentine to 'line' their barrels with. Apparently gives a hard smooth finish to the bore to help the pellet slide through better.

So I have also bought some Carnauba wax flakes to test one day. It's worth a go!

https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/wax-and-gun-bores.669464/" rel="nofollow - https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/wax-and-gun-bores.669464/