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How to Choose the Right Ammunition for Your Air Rifle

Jan Kaleta

Lead pellets and steel or lead BBs are the most common types of airgun ammunition. The first two mentioned should only be used with airguns that have been outfitted with rifled barrels. On the other hand, steel BBs are only designed for smoothbore barrels and are a perfect choice for plinking. If accuracy is what you are after, you can never go wrong with pellets. We will go through their types and specifics in this short article.

We choose pellets according to our shooting preferences:

1) Target shooting

2) Plinking

3) Hunting

You can also find out how to choose your ammunition in our simple video guide.

pellet shape

Pellets can be divided based on various criteria such as caliber, function or shape. It is the shape that is often referred to as crucial.

pellets with flat heads (wadcutters)

These are popular sporting pellets used for target shooting. They are very accurate, even the more affordable variants. However, they do not have ideal aerodynamic characteristics, they lose energy rather quickly because of their curved trajectory. They are only effective at shorter ranges. Their flat heads tear a precise circle in the paper target, thats is why they are sometimes reffered to as wadcutters. This is an advantage during a score count.

PELLETS WITH domed HEADs

This is the most common type of pellets and for a good reason – it is truly a universal ammunition suitable for all sorts of applications. Pellets of this kind can be used for both – target shooting and hunting. Due to their better aerodynamics, semi-circular heads lose less energy than flat heads. At the same time, they can be as accurate as wadcutters. But this requires more precise manufacturing. So choose your pellets wisely.

JSB Exact 4,50mm

100x

> 100 pcs in stock, estimated delivery: November 8 - 12.

$ 11.1

JSB Exact Beast 4,52mm

17x

> 100 pcs in stock, estimated delivery: November 8 - 12.

$ 11.1

PELLETS WITH POINTED HEADs

Pointed heads have excellent aerodynamic properties, which means they lose the least amount of energy and have the flattest trajectory. However, they are not as accurate as domed pellets but they make up for it with their high penetration. They're especially suited for hunting and plinking.

JSB Straton 4,50mm

43x

> 100 pcs in stock, estimated delivery: November 8 - 12.

$ 9.4

Hollow-point pellets

These pellets are perfect for hunting, they have high impact energy and are highly effective. They are even banned in some countries. The most accurate in this category are the JSB Hades pellets.

JSB Hades 4,5mm 500pcs

20x

> 50 pcs in stock, estimated delivery: November 8 - 12.

$ 11.1

I HAVE A 4,5MM AIR RIFLE. CAN I USE A 4,53MM PELLET?

The answer is yes. The pellets are offered in different diameters in order to achieve the best possible accuracy for different types of barrels. This eliminates minor differences that arise during barrel manufacture. For example, it may happen that you use a 4.52 mm diameter pellet and it will be very difficult to insert into the barrel.

It is not recommended to insert pellets into the barrel with a brute force, it causes deformation of the skirt and reduces the overall accuracy. In this case it is better to reach for pellets with a smaller diameter, for example 4.50 mm. Test kits will help you find out which ammunition suits your gun best.

TEST sets

Still don't know what type of pellet to choose and don't want to try them box by box? No worries, JSB has prepared a special test set that contains 7 types of pellets. After just a couple of shots you will find out which ammunition suits your gun best. In addition to the 4,5 mm caliber, there is also a 5,5 mm version available.

We recommend to choose the most suitable type of ammunition and use only that. With different ammunition characteristics comes different gun performance.

Our first choice would be the JSB Match pellets, which are widely considered to be amongst the most accurate ammunition in the world. JSB Exact pellets are perfect for target shooting even at longer ranges. You can use them just as well for plinking. The three most common pellets calibers are 4,5 mm, 5,5 mm and 6,35 mm.

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Autor článku: Jan Kaleta

Honza Kaleta - Managing Director, wholesale, occasional blog author

After finishing my career as a competitive shooter in 2011 (shooting a moving target at 10 m and smallbore shooting at 50 m), Mark and I founded zbrane-vzduchovky.cz. And I am still working on the project today. At the same time, I am glad that Balistas has been successful, where I am a co-owner and wholesale manager. I handle orders, suppliers, technical questions and repairs. Outside of work I spend time with my family, I like to play sports or read about transport aviation, which has my admiration.

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