Kind of vintage .20 ammo

[fenring]

These came up recently and were just too cheap to pass up.

So on top of the horde of excellent Beeman and JSB ammo I got from Lewis recently, I also got 5000 of these. Should be right for the weekend...

Pretty sure these are no longer made - they are very similar to the old style Sheridan Bantam pellet (not the currently made Benjamin stuff) but more pointed and a wee bit tighter in the pipe. Great for plinkin' and on 5 pumps they seem to shoot good enough - not sure of the weight but likely around 15gr or so and they make mincemeat of dog food tins, even on 5 pumps.

I feel so old skool shooting an '81 Sheridan and cylinders.

[stinkitup]

They look rather nasty Fenring, would there be any left or did you clear them out? Might be a good close range pill for bunnies in the R9.

Ryan

[gigitt]

They are not what I would call pellets - rather 'Slugs' is more fitting for the old school 'Slug gun'

[fenring]

They look rather nasty Fenring, would there be any left or did you clear them out? Might be a good close range pill for bunnies in the R9.

Ryan

I'd think there'd be some left - don't know how they'd go in an R9, if it has a choked barrel they'd be very snug and you might lose some ooomph.

Kodiaks would be good bunny medicine I reckon - they go alright out of the Sheridan too, though I hate to waste 'em on steel spinners and cans.

[stinkitup]

hmm not sure if the R9 is choked, the JSB's are a tight fit and shoot great my other H&N F&TT are not tight and shoot great too.

The R9 should get into some bunnies next week I am hoping so will give them all a good test, Predators are dynamite on Mynah's

[fenring]

I've been meaning to go out and bust some bunnies with the air rifle for ages, haven't gotten around to it yet.

Will probably resight with Kodiaks and use those.

[stinkitup]

Yes Lewis just sent me some Kodiaks with my order will give them a go too out to 25 there is bugger all difference in poi I think out to 45 the jsbs and prob kodiaks will hold there own trying to organise a night with the torches on the weekend

[fenring]

It's great ammo.

[Dennis La Varenne]

Fenring,

I believe these .20 pellets can still be had from H&N. I bought some in the last 6 months from a gunshop in Melbourne and they had no trouble obtaining them. Benjamin also puts out a similar pellet rated at 14.3 grains but which is slightly waisted and has a more rounded head. They are both reminiscent of the old Minie balls from the blackpowder muzzleloading era. The Benjamins are grossly overpriced at $43/500 at my last pricing.

However, I cannot see that either design would have any ballistic advantage over conventional waisted pellets which are just as heavy for calibre.

[fenring]

Welcome to the forum.

About the only advantage these bullet style pellets have is that they penetrate really well - thanks to the solid nose and the heavy weight for their diameter.

The original Sheridan Bantam pellet suffered at times from yawing en route to the target - the head of the pellet being smaller in diameter than the tail allowed the pellet to skew as it came out of the barrel. My own experiments with some Bantams of unknown vintage show rifling marks on only one side of the pellets front end. And indeed from time to time they do yaw. Yrrah here has some video footage of the phenomenon.

The H+N's above are fully engraved by the bore - they are not too bad accuracy wise, though they prefer to be driven harder as opposed to softer. At $10 for 500 they were too good to pass up and I use them for plinking. That said, I shot some Indian myna birds with the cylinders and on five pumps they knifed right through the birds. There's a certain nostalgia to firing cylinders from a Sheridan.

If I want accuracy I'll reach for the Beeman Kodiaks or the JSB Exacts. I think the Kodiak will be my go to pellet if / when I decide to shoot a rabbit or two with the Sheridan.

From what I gather from US forums, the Benjamin .20 semi waisted cylindricals are not all that good in quality anymore. I have never seen them anywhere Down Under.

[Dennis La Varenne]

Fenring,

I have perhaps 1500 of the Benjamins here at home. I tend to agree with you about the accuracy side of things. Last evening I had occasion to shoot some through my Theoben Taunus and at a range of barely 6m, the accuracy was modest one could say. At 6m, any reasonable pellet should have produced one-holers.

Those Kodiaks and JSBs (which I got from Lewis) are both the 'go-to' .20 cal pellet for me too.

In my .22s, I have always gotten remarkable accuracy and wonderful penetration with Gamo Pro Magnums which have been my standard in that calibre. Many pellets have equalled them in accuracy, but few have exceeded. I am as surprised at this level of result as perhaps anybody considering that they are not an expensive or a much-touted pellet.

The have always done a wonderful job on cat's skulls out to 25m thus far - boringly reliable.

[stinkitup]

Dennis My R9 .20 loves JSB's, really loves H&N Field Target and Trophy pellets and Kodiaks shoot well too. The Bees Knees for birds are the predator pellets and they put one hole groups together on paper, although Now I know how well they shoot they rarely get shot at paper, only to make sure she is shooting straight, I have shot a couple of Mynah's at 10m and the results were backflips

Ryan

[fenring]

I tried the Pro Magnum in .22 and they were only OK as far as accuracy goes, out of my FWB127. Not a patch on RWS Superdomes or Superpoints. I have two tins of Gamo Match .22 here, they are not too bad. For some reason my LGS won't stock RWS Hobby despite carrying the rest of the RWS line (my favourite plinking ammo for the FWB is the Hobby) so I got the Gamo wadcutters instead.

A friend of mine recently got a little Gamo 640 for a family plinker and they threw in a tin of .177 Gamo Match (and an unusable Gamo scope....). Quality of the .177's was excretable - fins on the sides as if the dies had not come together correctly. I have to wonder if they even look at what comes off the production line?