PMC Zappers
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:51 pm
I was just reading about these in another thread and was interested to see that some people are rating these as their rifles preffered ammo.
Now I'm not knocking that but I thought it would be of interest to post here about my own experiance with these.
These have long been sold here in NZ and having discussed this brand with many people it would seem that the name "zapper" has given many people the perception that these are a higher than "standard" velocity .22 round. (a perception that sellers of PMC seem happy to let exist)
Untill recently I had never tried any of these because there was also a rumor around a few years back that the propellant in these was corrosive , and while I wasn't sure if this was true, with so many other options I always thought its better to be safe than sorry.
Anyway my .22 is a german Mauser, and it shoots particularly well with the remington yellow jackets, this is a faster than standard type rounds and really allows me to really get the most ot of my .22. Not just because of its speed but also because of its consistancy.
but my supply of these recently dried up and so after being reasured by a local sports shop that the PMC Zapper was a really good round (this chain of shop just happens to be the appointed NZ importer of PMC ammo) I decided to give them a go and purchased 10 boxes.
less than a week ago I had to zero a new leupold scope on my .22 and Well....what a surprise I got when I first tried the "Zappers".
it only took me four shots to get my scope sorted and the distance was only about thirty yards, but I noticed that among the four shots one was distictly softer in report then the others.
This made me very curious, and seeing as I own a chrony I decided to shoot a few more over that and see just what speed these "zappers" run at, the results were interesting to say the least.
I fired off one box and the majority of velocitys were very close to or just under 1200fps which although its not startling performance wise is ok - as I have since found out that PMC claim their 38gn zappers are loaded to give 1240fps.
But what really dissapointed me was that the odd shot was well over 1300fps, and more importantly 1 in about five or six shots were only 1100fps or just below or just over. These shots were noticibly quieter in report so that you could predict them before even looking at the chrony numbers. And even at thirty yards the slower shots clearly gave a slightly lower POI on the target.....not enough to worry about if you only ever shoot at shorter distances (perhaps 50yds or less) but I have no doubt that it would not have been very pretty at say 80 to 100yds ( distances I would never even have hesitated to head shoot rabbits with using the yellow jackets)
Back to the sports shop I went - to tell the salesman of my findings , quiz him a little more closely, and hopefully exchange my zappers for some other brands to try out......
The chap I ended up talking to was a different guy than the one who originally sold me the PMC Zappers, and he was happy to exhange the remaining 9 boxes for a variety of other brands. And I quized him a little more about my results and suggested to him that surely he must have had other people notice the difference in noise levels of the PMC?
His answer was that actually yes they had had a few people notice that some of the Zappers were noticibly quieter when shot but that people still are happy with PMC because its almost a third cheaper than some of the other brands. He also elluded to the fact that being the NZ importer they get a better margin on this ammo than other brands that they would have to purchase off other importers, and so thay can "special it"
So my own conclusion is that PMC Zapper is certainly not a premiem or higher velocity .22 round at all, but rather more a budget and fairly lethargic type round that is sometimes promoted by sellers as "premiem" because they can acheive a better profit margin by promoting it as "premiem" while offering it at prices slightly cheaper than other "standard" type rounds .
And that while it may meet the needs of the average shooter, my opinion is that those that want (and expect) the maximum performance from their .22 with the least amount of missed shots would do well to look to other brands.
Now I'm not knocking that but I thought it would be of interest to post here about my own experiance with these.
These have long been sold here in NZ and having discussed this brand with many people it would seem that the name "zapper" has given many people the perception that these are a higher than "standard" velocity .22 round. (a perception that sellers of PMC seem happy to let exist)
Untill recently I had never tried any of these because there was also a rumor around a few years back that the propellant in these was corrosive , and while I wasn't sure if this was true, with so many other options I always thought its better to be safe than sorry.
Anyway my .22 is a german Mauser, and it shoots particularly well with the remington yellow jackets, this is a faster than standard type rounds and really allows me to really get the most ot of my .22. Not just because of its speed but also because of its consistancy.
but my supply of these recently dried up and so after being reasured by a local sports shop that the PMC Zapper was a really good round (this chain of shop just happens to be the appointed NZ importer of PMC ammo) I decided to give them a go and purchased 10 boxes.
less than a week ago I had to zero a new leupold scope on my .22 and Well....what a surprise I got when I first tried the "Zappers".
it only took me four shots to get my scope sorted and the distance was only about thirty yards, but I noticed that among the four shots one was distictly softer in report then the others.
This made me very curious, and seeing as I own a chrony I decided to shoot a few more over that and see just what speed these "zappers" run at, the results were interesting to say the least.
I fired off one box and the majority of velocitys were very close to or just under 1200fps which although its not startling performance wise is ok - as I have since found out that PMC claim their 38gn zappers are loaded to give 1240fps.
But what really dissapointed me was that the odd shot was well over 1300fps, and more importantly 1 in about five or six shots were only 1100fps or just below or just over. These shots were noticibly quieter in report so that you could predict them before even looking at the chrony numbers. And even at thirty yards the slower shots clearly gave a slightly lower POI on the target.....not enough to worry about if you only ever shoot at shorter distances (perhaps 50yds or less) but I have no doubt that it would not have been very pretty at say 80 to 100yds ( distances I would never even have hesitated to head shoot rabbits with using the yellow jackets)
Back to the sports shop I went - to tell the salesman of my findings , quiz him a little more closely, and hopefully exchange my zappers for some other brands to try out......
The chap I ended up talking to was a different guy than the one who originally sold me the PMC Zappers, and he was happy to exhange the remaining 9 boxes for a variety of other brands. And I quized him a little more about my results and suggested to him that surely he must have had other people notice the difference in noise levels of the PMC?
His answer was that actually yes they had had a few people notice that some of the Zappers were noticibly quieter when shot but that people still are happy with PMC because its almost a third cheaper than some of the other brands. He also elluded to the fact that being the NZ importer they get a better margin on this ammo than other brands that they would have to purchase off other importers, and so thay can "special it"
So my own conclusion is that PMC Zapper is certainly not a premiem or higher velocity .22 round at all, but rather more a budget and fairly lethargic type round that is sometimes promoted by sellers as "premiem" because they can acheive a better profit margin by promoting it as "premiem" while offering it at prices slightly cheaper than other "standard" type rounds .
And that while it may meet the needs of the average shooter, my opinion is that those that want (and expect) the maximum performance from their .22 with the least amount of missed shots would do well to look to other brands.
