I put .22 pellets in the search bar on Pyramyd Air. These babies popped up. These appear similar to the Skenko pellets. I had read terrible reviews on the Skenko pellets. My friends curse their name to the heavens. Why subject myself to a doomed, fruitless test? Why waste my time and money?

I bought them. Flawed logic makes life interesting.

Pellets were sorted by weight before shooting to assist in reducing the certain inaccuracy to come.

25 yard accuracy 

Best was 0.19″ with the rest averaging about 4/10″. Much better than expected. I tried experimenting with new pressures/hammer preload, but PW 4:5 @ 2550psi still produced the best results by a long shot.

50 yard accuracy 

Best 0.71″ Avg 0.95″ 

Still under the 1″ mark at 50 yards, so it’s good to go for hunting as far as I’m concerned. I will note that until the pressure went below 2500 psi, the pellets flew wildly out of control. I missed a foot wide target several times. Once the pressure was reduced, they flew like laser beams. Note the “bad shot” at the bottom right. That was not the rifle or the pellet. It was me coming off target just before I mashed the bang switch.

100 yard inaccuracy 

Best group. I’m not sure why I’m showing you this, because this is not replicable. One out of 3 shots missed the target while the other 2 would typically shoot behind the crosshair. For the life of me, I can not understand why 2 pellets shoot great and the other can’t hit the paper at 100yds. Especially since groups were good at 50. Definitely not a long range pellet.

Chronograph 

My chronograph app isn’t working, so the old fashioned method was activated for duty. I like this method (even though it’s not as convenient). I can see the pressure during the shot string-it provides more depth as to what the rifle is doing. Note the last 2 shots, while consistent, used 150psi of air. You can actually hear a shot wasting air. This setup gives about 45fpe, which is higher than we’ve been typically using. Good tight numbers as well.

Terminal ballistic tests

I shot a 20 oz bottle filled with water at 60 yards. Complete pass through. Here is the pellet recovered from the backstop. I expect similar results in the field.

Then I shot a wax block at 25 yards. Due to the pellets weight, I expected a complete pass through. I put a rolled up towed behind the block and a 2×4 behind that. Much to my surprise, it stopped in the block.

About 2 inches of penetration. Very wide channel. This is what I like to see. 

Summary

Granted, the block offers more resistance to penetration than actual tissue, it offers us comparative analysis to other pellet’s ability to go through the tissue. This pellet is on par with the best expanding pellets in terms of stopping ability. The only difference is this pellet has higher energy and better accuracy. The only thing left is to validate it’s superior potential in the field.

Airforce Condor SS .22 

JSB Ultra Shock 25.4gr 

PW 4 : 5 @ 2550psi 

45 fpe