This new NSA Slug Sampler will be a popular choice for many air gunners who want to experiment with shooting slugs in their air rifles.
Why A Slug Sampler?
It’s true that shooting slugs – that is non-diablo (waisted) airgun ammo – has come a long way in the past few years. However there’s often still a large element of testing to be done in order to find the slug/barrel combination that will give optimum accuracy.
That experimentation and testing can become expensive if you need to keep buying multiple packs of slugs.
After two or three dozen shots, it’s probably clear if a specific slug will work well or not. If they work well – great! You’ll buy a ton of them.
So then, what do you do with all those slugs you found were not a good match for your air rifle? They’re probably just going to gather dust…
The NSA Slug Sampler is at least a partial solution to this issue if you’re shooting in .22 caliber. It provides 40 slugs from four different slug configurations. That’s an ideal number of slugs to have in each configuration.
Why This Slug Choice? Caliber.
Let’s take a look at four specific slugs that are included in this sampler pack.
First – and most obviously – they’re all in the .217 micro caliber.
NSA manufactures “.22 caliber” slugs in no less than seven micro calibers. These are .2155, .216, .2165, .217, .2175, .218 and .219. That means that the .217 caliber slugs are right in the middle of the micro caliber range for “.22 cal.”.
“Twenty two” is by far the most popular caliber for PCP Air Rifles sold in the USA. So it makes sense to offer the sampler in that caliber.
Why This Slug Choice? Weight.
Next, let’s consider the weight of the slugs in the NSA Slug Sampler.
At 17.5 Grains, 20.2 Grains, 23 Grains and 24.8 Grains, these are at the lower end of the NSA weight range for .22 caliber slugs. The company also manufactures “.22 slugs” in 27.5 Grains, 28.5 Grains, 31.2 Grains, 35 Grains and 38 Grains weight.
So why that choice? Well, it’s likely that NSA made this selection for two reasons.
One is slug length. Heavier slugs are almost inevitably longer than lighter ones. This means that some very heavy slugs may not fit into the magazines of some air rifles.
By sticking to lighter slugs in this sampler pack, NSA is looking to avoid this potential source of disappointment for the new slug shooter. Even the 24.8 Grain slugs have a length specification of .308 Inches. That’s likely to fit in most any PCP air rifle magazine.
The lighter weights also mean that there’s more chance of – at least one – of these slugs working well in the experimenter’s PCP air rifle.
It’s generally considered that 850 FPS is the minimum Muzzle Velocity for successful slug shooting. (More would be better – like 900 or 950 FPS, for example.)
If you try to shoot a slug at too low a velocity, the result could be that the slug becomes stuck in the barrel. Like this…
Not good!
Furthermore, offering these slug samples in lighter weights makes it more likely that the new slug shooter will be successful with his or her existing air rifle.
Taking that minimum slug shooting Muzzle Velocity of 850 FPS benchmark, that means that the minimum power level required to shoot any of these slugs is approximately as follows:
17.5 Grains – 28 Ft/Lbs Muzzle Energy
20.2 Grains – 32.5 Ft/Lbs Muzzle Energy
23 Grains – 37 Ft/Lbs Muzzle Energy
24.8 Grains – 40 Ft/Lbs Muzzle Energy
Most .22 caliber PCP air rifles in the market today are capable of at least 28 Ft/Lbs of Muzzle Energy. But check before buying!
Note that – if you’re starting with slugs for the first time, you need to know the Muzzle Energy (Ft/Lbs) capability of your gun, NOT the Muzzle Velocity (FPS).
The claimed FPS is meaningless for slug shooting as it’s generally achieved with very light pellets (11.9 Grains in .22 cal), or even lighter. For example, even a “1,000 FPS” claim for a .22 caliber airgun represents only around 26.5 Ft/Lbs of Muzzle Energy. That’s borderline too low for successful slug shooting…
So if you own a .22 caliber PCP air rifle and want to try slug shooting for the first time, the choice of products in this sampler pack gives you a good place to make a start.
BUY FROM PYRAMYD
NSA Slug Sampler, .217 Cal, 160ct 0.22
The post Now There’s A NSA Slug Sampler appeared first on Hard Air Magazine.
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