Does your pellet sizer not give good results?

[Penfold]

I have been playing with the pellet sizer I bought recently.
Some pellets responded OK, some were shooting worse after being sized.
So I had a good look at the push rod of the sizer and the tapered end was quite bulky compared to the inner skirt of different pellets.
I figured that the fat push rod was actually distorting some pellets, and it was smearing the skirt backwards instead of simply squeezing the skirt inwards. The skirts of some pellets are quite thick and so the skirt was not able to just squeeze down smaller. That skirt had to deform 'somewhere' as it was pushed through the sizer...so it simply extruded backwards making the skirt longer (and rougher).
So I made a skinny push rod from a drill shank to test this idea out.
If you find that sizing doesn't work for you it may be that your choice of pellet has a thick skirt, or your sizer push rod is the wrong shape/size to fit nicely inside the skirt.
Photos to show...all with RWS R10 pellets.
Three on left using original push rod. Three on right with tapered drill shank. The right side pellets look to have cleaner/crisper skirt edges.


Hmmm, the left side are not happy. There's a lot of smearing/distorting of that skirt edge. Note the shiny ring inside the 3 on the left (where the push rod taper was seated).


Original push rod and the skinny drill with tapered shank.


Here you can see that the skirt can't compress inwards...so it simply smears backwards. That push rod taper is too thick for that pellet.


This is better for allowing the skirt to squeeze inwards to size.


OK, so my skinny push rod does not shape the flare of the pellet. I don't know that it has to...as long as the skirt is undamaged it will be fine before and after sizing. I could make the tapered shaft with a fatter shaft above where it fits into the skirt. That would hold the shaft more central as I push the pellet through.
The main point of the exercise was to see the difference a thinner push rod shaft made.
The pellet (RWS R10) goes through a lot easier with my tapered drill push rod, and shows no smearing of the skirt.
So...food for thought.
If you have a sizer maybe take a look at the pellets you use and see if your sizer is making the pellet better or worse.

 

[Solo1]

I have been playing with the pellet sizer I bought recently.
Some pellets responded OK, some were shooting worse after being sized.
So I had a good look at the push rod of the sizer and the tapered end was quite bulky compared to the inner skirt of different pellets.
I figured that the fat push rod was actually distorting some pellets, and it was smearing the skirt backwards instead of simply squeezing the skirt inwards. The skirts of some pellets are quite thick and so the skirt was not able to just squeeze down smaller. That skirt had to deform 'somewhere' as it was pushed through the sizer...so it simply extruded backwards making the skirt longer (and rougher).
So I made a skinny push rod from a drill shank to test this idea out.
If you find that sizing doesn't work for you it may be that your choice of pellet has a thick skirt, or your sizer push rod is the wrong shape/size to fit nicely inside the skirt.
Photos to show...all with RWS R10 pellets.
Three on left using original push rod. Three on right with tapered drill shank. The right side pellets look to have cleaner/crisper skirt edges.
View attachment 20754

Hmmm, the left side are not happy. There's a lot of smearing/distorting of that skirt edge. Note the shiny ring inside the 3 on the left (where the push rod taper was seated).
View attachment 20755

Original push rod and the skinny drill with tapered shank.
View attachment 20756

Here you can see that the skirt can't compress inwards...so it simply smears backwards. That push rod is too thick for that pellet.
View attachment 20758

This is better for allowing the skirt to squeeze inwards to size.
View attachment 20759

OK, so my skinny push rod does not shape the flare of the pellet. I don't know that it has to...as long as the skirt is undamaged it will be fine before and after sizing. I could make the tapered shaft with a fatter shaft above where it fits into the skirt. That would hold the shaft more central as I push the pellet through.
The main point of the exercise was to see the difference a thinner push rod shaft made.
The pellet (RWS R10) goes through a lot easier with my tapered drill push rod, and shows no smearing of the skirt.
So...food for thought.
If you have a sizer maybe take a look at the pellets you use and see if your sizer is making the pellet better or worse.

Which sizer are you using? Do you find the resized pellets to be more accurate? I shoot r10 out of my anschutz and find them to be very accurate straight from the tin @ 10 m

 

[Penfold]

It's a Fenton sizer (4.53).
I'm going to the range in the next few days with the unsized, and both types of sized pellets.
I found that the QYS Olympic pellets were better than the R10 in my 9015 HP.
It's not good to take a close up photo of pellets as then you see all the lumps, bumps, and warts on them (that you don't see with the naked eye).
I shoot at 25 yards, and the wad cutter pellets fly OK. Never had one show any hint of tumbling at the target.
Except for that one time I fumbled a pellet and put it in backwards. It still shot a 9, but the pellet was obviously traveling sideways at the target.

 

[Scriv]

Interesting exercise. I have experimented when sizing cast bullets, and discovered some interesting things. The .177 pellet is on another level.

 

[Penfold]

As per photo 3 above, I have polished and smoothed the end of my original push rod (probe?) as it arrived with a sharp edge that did scrape wee slivers of lead out from inside the skirt of some makes of pellet.
The 'fatness' of that push rod is not a fault, as it would be hard to make something that will happily fit all makes/models of pellet...so I'm not having a go at the Fenton sizer (but am using mine as an example).
Just saying that if you size pellets and they are worse when you do that, then do check the actual fit of the tapered push rod of your sizer (whatever make it is) and see how it impacts the shape of your pellet skirt.
I'm heading round to my old mate who has a lathe and will reduce the diameter of the shaft for a wee bit. Will leave enough taper to fit the skirt and then will neck the shaft down at that point for a few millimeters.
The rest of the shaft will be kept as is to allow for it to align properly in the body of the sizer.

 

[Penfold]

Update: Fired a few pellets (about 60) of various types and makes...R10, H&N FTT, QYS Domed.
The R10 with the sized skirts (from the fat push rod shaft) shot badly...as expected.
Those smeared skirts caused woeful accuracy.
Accuracy was better with the R10 sized using the smaller diameter shaft of the drill shank I shaped.
I have since resized the Fenton shaft tip to a longer more tapered shape and it works well.
The R10 now go through the sizer nicely. Accuracy seems to be the same as an unsized R10 though...so not much to gain there maybe. However I will do more R10 testing before dismissing sizing them.