Pellets — by Caliber

When shopping

What to look for in a pellet.

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  Match the pellet weight to your rifle's power Light pellets shoot fast and flat. Heavy pellets shoot slower and arc more — but deliver more energy on target. For a regulated PCP making 12-25 ft-lbs (the typical Lynx Gen 3 / Avenger / Airacuda range), the sweet spot in .22 is 16-21 grain pellets. Higher-power PCPs (M60B, Max 1 high-power) can drive 25-35gr pellets to advantage. Match the pellet to the rifle, not the other way around.
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  Domed pellets for general use; wadcutters for paper; hollow points for hunting Domed (round-nose) pellets are the universal answer — best accuracy at most ranges, work for hunting and pest control. Wadcutters (flat-nose) make clean holes in paper for target shooting at 10m, but lose accuracy past 25 yards. Hollow points expand on impact — better for hunting where you want energy transfer, but slightly less accurate than domed. For 90% of PCP use, buy domed.
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  JSB, H&N, and Air Arms are the universally-recognized premium brands JSB (Czech) is the gold standard — JSB Exact pellets are factory-made in the same dies for decades; consistency is unmatched. H&N (German) is the close competitor — better cold-weather performance, slightly different lead alloy. Air Arms (UK) is JSB-made but with stricter quality control — the upgrade over standard JSB. Snowpeak, Crosman, RWS are good budget options. Skip Gamo, Xisico for serious accuracy work.
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  Test 3-4 pellets per rifle to find the best one Every PCP has a 'favorite' pellet — usually one specific brand, weight, and head size. Buy 100-count tins of 3-4 different pellets, shoot 10-shot groups at your typical distance, and compare. The difference between 'best pellet for this rifle' and 'pretty good pellet' is often 30-50% in group size. Worth a $20 ammo budget to find.
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  Head size matters more than you'd think Pellets ship with a head diameter spec like '4.50mm' or '4.52mm.' Your rifle's barrel will prefer one head size over another by a few percent. JSB Exact pellets are sold in three head sizes (4.50, 4.51, 4.52mm) for the same weight. If you've found your best brand and weight but want to squeeze out more accuracy, try the next head size up or down.

.177 caliber (the precision/target caliber)

.177 is the high-volume target and field-target caliber. Lighter pellets, flatter trajectories, less expensive to shoot. The partner stocks 65 SKUs across 11 brands.

.22 caliber (the hunting/utility caliber)

.22 is the most popular hunting and pest-control caliber — more energy than .177, still affordable to shoot. 68 SKUs at the partner.

.25 caliber (the big-game caliber)

.25 is the upper end of pellet hunting — more energy per shot but more drop and more wind drift. 25 SKUs at the partner.

.30 caliber (the long-range / big-game caliber)

.30 is the start of the big-bore pellet range — heavy pellets, requires a high-power PCP. 5 SKUs at the partner.

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