Make Your Own Airgun Ammo As An Alternative For Rifle Practice

[hbennett]

The covid-19 situation combined with the ammo shortage has lead me to seek alternative means for rifle marksmanship practice. I have been experimenting with an RWS Diana 48, a spring-powered  .22 caliber pellet rifle in the backyard.  I chose the spring gun as opposed to the popular PCP guns which are definitely more powerful, but required expensive pumps or air compressors, or scuba tanks to fill.  My research seems to indicate that airgun pellets lose accuracy over 950fps so the extra speed is not needed. Plus, I couldn't justify the extra cost of the PCP just to have a repeater. I figured I could get enough practice in the 6 steps with a single shot. The RWS Diana 48 also has a proven reputation for accuracy.

As it turns out, airguns can be mighty particular about the ammo they like.  My RWS 48 seems to prefer pellets with a thinner skirt.  This presents a bit of a challenge, since the supply of pellets seem to ebb and flow of availability and demand is pretty high. They are in similar demand as regular ammo. So finding a pellet that shoots well in your Airgun is one thing. Securing a constant supply of ammo is another.

Having run up against this problem, I wondered if it would be possible to make your own pellets at home. After a bit of research, I found two alternative methods of making homemade airgun pellets. On is to purchase swaging equipment. This in my opinion is prohibitively expensive. The other method would be to cast pellets. NOE out of Utah sells various moulds specific to casting airgun pellets.

Being the type to adapt, adjust, and improvise, I purchased a 4-cavity NOE mould to make 20 grain pellets. Given that these moulds aren't cheap, I was a bit concerned how well my airgun would like these pellets. As it turns out, my spring-gun likes them pretty well!

There is a learning curve to casting consistently perfect pellets, but any rejects get recast, so the only cost is time.
My pellet trap is a cardboard box stuffed with old clothes, which no pellets escape. It's dirt cheap and very effective.  So, ammo cost after the initial setup cost is negligible. Plus I am no longer subject to the availably of preferred ammo. If I have a source of lead, then I can make pellets.

So accuracy-wise how good is good enough?  From the bench I was averaging under 3/4" groups if I did my part. The best group of the day was  0.455" center to center.

I would call that good enough for Appleseed practice.

[hbennett]

Free homemade Airgun pellets vs a couple brands that shot well in the RWS 48. For what it's worth, airgun pellets are starting to get expensive. I believe I paid around $12 for a tin of 250 of the kind my airgun likes.

[FiremanBob]

Very cool. I've been thinking of something similar, and also for small vermin around the farm. I like the quietness of subsonic .22 pellets. At what distance did you shoot those groups?

[hbennett]

Standard Appleseed distance, 25 meters.

An interesting challenge with the airgun is that any wobble is magnified due to the extra time it takes for the pellet to leave the barrel. So follow through is extremely important.

[hbennett]

As another experiment I shot a couple soda can's that I filled with water. Again at 25M, standard Appleseed distance, the homemade 20 grain pellets easily punched through and through holes with a nice big exit hole through the back.

[hbennett]

Another point I failed to mention is that my mould arrived with 3 sets of pins which will allow me to vary the thickness of the pellet skirt. I may experiment with the other pins to see how that affects pellet accuracy in my gun.

[Not Sure]

To the point of airguns as a training replacement, something that has worked well that can be shot in about any backyard or even indoor is the used Daisy 853 models from the CMP for $120.  They are not going to give you practice at 100 yards, but they work very well out to 25 yards or so.  They will reach out to 50 yards as I have taken many iguanas with head shots at that range, but it is a high arc of a shot with alot of holdover.

They are a single stroke pneumatic rifle that shoots at about 475 FPS with a 7.33 grain pellet.  You cannot pump them more than once as there is no check valve to retain the pressure in the cylider.  I have 4 of them that shoot between 470 and 530 with Air Arms 7.33 grain diabolo pellets.  The actual power of each rifle seems to vary from rifle to rifle, but each rifle shoots a consistent velocity.  Further, these pellets and nearly identical ones made by JSB seem to be readily available with a cost of 2-3 cents per round if buying 4 tins at a time.

There is a very common trigger improvement to reduce the weight and creep that can be done if you are moderately mechanically inclined.  Also, if you are worried about noise at all, they can be suppressed for about $50 (TKO22) to the point where they sound like a quiet sneeze.

It's like a low powered spring rifle in simplicity, but without the two-way recoil springers are known for.



 

[Mark Davis]

Air guns are good practice, you could almost call them follow through enforcers.
I took a different tack, jumped in with both feet, compressor, tank, 4 pcp rifles.
This target was fired from a.177 Benjamin Marauder bolt gun, under proper time with transitions at 25 yards.
The rifle is fully capable of shooting 250. Unfortunately the shooter is not.
The pellets are Crossman 10.5 grain domes, cheap, when bought in quantity with free shipping, about 7.50 dollars per 500. From Pyramyd Air, taking full advantage of their order four, pay for three deal on pellets, and free shipping on orders over 150 dollars. 18,000 pellets is going to last a while.
Keep shooting! A single shot springer or pumper is excellent training!

[hbennett]

Nice! How many shots before you notice a drop in power?

With the spring-gun I can hit out to 50M, but I find the pellets are pretty much out of gas at that point. The neat holes made at 25M turn into ragged tearing at 50 meters.

Should I buy another airgun, it will most likely be a PCP.. maybe a .25.. There are lots of good choices in that regard.  The Benjamin's get really good reviews

[Meadow]

I have shot competition air rifle since 2017.  I own break barrel .177 & .22 that consistently shot 50/75 yard with H&N 14.66 gram field target trophy. I own FX- PCP .25; which I use on 100 yard with JSB Diabolo 18.13 gram. (extreme bench rest Air guns of Arizona) competition. Kral Arms PCP .22 at 100 yards likes H&N; 10 meter indoor at Camp Perry I use H&N Baracuda match 10.65 gr with an Air Arms  200T PCP.  Long range I have  PCP .45 cal; big bore by Bush Buck (AOA design) 400 plus yard 650/1150 fsp.  shoot mostly competition in Arizona at the Extreme bench rest.
Ohio has many outlets for ammo and rifles Pyramid air; Air guns of Ohio; Baker Air guns; Air Guns of Arizona and Utah Air Guns all have had ample supply of ammo. 
I would not try to make my own, always better being developed. Inexpensive.
I use the air rifle with some of my youth shooters getting them started at my local club.
I still shoot air rifle competition ( not this year all cancelled); I teach & compete in CMP Rimfire sporter, but what got me into Project Appleseed was when two guys that had this patch on their jacket kept beating me badly, I decided to explore what Appleseed was all about.  Project Appleseed is the premiere Marksmanship program bar none.
Yes, I own my own compressor & carbon tank, but break barrel single shot is a great starter.  PCP is by far more consistent since you do not have to reposition after every shot.

[Mark Davis]

Nice! How many shots before you notice a drop in power?

With the spring-gun I can hit out to 50M, but I find the pellets are pretty much out of gas at that point. The neat holes made at 25M turn into ragged tearing at 50 meters.

Should I buy another airgun, it will most likely be a PCP.. maybe a .25.. There are lots of good choices in that regard.  The Benjamin's get really good reviews

The chronograph tells me about 62 shots before the velocity starts to drop, The paper tells me about 75 shots, which when shooting AQT's is the worst possible time.
The rifle is the Benjamin Marauder FT model with a regulator. I shoot pretty well refilling every AQT and just fill to 28-2900 instead of the 3000 PSI Max.

I started with a .25 cal marauder, and hand pump. The rifle shot well but a 25 needs a lot more air than a 177. Was not a great starter PCP combined with manual pumping, and my preferred number of shots per session.
25 caliber pellets are expensive. I'm shooting JSB Hades at 16 dollars per 300, when bought in bulk. I did buy a mold from NOE and my best are noticeably poorer than good JSB pellets. The time invested in casting is pretty big, pellets are difficult to cast with thin skirts being so vital to accuracy, and the amount of lead poured into the mold is very small which makes keeping the mold hot enough to cast well difficult. My experience casting good bullets dates back to the mid eighties and making minute of angle bullets for big bore handgun silhouette.
I sold the 25 cal Marauder and bought an EDgun Matador 25. Very happy with the durability of the Matador, the price was shocking, but the quality lives on.

[Charles McKinley]

If you want a Marauder buy it soon.  Rumor has it the Marauder will be phased out as the new Turkish guns are brought in for the higher end and one of the current lower guns will take the Marauder's place.  This is based on what I read on the Pyramid Air site.  I hope I get a good bonus to fund the rifle pump and pellets.