Many years ago, when I first introduced my (then) girlfriend Veronika to airgun shooting, little did I know that she would one day be shooting right alongside me and going to world-class events.
In all these years I've seen her evolve as a shooter and develop definite ideas, likes, needs and wants.
And it has been my pleasure and my privilege to try to come up with solutions to those requirements.
About two years ago, she decided she wanted to shoot non-lead pellets. Out of conviction to be doing the right thing, she has persevered and we have managed a decent accuracy from her standard (and only) airgun: an HW95.
Husbands being males and males not being able to leave a good working thing bloody well alone, I have been trying to get her to switch to a more stable platform, stable as springers go. So I got for her an older model Diana 54 , the one with the slim stock, lightened the action as much as possible, changed all the internals to my “WFTF” model, and then started to fulfill what was, in mind, the most important requisite: Shoot well with non-lead pellets.
For the last few years, Veronika (now my wife) has been shooting “green” pellets, made by Haendler & Natermann , in particular, the Barracuda Green.
But with the possibility of a new gun, the possibility of new pellets also opened up, so I decided to make a trial run between the available non-lead pellets. Here in the US, the only really available non-lead offerings are limited to the Dynamic line by Prometheus and the Green line offered by H&N.
Having learned some time ago that the trick in shooting non-lead pellets is to drive them fast and use a good lubricant between pellet and barrel, I settled down to do some test shooting wich yielded the following results:
In all these years I've seen her evolve as a shooter and develop definite ideas, likes, needs and wants.
And it has been my pleasure and my privilege to try to come up with solutions to those requirements.
About two years ago, she decided she wanted to shoot non-lead pellets. Out of conviction to be doing the right thing, she has persevered and we have managed a decent accuracy from her standard (and only) airgun: an HW95.
Husbands being males and males not being able to leave a good working thing bloody well alone, I have been trying to get her to switch to a more stable platform, stable as springers go. So I got for her an older model Diana 54 , the one with the slim stock, lightened the action as much as possible, changed all the internals to my “WFTF” model, and then started to fulfill what was, in mind, the most important requisite: Shoot well with non-lead pellets.
For the last few years, Veronika (now my wife) has been shooting “green” pellets, made by Haendler & Natermann , in particular, the Barracuda Green.
But with the possibility of a new gun, the possibility of new pellets also opened up, so I decided to make a trial run between the available non-lead pellets. Here in the US, the only really available non-lead offerings are limited to the Dynamic line by Prometheus and the Green line offered by H&N.
Having learned some time ago that the trick in shooting non-lead pellets is to drive them fast and use a good lubricant between pellet and barrel, I settled down to do some test shooting wich yielded the following results:
The reader can appreciate at the top left two “witness” groups shot with JSB Exacts (8.44 in this case), made by Schultz Diabolo in the Czech Republic they are arguably some of the best pellets for Field Target shooting. So we compared the performance of the Dynamic pellets to the JSB's. 5 shots at 22 yards (20 meters). Not bad. Quite good actually. All the groups would fit comfortably into a ½” kill zone. Perhaps a little re-zeroing between one and another of the different models of the pellets, but nothing too drastic.
But,: ¿How would the old stand-by's shoot?, well, here is the result of 4 consecutive 5 shot groups at the same distance:
But,: ¿How would the old stand-by's shoot?, well, here is the result of 4 consecutive 5 shot groups at the same distance:
We will be conducting more extensive tests with this pellet/rifle combination.
Non-Lead pellets can be driven a little faster than their lead counterparts, and this offers some advantage in the limited-power world of WFTF. Yes they are more susceptible to wind, but wind is something we all have to learn anyway. If you are a serious FT shooter, you owe it to yourself to test the Barracuda Green pellets by H&N.
Non-Lead pellets can be driven a little faster than their lead counterparts, and this offers some advantage in the limited-power world of WFTF. Yes they are more susceptible to wind, but wind is something we all have to learn anyway. If you are a serious FT shooter, you owe it to yourself to test the Barracuda Green pellets by H&N.
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