PBA Pellets

Hi....for a while I have been towing the PBA line..:mad:
"Don't use them they will stuff yer gun etc"

So a few days ago I desided to count all the guns
I know of or have read about that have been damaged
from PBA use...After all the counting I came up with
a number....." 0 "

So yesterday I bought a pack of 150 PBA pellets..

After puting 100 of them though a SPA B11..with is a
1000fps .177 springer....

test 1... pushed a JSB exact "4.52mm" down the bore
with a peice of wire... the same with a PBA
witch required a lot more pressure to get it in the
bore...
conclusion.... Lead being softer than alloy requires
less force to size it to the barrel...So the PBA will require
a higher chamber pressure to get it moveing...
giving more inital piston brakeing....
The alloy being a stronger material than lead it should
also produce great friction in its travel down the barrel..

THOUGHT....It could be the Higher chamber pressure
that gives the incress in FPS ... not the weight...:confused:

Real world test...."shooting"
there was no noticable diffrents in piston slam over any
of the lead pellet I tryed as a comparison...

But there was a real diffrents in the impact sound
lead had a lot more impact sound over PBA.s..

Think I will keep putting the though the B11 to see if
theres any truth to the negitive hype over PBA.s
And see if it fails.....Just a pitty PBA.s are so dam
exspenive.....

So just going by those crude tests I will venture to say
PBA.s should be OK in the lower power 600/650fps
springers...:thumb:

YOUR THOUGHTS ? ..... "Have I missed something"

Pete

Interesting conclusions. You have probably started another wildfire with your comments though.
Personally, I infreguently use the PBAs due to the cost factor.

Since you hunt on a more or less regular basis, how do the PBAs perform on small game such as rabbits?

Keep posting your findings. They are interesting.:D:D:cheers::cheers::cheers:

The only ones I've used are the Raptors that came with my Big Cat, They didn't group well for me, haven't tried them in anything else.

I agree, I tried the PBA's and they sound cool, but I couldn't get them to group well either. I haven't heard of them breaking your gun though. I suppose with a 600-700fps gun they might do better, but I also never go the same amount of expansion as I did with lead. Try them side by side with lead into a phone book. :cheers:

Bryan

these pellets never seemed appealing, and when it seemed like there weren't any with my big cat i wasn't too upset. they were actually behind a piece of foam, so i tried them out. shot a picnic table top from about a 25 degree angle ten yards away and they hardly left a dent, just left a paintless streak about 2" long. they might be good to keep around to fend off an intruder, the big cat looks real enough already but if it sounded real.. lol

Sure,
PBA's are great for shooting into phone books at point blank range. Will probably do quite a bit of impressive damage to a captive pig's skull at a distance of 3".
But in practice, a good lead pellet will retain loads more energy downrange where a pellet will actually strike something you're shooting at (and it should be at least 10 yds. away, otherwise what are you proving?) Also, the lead pellets will not ever be as fast as the sound barrier. Therefore they will be more accurate.
I'd say the mystery "alloys" in all these "lead free" pellets could have a tendency to streak the bore with deposits, whereas a good pure lead pellet like a JSB or RWS will never leave behind any deposits.
These hyped up "alloy" pellets are pretty much worthless for anything but VERY close range "Destruction Derby" shooting (where you can't miss and the wind hasn't had time to put the brakes on these lightweight pellets.)
If you're trying to show your buddies what a big dent you can put in a metal trash can, then go for it with the PBAs. Be sure to have your safety gear on when it bounces back though.
For all serious shooting, get youself some JSBs, H&Ns, or RWS lead pellets.

forgot to mention in my previous post, the biggest perk about airguns is that they are quiet enough to use in town, and quiet enough to not spook game animals. hell most of the time when i'm shooting in the backyard at least 3 squirrels will make their way out of the trees and run around by my target like nothing is going on. even when i do decide to shoot any of them the others don't even seem to notice, which means more meat on the table

Can somebody please kindly explain what PBA stands for????

It is not a term we use in the UK, so I am a bit confused!!!:confused:

Thanks for any help!!!:thumb:

PBA stands for "Performance Ballistic Alloy". Hope this helps, Gambo.

PBA stands for "Performance Ballistic Alloy". Hope this helps, Gambo.

Ahh, thanks Speedy!!!

Does that mean stuff like Prometheus and Dynamic pellets???

Those are described as being made from a from a form of "Tin", called "Stannic" over here.

Here, they are regarded as being a bit of a "Novelty" pellet, and not taken too seriously, as the accuracy and performance does not compere favourably to a good lead pellet.

Sorry if my English spelling is confusing for You all, as I know British English and American English do differ slightly!!

Ahh, thanks Speedy!!!

Does that mean stuff like Prometheus and Dynamic pellets???

Those are described as being made from a from a form of "Tin", called "Stannic" over here.

Here, they are regarded as being a bit of a "Novelty" pellet, and not taken too seriously, as the accuracy and performance does not compere favourably to a good lead pellet.

Sorry if my English spelling is confusing for You all, as I know British English and American English do differ slightly!!

They share some similarities Sir to the fact that they all are non-lead variety of pellets used on airguns.

I think the Gamo company was the one who coined the term "PBA". I am not so sure what is the type of element they've used on the "raptor" pellets but for sure they are harder than lead and lighter (about less than 6 grains). The PBA raptor is coated with "gold" as what they claim hence the shiny gold appearance.

I would agree with some of the guys here. Using very lightweight pellets can hurt some models of springers since the mechanism is using a heavy piston and a powerful spring to compress the air inside the compression tube that would in turn propel the pellet inside the bore of the barrel. Since it is light (the PBA pellet) it's quite possible to experience "piston slam" that would in time weaken or even destroy some of the internal parts of a spring piston rifle. If using a heavy pellet is related to piston bounce, piston slam is related to light pellets.

There are a lot of merits on the design of the Prometheus pellets (also a non-lead variety) but I just don't agree much on the way they marketed the idea. For one thing it does not mean that because other manufacturers are still using lead that they are not an accurate pellet to use on an airgun. But the aerodynamic aspect of the design of the Prometheus pellet is good.

As a suggestion I don't think you have to apologize about your spelling for I for one knows that British English (Old English) differ in the way it is spelled compared to Western English (American English). What matters is that we understand each other. I saw from another post of yours that you own a lot of PCP's and a couple of springers. Care to share some pics? Exactly which among them can you consider your best and all time favorite to use? :D :thumb: :cheers:

PBA + Gamo = Hog????

Thought I'd bump this one up and share a couple findings with all of ya. Took some Raptors and Crosman FH (the only ones I had on hand in .177) to the range and tested them with the Quest. At 30 yards the FH's grouped about 1/2" while the Raptors were grouping a little less than an inch. Not bad considering they all had flash marks on the sides and were breaking the sound barrier.

Also shot a squirrel in the back yard a couple weeks ago using the Raptors (already had one pushed into the chamber, gun wasn't cocked though) and the entrance and exit were unable to be seen, but it was a direct brain shot. If there wasn't blood all over it's head there would be no sign of where it connected. Not only that but it took this one a good 15 seconds to stop twitching where as with any other .177 headshot I've made the max has been only 10 seconds