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Wind Cheater 1208:poduction 0805.v5
22/10/08
14:51
Page 69
Rangemaster
Pellet Review
Wind
The new Rangemaster pellet
claims to out-perform
conventional ammo in breezy
conditions. Nigel Allen puts
that claim to the test
I
’m guessing that when it comes to
pellet selection, every sporting
airgunner – whether their
leaning is feather, fur or metal
silhouette – shoots the brand
that’s most accurate out of their
particular rifle’s barrel. I know I do.
I’m lucky to have access to a 30metre indoor range which takes some
of the sting out of pellet testing – but
over the years, I’ve spent countless
hours (it probably equates to numerous
days of my life) working out which
ammo performs the best in all my
rifles. First you’ve got to wait for the
right, wind-free weather conditions,
and then spend an age evaluating
pellet brand after pellet brand over all
the distances you’re typically going
to shoot over before finally
settling on a round that you can
feel confident is best suited to
your rifle.
So when Daystate asked me to
test the new Rangemaster HE (High
Energy)
ammo
they’re
distributing to UK gun
At £18 a tub, it’s almost 3p
a pop in .177. They could
almost be made of silver
Cheater
shops, you can imagine I wasn’t exactly
thrilled by the request – especially as
they told me not expect fantastic
results in range-perfect conditions.
HOW MUCH?
In fact, not only was I told they
probably wouldn’t be the most accurate
pellet I’d ever
Made harder with more
shot, but I was
antimony content, the
Rangemaster HE has a solid also told they
diaphragm, fatter waist and cost more than
twice as much
semi-spherical head
as many wellknown brands.
“Why on earth”
I asked, “are
you charging
£17.99 a tub,
then?” (Yes,
e i g h t e e n
quid!)
With
650
.177s and 500 .22s
in a tub, that
equates
to
around 3p and
4p a pop –
which,
in
airgunning
terms, is big
bucks.
In
response,
Daystate told me
that, uniquely, their
Rangemaster has been
developed in conjunction with
award-winning pellet manufacturer
Prometheus for the sole purpose of
handling windy conditions better than
any standard, waisted pellet. Initially, I
listened with complete scepticism – but
after giving their technical boffins the
benefit of my ear for a good hour, I
eventually came to the conclusion that
the theory behind the Rangemaster HE
was, in fact, quite plausible and no
gimmick.
BC
Tipping the scales at 15 grains in .22
and 8.5 grains in .177, the
Rangemaster has been specifically
designed to have a highly superior
ballistic coefficient (BC). The ‘BC’ is a
mathematical figure that indicates how
well a projectile performs down-range,
and is determined through the
relationship of shape, weight mass
distribution and air friction. The actual
BC
number
is
pretty
meaningless to everyone who
doesn’t have a PHD in
external ballistics – but, in
short, the better the BC,
the better the pellet.
As you can see
from the photos
here,
the
Rangemaster ’s
shape is quite
different –
although I
have seen
something
similar in
the last three
A sample
tub of the new
Rangemaster HE ammo
AIR GUNNER 69
Wind Cheater 1208:poduction 0805.v5
22/10/08
14:52
Page 70
Nigel checks the
down-range velocity
readings on the BMS
sky-screen chrono
decades. Anyone remember the Lanes
Special and Bimoco Neu Spitz pellets of
the late Seventies? They’re also very
short - and I could only find two .177s
that were a shade shorter in my entire
ammo store.
I was sent a few Rangemaster
‘sampler’ tubs in .177. These contain
two head sizes – 4.50 mm. and 4.53.
Inspecting both packets, the pellets
looked superbly made, almost as
though they’d been individually turned
on lathe, with no imperfections in the
semi-spherical heads. The reason for
this is that they have a high antimony
content, so are much harder than most
lead pellets.
The skirts are very different in that
the diaphragm is solid, leading to the
thick waist that’s more ‘cotton reel’
than ‘shuttlecock’ in shape – and
although I haven’t tried them in an
FAC-rated air rifle, I suspect they’d
probably be very good at handling the
Fig 1: Nigel
erected a
beach windbreak to
ensure he
wasn’t
buffeted
during the
accuracy tests
with his EV2
70 AIR GUNNER
extra thump of air.
For my tests, I chose my Air Arms
EV2 Mk. II – a regulated rifle that I
know is both incredibly accurate and
consistent – and I decided to compare
the Rangemasters against 8.42-grain
JSB Exacts which shoot extremely
tight groups in still conditions. I’m
talking 5 mm. c-to-c at 30 metres.
In perfectly still conditions, it
became immediately obvious that the
4.53 Rangemasters did not suit my
EV2’s Walther barrel – but the 4.50s
seemed much better. Despite the windfree test conditions, I couldn’t group
them as tightly as the JSBs – though
my results were still plenty good
enough for hunting purposes.
Strangely, I didn’t have to alter my
35x Leupold scope’s zero – the
Rangemasters hit in exactly the same
place as the Exacts at 30 metres.
However, at 50 metres, the Exacts
dropped 48 mm. more – nearly two
inches in old money! (Note: I’ve since
established that the Rangemasters
have an identical flightpath to my 8.4grain Air Arms Field 4.52 pellets).
Velocity wise, over my BMS skyscreen chronoscope the Rangemasters
recorded 767 feet per second (f.p.s.) at
the muzzle, for an energy of 11.1 ft. lbs.
This was identical to the Exacts, which
also returned 11.1 ft. lbs. (772 f.p.s).
Both pellet brands were very
consistent, too, with a shot-to-shot
variation of well under 10 f.p.s.
With only one-tenth of a grain
weight difference and the pellet-topellet weight deviation of the
Rangemasters being as good out of the
tub as the Exacts I’d pre-weighed, I
was expecting similar results downrange. I rigged up the BMS on a
camera tri-pod and shot banks of 10
shots over the screens, first at 30
metres and then at 50 metres
(measured).
MASSIVE RETAINED ENERGY
The superior BC of the Rangemaster
was immediately apparent at 30
metres. The Exacts recorded an
average velocity of 595 f.p.s. (6.62 ft.
lbs.), whereas the Rangemasters
tripped the chrono over 60 f.p.s. faster;
they averaged 659 f.p.s. (8.2 ft. lbs.).
What’s more, they did so with far more
consistency, having a spread of just 6
f.p.s. compared to the Exacts’ 29 f.p.s.
Effectively, that meant that at 30
metres, the Rangemasters retained 74
per cent of their energy, while Exacts
only held onto 60 per cent. In hunting
terms, the Daystate will arrive at its
target with a lot more ‘stopping power’,
fully justifying its ‘H.E.’ suffix.
I moved the BMS out to 50 metres
Wind Cheater 1208:poduction 0805.v5
23/10/08
11:39
Page 71
Rangemaster
Pellet Review
and the Rangemasters retained as
much energy as the Exacts had at 30
metres, clocking up an average of 599
f.p.s. (6.77 ft. lbs.) with a spread of just
10 f.p.s.. The Exacts, on the other
hand, flew across the BMS far more
inconsistently, varying by 34 f.p.s. and
with less than half the power - just 3.28
ft. lbs. (419 f.p.s.).
Of course, stopping power is only
any use if you hit your target in the
first place – and, for me, the real test of
the Rangemasters was to see how well
they performed in the wind. I waited
for a day with a consistent (as opposed
to blustery) breeze and shot countless
target cards at 30 and 50 metres.
Not having the luxury of a benchrest, I erected a beach wind-break to
ensure I could shoot at 90 degrees to
the wind direction and not be buffeted
on the firing line by its force. You can
see the 50-metre results in a strong
wind in one of my sample targets
shown in figure 1; the Rangemasters
were deflected only half as much as
the JSBs – and they produced groups
half the size to boot.
Clearly, the short size and superior
BC works. What I couldn’t fail to
notice through the Leupold’s highmagnification optics was the way in
which the pellets flew toward their
target. The Exacts (and all the other
waisteds I have since tested) seemed
to ‘wobble’ in a kind of horizontal zigzag as they zipped through the air,
whereas the Rangemasters flew
without any of this ‘chattering’
whatsoever. They appeared to be far
more stable, and I’m sure their
impressive in-wind performance is
partly due to this.
As target after target confirmed
Very consistent on
the scales, the .177
Rangemasters weigh
in at 8.5 grains
their superior performance, I began
wondering if I was testing the
‘ultimate’ hunting round. With this in
mind, I conducted similar wind tests
using my Air Wolf, fitted with a Logun
Pro-Tilt bi-pod.
As you can see from figure 1, I
couldn’t match the tight groups I get
with its favoured diet of Air Arms Field
– but at 50 metres, it’s not so clear-cut.
You can see from the targets in figure 2
that the Rangemasters land more shots
inside a ‘decent’ group than Fields do in
the wind – plus they don’t shift quite as
much.
Having shot a few thousand of this
new pellet, in .177 at least, I’m
certainly of the opinion that they could
be quite a revelation in hunting circles
– although I doubt the field target boys
will entertain them. As much as I don’t
want to cough up the extra dough, their
ability in wind and down-range velocity
retention is making me seriously
thinking about switching to them in my
Air Wolf. They might be twice the price,
but then they shift only half as much...
and group twice as tight in the wind.
Sure, they may not be as accurate
as some brands in perfect conditions...
but I probably only ever get the chance
to shoot in ‘perfect conditions’ a
handful of times per year. In fact, I
can’t remember the last time I didn’t
have to make a windage allowance
when hunting. Suddenly, 3p per shot is
becoming much easier to justify.
Note: The selection of targets
reproduced here are representative of the
many Nigel shot during his tests of the
.177 Rangemasters, using his Air Arms
EV2/II and Daystate Air Wolf rifles.
Fig 2: At 50 metres in a strong
wind, the Rangemasters needed
only half as much windage
allowance as the JSB Exacts
AIR GUNNER 71