Messing around with some .22 caliber round balls in the air rifle, I hit upon the idea of loading and shooting them in my little .22 caliber Bearcat Shopkeeper. No powder charge, just the priming. And it worked pretty well! So from there I decided to see how they compared to the Colibri .22's loaded with a 20 gr. “pellet” and are pretty silent, running a bit over 400 fps.

I set up my .22 bullet trap with 14 sheets of cardboard in front of it. Past experience taught me that when shooting indoors you ALWAYS need to make sure none of the projectiles go any other place than where you intend them to go, and to make preparations just in case they have more power than you think they do. (no .. don't ask)

Using the Russian primed cases I loaded 2 round ball loads in my “Parlour Pistol” and fired them into the cardboard from about 5 feet. I round ball penetrated 6 sheets of cardboard and was stopped by the 7th. One round ball penetrated 5 sheets of cardboard and was stopped by the 6th.

I then loaded 2 of the Colibri rounds and fired them. A “clang” told me one had gone through all 14 sheets of cardboard and into the bullet trap. Examination of the sheets confirmed what I heard. The other shot penetrated 13 sheets and was stopped by the 14th sheet.

More than twice the power of my home-made round ball loads.

I then decided to try some pointed .22 caliber pellets loaded into the Russian primed cases. To get them to fit I had to mangle the hollow base. I am sure that did not help velocity or accuracy. Firing them into the cardboard I pellet penetrated 4 sheets and stopped in the 5th sheet. 1 pellet penetrated 5 sheets and stopped in the 6th sheet.

The round ball is much easier to use.

Recovered pointed pellet

Recovered round ball

There was no leading in the cylinder or the bore. I lubed all the rounds I shot before loading them into the pistol. There was some carbon in the chambers and the bore. A pass with the brass brush cleaned it right up.

The .22 Round Ball weighs 15 grains.
The .22 Pointed Pellet weighs 14 grains.
The Colibri Pellet weighs 20 grains and is rated at 420 fps by Aguila.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Jim, as long as you're experimenting, you might take a 22 case and cut the head off, lightly flare one end and then push a pellet into the case nose first. If you make enough of a flare you could then place it over a primed 22 case and push the pellet in skirt first, but now the skirt's relatively even and swaged down to the diameter needed to fit properly.

I am more interested in the round ball at this point and don't want to mess with pellets. I am not impressed by them in the air rifle. Using the round ball in the .22 air rifle, the ball seems to have better longer-range performance than the pellet. Not sure at this point if it seems that way because of my prejudice or if it really is that way. But hitting a target at 50 to 60 yards the ball seemed to work better and be easier to hit with. Time will tell.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

try round nose pellets instead of the pointed ones. For whatever reason the round nose seem to shoot better in most air rifles. Depending on what rifle you've got, Crosman's "Premier Domed UltraMag" can give decent results. I've a few pointed pellets around but have never found a rifle (or pistol) that likes them.

I'd love to try the round balls "for science", but haven't found them down here. The Gamo Match work pretty well in my Crosman 2240 pistol and lower powered air rifles (which I no longer have, except the one that needs a new compression chamber) and the Gamo Hunter round nose has been my "go to" pellet in both 4.5 and 5.5 mm for low cost plinking for some time now.

the ones with a pointy red plastic nose and the lead pointy nose. Shooting them into a 3/4" plywood board the round ball out-penetrated all of them. The round nose pellet did better than the either pointy one. The round ball nearly exited, breaking the back of the board. The round nose broke the back a little.

Shooting the .22 Long Rifle with round ball, the ball penetrated about half the size of the ball and then came back at me!

The Aguila Colibri penetrated with the base flush with the face of the board.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

the Gamo Roundball is the same weight as their other 22 caliber pellets! That's an interesting bit of info. 1 Gram of lead - 15.43 grains. I'll have to ask the local guys if they can get them or not. I'd love to try them in my Crosman CO2 pistols.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

nt