Single shot V magazine…

Jay Butts

Jay Butts

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I’ve been to my range today and for the first time in an age, ended up just shooting for fun. With a couple of my mates, we started on paper as always then bits of chalk, bells, tins, CO2 refills etc…. Just putting some fun into shooting.

It quickly became apparent that there was absolutely no difference in accuracy between single shot and magazine loading methods. Mad!

I have always used the single shot tray to ensure the pellet wasn’t damaged on loading believing that all magazines deformed the skirt or scratched the head of the pellet affecting their shape in some way… so finding there was no difference was quite a surprise.

Has anybody else found this?

I need to add that my magazines are the simplest of designs. No spring loaded rotating devices or doors to load the pellets in. Very similar to the HW100 with all the pellets loaded into one side held in by the silicone band around the outside.
 
I did a trial with my .20 Regal of 10 shots from the tray and ten from the magazine. There was absolutely nothing in it with the JSB exacts I was using.
But I have noticed that if I use JSB jumbos in my .177 Airwolf, they’re not as accurate through the mag as from the loading tray.
So I’ve concluded that a lot of it depends on whether the pellet shape suits your magazine.
These are just my personal findings with the two PCPs that I own.
ATB
Chris
 
ChrisHobbs said:
I did a trial with my .20 Regal of 10 shots from the tray and ten from the magazine. There was absolutely nothing in it with the JSB exacts I was using.
But I have noticed that if I use JSB jumbos in my .177 Airwolf, they’re not as accurate through the mag as from the loading tray.
So I’ve concluded that a lot of it depends on whether the pellet shape suits your magazine.
These are just my personal findings with the two PCPs that I own.
ATB
Chris
Click to expand...
Interesting Chris, I was using JSB Exact 8.44 4.53. I may well carry out the same with another pellet and see if I can repeat what I’ve found today….

It really surprised me TBH. 👍
 
I think they difference would be evident on precision targets ie the 2mm bull on a Benchrest card Jay. On targets with a larger surface area you're unlikely to notice a difference, unless of course your mags chew the pellets, as I have seen some do.
 
TR158 said:
I think they difference would be evident on precision targets ie the 2mm bull on a Benchrest card Jay. On targets with a larger surface area you're unlikely to notice a difference, unless of course your mags chew the pellets, as I have seen some do.
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Possibly mate, TBH, I’ve been shooting well today at 25 yards BR with competition targets before we went on to exploding chalk and stuff…. I suppose I’ll have to do some more serious testing….

I get you regarding some chewing pellets, I have seen that.
 
I can't say I've noticed much difference myself in the guns I have but I'm probably not the best referee for it.
Of the seven PCPs I have, four are designed and built to operate a magazine (Impact, HW100 KT, P15 and AirWolf).
Two S400s are single shot but have Rowan multishot conversions and the Ultra maybe could be converted , same as the S400s, possibly, not sure on that.

And why I'm not the beset referee for it is because neither of the S400s have the conversion fitted and never have had and I highly doubt I'll ever bother to research whether the Ultra is capable of being converted. If I find out, it will be by chance.

The four with the magazines I'd say at least 50% of the pellets I put through them I do single shot. Two reasons, really.
Firstly, I like the slowdown SSL brings to my shooting, it gives me time to think about the shot I've taken and also the next one. Did it go where I expected, for example, and if not, why not and what will I do or not do next shot. And if it did go where I expected, am I seeing the wind has picked up or changed? Those kinds of things. Sometimes I just want to look at the trees or whatever whilst I take these few seconds. 🤣

The other reason is often I CBA spending time loading magazines. I'd rather do my relaxed pace shooting, as described, than binge shoot and stop completely to do a reloading session. Sometimes it's occurred to me total time spent wouldn't be any different.
I've never performed the experiment that I can recall (which probably means I definitely have and don't remember doing it 🤣) but I fancy with my Air Wolf, for example, I could SSL and get off eleven aimed shots as quickly or quicker than doing a magazine from empty, through loading and aimed firing. TBF, I did pick what is probably the best single shot tray/loader versus the worst magazine for me. I use an SMW Engineering SSL, which is very good to use and I find the loading of the Daystate mags slow with .177 pellets.

That's not to say I won't mix it up, though. The HW mags are a joy to use and rattling through a couple of high capacity Impact mags can be great fun. In fact, one of the nicest things about shooting the Impact using mags is the delicious sound of the cocking mechanism in my right ear as I'm cycling through the mag. It's the sound of quality engineering. It's so slick it almost slurps. 🤣
 
Randomone said:
I can't say I've noticed much difference myself in the guns I have but I'm probably not the best referee for it.
Of the seven PCPs I have, four are designed and built to operate a magazine (Impact, HW100 KT, P15 and AirWolf).
Two S400s are single shot but have Rowan multishot conversions and the Ultra maybe could be converted , same as the S400s, possibly, not sure on that.

And why I'm not the beset referee for it is because neither of the S400s have the conversion fitted and never have had and I highly doubt I'll ever bother to research whether the Ultra is capable of being converted. If I find out, it will be by chance.

The four with the magazines I'd say at least 50% of the pellets I put through them I do single shot. Two reasons, really.
Firstly, I like the slowdown SSL brings to my shooting, it gives me time to think about the shot I've taken and also the next one. Did it go where I expected, for example, and if not, why not and what will I do or not do next shot. And if it did go where I expected, am I seeing the wind has picked up or changed? Those kinds of things. Sometimes I just want to look at the trees or whatever whilst I take these few seconds. 🤣

The other reason is often I CBA spending time loading magazines. I'd rather do my relaxed pace shooting, as described, than binge shoot and stop completely to do a reloading session. Sometimes it's occurred to me total time spent wouldn't be any different.
I've never performed the experiment that I can recall (which probably means I definitely have and don't remember doing it 🤣) but I fancy with my Air Wolf, for example, I could SSL and get off eleven aimed shots as quickly or quicker than doing a magazine from empty, through loading and aimed firing. TBF, I did pick what is probably the best single shot tray/loader versus the worst magazine for me. I use an SMW Engineering SSL, which is very good to use and I find the loading of the Daystate mags slow with .177 pellets.

That's not to say I won't mix it up, though. The HW mags are a joy to use and rattling through a couple of high capacity Impact mags can be great fun. In fact, one of the nicest things about shooting the Impact using mags is the delicious sound of the cocking mechanism in my right ear as I'm cycling through the mag. It's the sound of quality engineering. It's so slick it almost slurps. 🤣
Click to expand...
Great points made Richard. Lovin’ the ‘slurps’, never heard that before. 😂

I get you completely about the SSL giving you the time to think about each shot, it’s one of the reasons I love shooting springers so much. Funny thing though, at the end of the session my two friends and I laughed at the amounts of pellets we’d used. I went from about 70 per session to over 300! Great fun though, especially the exploding chalk! 😂😂😂

Testing with and without the SSL will continue.
 
Jay Butts said:
Possibly mate, TBH, I’ve been shooting well today at 25 yards BR with competition targets before we went on to exploding chalk and stuff…. I suppose I’ll have to do some more serious testing….

I get you regarding some chewing pellets, I have seen that.
Click to expand...
Got a club mate who shoots benchrest. He and his wife both use Steyr challenge rifles and they run pretty high up the comp listings
He bought a pair of Daystate "whatever wolfs" and initially thought they were ok, but after shooting them a couple of times, they just didn't match the Steyrs.
They both got returned
 
Jay Butts said:
Funny thing though, at the end of the session my two friends and I laughed at the amounts of pellets we’d used. I went from about 70 per session to over 300!
Click to expand...

That is another point I nearly mentioned. 🤣 Using the SSL method makes for a significantly cheaper day at the range with some guns, if not all Those FX mags have a 28 pellet capacity and I have two of them. Pretty easy to rattle through a tenner's worth pretty quickly with the price of .22 pellets being what they are now.
It's also a good reason not to invest in a speedloader for the FX mags. 🤣
 
Jay Butts said:
Is it plastic? I was always amazed that the ones that came with my old Red Wolf and Wolverine R were plastic. Surprising for a company like Daystate.
Click to expand...

The one that came with my Air Wolf is metal but the SMW Engineering one is far better and is printed. Unlike the Daystate metal one, which is flat, the SMW is deeper and has a low and a high side and is reversible for right or left loading. It means you just roll the pellet onto the tray and the side wall catches it, preventing it from running over.
When you have old, short, maladroit digits like me that makes a huge difference. (y)
 
I shoot with magazines, and I also shoot with single shots.
The accuracy with mags is excellent, with no significant difference in accuracy to using a single-shot system.

The real difference is the amount of pellets consumed during a session. . Lots more pellets are fired when using mags.
 
Randomone said:
The one that came with my Air Wolf is metal but the SMW Engineering one is far better and is printed. Unlike the Daystate metal one, which is flat, the SMW is deeper and has a low and a high side and is reversible for right or left loading. It means you just roll the pellet onto the tray and the side wall catches it, preventing it from running over.
When you have old, short, maladroit digits like me that makes a huge difference. (y)
Click to expand...
I just stick a strip of draught excluder on the other side of the channel I'm loading from on my daystate metal ssl trays to stop then rolling over. But I am a bit of a tightwad....lol. I think with mags it all depends on manufacturing tolerances, the daystate mags I've had were fine but I still got a tad better accuracy with the trays at long distance.
 
Tightwad is right, they are only a tenner. And your tape isn't magnetic....neither are lead pellets so can't see your point there & why should I buy an different ss tray if I'm happy with mine? The daystate trays are reversable & magnetic held in place ,same as the mags to load from either side too & tbh I've shot a lot more vermin with single shot guns than mag fed ones, the only time I prefer mags is for lamping /night shooting or ratting. The later daystate mags have a cutout to make loading easier & it's easy to modify the earlier ones to do the same by grinding out the bottom front plate the same as the later ones. I must have been lucky & got good ones, although as with the bsa mags I service them all & adjust the tension on the spring to get them running well with no missed shots, something I've had on one of the bsa mags on my sons R10.
 
On the subject of SSLs... There are SSLs and there are SSLs...

Nothing in my opinion beats direct breech loading, although you can screw that up by clumsily thumbing the pellet in and shaving the head if you're ham-fisted.

Where an SSL is concerned, many, especially some of the cheaper printed versions, are poorly designed and implemented, and require very careful loading. In reality, they are single-shot magazines, as there is still 'something' between the pellet and the breech.

The Rowan SSLs, for example, are nicely built but require careful setting up as they have a small strip of rubber designed to hold the pellet in place, and a micro grub screw to secure the loader to the action. All of these can have a direct impact on the pellet and influence its movement as you push the probe home.

In the case of a pellet tray, the same can be true if the tray isn't manufactured to exact tolerances, and is either too low or too high, meaning that the pellet is 'tipped' in, as opposed to pushed directly into the breech. Where this is the case, care needs to be taken to push the probe in slowly, as opposed to ramming it home.
 
The SSL on mine is a CNC machined, black anodised aluminium jobbie. Well made but a little fiddly to get used to in comparison to the Daystates I used to own. I’ve not got the best dexterity though, you aught to see me button up those weird, tucked under buttons on a quilt cover! My wife thinks it’s hilarious, she’ll do 10 in the time I do 2! With the SSL, I sort of hover a couple of mills above the tray and drop the pellet in. I then push it into the breech with my thumb only relying on the probe to gently push it into its final spot.

@TR158 I get the cycling gently too, ramming them forward can’t be good…. and aren’t those Rowan ones plastic? Never seen one close up….. you can probably tell I have a thing about gun parts made of plastic 😂😂😂

@Randomone I can’t imagine how fast you’d plough through pellets with a magazine that size! Restraint necessary… amazing! And excellent use of the word ‘maladroit’, I had to google that! 😂
 
P8X said:
Got a club mate who shoots benchrest. He and his wife both use Steyr challenge rifles and they run pretty high up the comp listings
He bought a pair of Daystate "whatever wolfs" and initially thought they were ok, but after shooting them a couple of times, they just didn't match the Steyrs.
They both got returned
Click to expand...
Hey Rob, funny you should mention Steyr. A mate of mine has just bought a Steyr Challenge which I shot for the first time yesterday. Accuracy was off the scale, he hit a 250/16 on Sunday and he’s only had it a week!
 
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