.17 caliber bullets in a pellets gun

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KilgorII

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Bore of the bolt action, pneumatic gun is supposed to be 0.177" From what I understand, .17 caliber rifles are 0.172".

How would a 17 grain Hornady Vmax do from a powerful (comparatively) pellet gun? I'm afraid that 0.005" is enough that the rifling will not grip well. That's 0.0025" away from the grooves, is the rifling hieght generally significantly more than 0.0025"? The reason I'm asking is that the Vmax is slightly heavier and will have a vastly superior ballistic coefficient than the stubby pellets which are big pluses for taking 75-100 yard shots on crows :D

Kilgor
 
A pellet gun (not a smooth bore BB gun) is designed only for soft lead skirted pellets. Barrels are soft steel or brass, and definitely will not hold up to jacketed bullets if you can get them to work at all. Bullets are bore diameter and depend on the skirt for expansion into the grooves.

I have not measured the bores, but in a modern firearm, the bullet is groove diameter and designed so the pressure forces the rifling to engrave itself into the bullet. I doubt a pellet gun of any kind has enough pressure to do that, so I think you will end up with a bullet stuck in the bore, ruined rifling and basically a wrecked gun. Other than that, it would be OK.

Jim
 
IF in fact the bulletts are .172 and the bore is .177, that leaves you about .005 clearance.

Way too sloppy for good accuracy.

There is a way though, people have been doing it for over 100 years.

It is called paper patching. Take a small strip of paper and put it around the bullet. Most paper is .0025-.003 thick. Try to load it in your pellet rifle. Shoot it. See if it works. Report back.

The bullet will probably be heavier than a pellet , so dont expect too much out of it.:)
 
Aside from all the barrel issues, don't try it in a spring piston gun. The stress of what will essentially look like a plugged bore (due to the weight of the bullet) to the spring/piston assembly will likely damage your spring.

Anyway, I would expect rotten performance from the rifle since the bullet is going to be much heavier than any pellet.
 
It's a pneumatic, pump gun, not spring piston. I was not very confident in the idea, but thought I see what ya'll thought. Guess I now know. :D

Thanks
 
Keep in mind many of the better air rifles have choked bores, plus softer steel as stated above. It might work, but at the cost of the bore.
 
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