Over the past few years, significant innovation has occurred in the development of airgun technology, including modular chassis design, sound suppression, barrel manufacturing and regulators for air management, all of which contribute to optimized shooting platforms with enhanced performance.
One area of technological advancement that has a real-world impact on hunters is the new breed of airgun projectiles for standard caliber air rifles (.22-35 caliber). This includes refined manufacturing processes to produce pellets with tight weight and dimensional tolerances, new body profiles and head configurations, new materials and a broader range of caliber options.
In this article, we’ll look at what the market has to offer, the relevance of the designs, the pros and cons of each, and when to use these projectiles. I’ll discuss three of my current hunting rigs, which include a sub-compact small-game gun, a versatile small- to medium-size game gun, my nighttime predator hunting rifle and the projectiles they are set up for.
Ammunition Types
Historically, airgun ammunition intended for hunting was a Diabolo-style pellet, which has a narrow waist and flared skirt, resembling an hourglass. The skirt expands upon firing, sealing the barrel, allowing the barrel rifling to impart spin and maximizing air pressure behind the pellet to generate power. The flared skirt serves as a drag stabilizer, keeping the pellet nose forward and reducing tumbling. This style of pellet has a lower ballistic coefficient than a slug or bullet, but the design was geared toward lower-powered air rifles, and in guns with velocities up to the 800-fps range, they can be quite accurate.
The Diabolo design has been offered in four main head configurations: flat head or wadcutter, round nose or domed pellet, hollowpoint and pointed or field-tip head. Of these, the domed and hollowpoint head designs have gained the most traction with airgun hunters. They tend to offer the best balance of accuracy, energy transfer and penetration.
Flat head designs can be very accurate for closer-range shooting, often used in close-range precision shooting competitions such as 10-meter target, but lack penetration and are less accurate as distance increases. Ironically, pointed-head designs, which are often called field tip or hunting pellets, are not generally a good choice for field work because they are the least accurate projectile in most air rifles. This can be due to either an intrinsic design flaw or the tips being damaged during packing. However, the Predator Polymags, which incorporate a polymer tip, do offer good penetration and consistent accuracy in many of my rifles
My preferred hunting projectile in standard-caliber rifles is the domed pellet, because it strikes the best balance of accuracy and terminal performance in most rifles for most applications. Domed pellets vary by the skirt’s thickness, length, weight and configuration of the dome. There are several great pellets in this category, from JSB, H&N and JTS, to name a few. But to find the one that functions best in your rifle, you need to invest the time for range testing. Airguns can be notoriously fickle about which ammo they shoot best, so consider the type of game you’ll be hunting, typical hunting range, etc., to get an understanding of your expected use case and try a few pellets that meet those requirements to see what works best for your gun.
I sometimes use specialty hunting ammo, with the proviso that accuracy is the first criterion. I have had mixed experiences with hollowpoints; either the accuracy was suboptimal or they offered only mediocre terminal performance. One hollowpoint design that provides excellent performance in many rifles is the JSB Hades, with its unique trident-like shape. This helps the pellet deform more effectively when it hits a target, maximizing energy transfer and creating a larger wound channel, which can be devastating on small game.
In my opinion, one of the biggest game changers for ammo in standard-caliber airguns is the advent of airgun-specific slug designs. These slugs tend to be heavier than most Diabolo pellets and are more ballistically efficient than traditional pellets. Slugs have a more cylindrical profile and more closely resemble a bullet than a pellet. The base of these slugs can be flat; however, the ones I’ve had the most success with have a dish base that seems to engage the rifling better.
The heads of these slugs can be round-nosed or hollowpoint, and both can work well; again, it depends on your gun and the intended application. As opposed to hollowpoint pellets, the hollow point on slugs tends to have smaller openings with heavier walls, which allows them to penetrate quite well. The reasons I will select a slug over a pellet are that they are more stable and shed velocity more slowly. They are therefore ideal for longer-range shooting when matched with the right rifle/barrel, and they offer better terminal performance on larger bodies or thicker-skinned game species.
The Author’s Picks
It might be helpful to wrap up with examples of the ammo I am currently using in some of my rifles, with an explanation of the reasoning behind the choices. The three examples I’ve selected are my compact Seneca MicroStrike, Hatsan Vectis and Western Airguns Sidewinder, which all meet my requirements for specific hunting duties.
The Seneca MicroStrike compact rig is built on a modular platform, which can be configured as a handgun or a carbine, and the caliber can be easily swapped between .177-, .22- or .25-caliber. The muzzle is threaded, which permits a suppressor to be mounted to further reduce the sound signature. The regulated power plant generates up to 30 fpe, the power is adjustable and the short barrel is optimized for close-range shooting. Quiet, compact and moderately powerful, this is an excellent platform for a short-range urban hunting gun. With this application in mind, I matched the MicroStrike with the 26.54-grain JSB Hades Diabolo pellet. In the 40-yard range, the accuracy is quite good, and the terminal performance of the pellets on lighter-bodied game is very good. At the same time, these pellets shed energy more rapidly than a slug and are safer to use in more populated areas.
The Hatsan Vectis lever-action rifle is one of my go-to guns for small- to medium-size quarry. I primarily use this gun for small-game hunting at ranges out to 60 yards but can also use it for medium-size game or even larger game in a pinch. The rifle is set up for a heavy JSB Diabolo round-nose pellet, as they are accurate and have a good balance of penetration and energy transfer for rabbits or squirrels. I was recently on a small-game hunt with the Vectis when the opportunity to hunt feral hogs came up. I planned to target smaller hogs but still worried the pellets might not provide adequate penetration on the heavy skulls of my porcine prey. I checked the zero with the usual Diabolo pellet, then loaded up with the NSA slugs and after a quick adjustment, had the rig zeroed-in dead on at 50 yards.
Out on a morning stalk, I located a sounder of hogs near a wallow and slowly moved into range. I was trying to close in on a little 70-pounder but was blocked by a big boar standing between us at about 45 yards. I brought the Vectis to my shoulder and lined up the crosshairs right between the boar’s eyes and squeezed the trigger. I don’t know if a standard pellet would have penetrated the pig’s skull, but the 29-grain hollowpoint .25-caliber slug punched right through the skull and brain, anchoring the boar where he stood. This was a good example of changing projectile type for a specific application.
The Western Airguns Sidewinder is my nighttime predator hunting rig. This is a .30-caliber semi-auto rifle that is fast cycling, deadly accurate, powerful and very quiet. I am currently using it with an ATN ThOR thermal scope for predator calling and nighttime hog hunting. I have dialed in with the 49.5-grain NSA .30-caliber slug and have full confidence in this rifle/slug combo for 120-yard shots. The rifle/projectile combo is flat-shooting, accurate, hard-hitting, penetrates well and cycles reliably. For a predator hunter who needs to shoot in a suburban setting, with a quiet, limited-range gun, a setup such as this offers an interesting solution. It is also cost effective — the NSA slugs I use with my sidewinder cost about 12 cents per round compared to around 45 cents per round with one of my .223s.
To summarize, the main types of projectiles fall into two categories: Diabolo pellets and airgun slugs. Pellets are available with various head configurations, with round-nose and hollowpoints being the most frequently used in standard caliber air rifles. These projectiles perform better in lower-power guns and for closer-range shooting, which can be either an advantage or a disadvantage depending on the application. Almost all airguns on the market today have been optimized to work with pellets.
Airgun slugs have been developed to work at the performance level of more powerful airguns, and in guns with barrel twist rates that support shooting slugs. Some rifle manufacturers offer a slug barrel as an option or modular component. Slugs offer better long-range performance, have a better BC, lose less energy at range and offer better terminal performance on larger-bodied or thicker-skinned quarry. Again, these characteristics might or might not be advantageous depending on the application.
Finally, airguns can be projectile sensitive. My suggestion is that you ask yourself about the intended application: What animal will you hunt? What is the most likely range? Is there a safety issue related to the presence of livestock, buildings or equipment? And what are the characteristics of the air rifle you will use? Use this information to choose a few projectiles that meet your requirements on paper, then test them to see what will work best in your air rifle. As a shooter, having an airgun that is quiet, recoilless, laser accurate and can anchor quarry as you watch through the scope is something to experience.
