Decided to force myself to sit down and try out some of the .22 H&N's in a Condor, see how well they perform.

Started with those "philips head" Baracuda Hunter Extreme. Without re-sighting in, they shot about the same as Crosman domed Field Target pellets (the brown box units)- which I thought was pretty impressive as the price on the works out to about the same per pellet (slightly less actually)- and they are not labeled as "Field Target" units but were designed specifically for hunting. Group size was about 1.5" at 100 feet.

Next came the Baracuda Power pellets (copper coated lead). These guys were pretty heavy at 21.14 grains and you could feel it picking them up (almost 50% heavier than an average .22 pellet). What happens? These things need power to shoot- they were shooting low about 3 inches at 100 feet vs. the Hunter Extreme (which is a bit odd as the weight difference is only about 10% between the two) - but the "thunk" when they hit was quite noticeably different, more of a 'thump' than a typical 'whap' if you understand Batman lingo. I didn't bother re-sighting in the rifle as I found them a bit less consistent than the Hunter Extremes and I did not come out to shove big power through the rifle to optimize for any specific pellet, just get an overall view of things. Group size was about 2.5" at 100 feet.

Lastly for today was the Spitzkugel (pointed, more of a point than many other 'pointed' pellets I might add, with a lined skirt). They were alot closer to an average pellet weight at 15.74gr. They were shooting a bit low and to the right, so I resighted the rifle and shot away. These things were impressive- shot better than the hollow points or the power or the Crosman FT's. I had figured they would likely be the ones to shoot the poorest of the bunch as rarely have I gotten good results in any of my rifles with pointed pellets. Group size was about 1" at 100 feet.

Of course, this was a specific rifle and other people's results may vary greatly, but overall they all shot well, the 'Power' likely would have shot better had I wanted to up the output on the rifle and re-sight it properly.

Anyone know if you're allowed to shoot pointed pellets in FT competitions?