VALUE FOR MONEY
Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets are among the cheapest on the market. A tin of 500 is selling for just $6.28 at our local Walmart. That makes an outstandingly low price per pellet of just 1.25 cents each!
Now, of course, price is not everything. Cheap junk is no good at all. However – although these pellets cannot match the manufacturing consistency of many more expensive airgun pellets – they are actually very good for the price.
As you can see from numerous HAM airgun test reviews, Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets often shoot well – or better – in a wide range of different airguns.
The fact that they are so widely available in big box stores means that, in case of a temporary pellet shortage, you’ll always be able to buy some of these pellets locally. And, very often, they will actually do a good job for you. In the HAM Team’s opinion, this makes them great value for money.
BUY FROM PYRAMYD AIR
Crosman Premier .177 Cal, 7.9 Grains, Hollowpoint, 500ct![]()
BUY FROM AIRGUN DEPOT
Crosman Premier Hollowpoint Pellets 7.9 Gr 500 Ct
TEST DATA SUMMARY
| Price per Pellet | 2.00 cents |
| Most Common Weight | 7.95 Grains 7.96 Grains |
| Pellets at That Common Weight | 18% 18% |
| Variation in Pellet Weight (Smallest to Largest) | 4.13% |
| Most Common Head Diameter | 4.52 mm |
| Pellet at That Common Head Diameter | 40% |
| Variation in Head Diameter (Smallest to Largest) | 1.79% |
| Most Common Length | 5.37 mm 5.54 mm |
| Pellets at That Common Length | 8% 8% |
| Variation in Length (Smallest to Largest) | 6.20% |
COMPARISON TO MAKERS CLAIMS
The manufacturer claims that Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets have a weight of – er – 7.9 Grains. The pellets tested by HAM came-in 6.3% higher at an average of 7.95 Grains.
The tin is specified to contain 500 pellets. There were actually 505 pellets in the tin tested by HAM. Thanks Crosman!
Crosman claims that these Premier Hollow Point pellets give “maximum power and expansion”. It’s there on the packaging. They also claim on the company website that these pellets are “perfect for small game hunting”.
As we can see from the Hunting Use section below, the Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets certainly do expand in contact with the target. This makes them a good choice for small game hunting.
However, given the weight of 7.9 Grains, it’s difficult to see how the claim for “maximum power” can be justified. At this weight, they’re too heavy to generate maximum Muzzle Energy (power) in a spring/piston or gas ram air rifle. On the other hand, they’re far too light to pack the maximum power for a PCP airgun.
CONSISTENCY
The average head diameter of the Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain .177 Caliber pellets tested by HAM was 4.52 mm. This was also the most common diameter, with 40% of the tested pellets having this head diameter. This is somewhat less than average manufacturing consistency.
With the smallest head diameter being 4.47 mm and the largest 4.55 mm, the variation between extremes is 1.79%. This is a very wide spread of head diameters.
With most pellet manufacturers, head diameter is the most tightly-controlled parameter. This is not the case with either these Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets. Nor has it been so with other Crosman pellets tested by HAM.
The average weight of the Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets tested by HAM was 7.95 Grains. A total of 36% of the pellets tested by HAM had a weight of either 7.95 or 7.96 Grains.
In fact, weight consistency was quite good for the pellets tested by HAM. With the exception of the one light pellet shown in the chart below, it actually could have been very good. The variation between the lightest and heaviest pellets tested by HAM was 4.13%.
Overall length was poorly controlled in the sample Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets tested by HAM. Instead of the typical “bell curve” shape – as with the heights and head diameter charts above, the spread showed two separate peaks: at 5.37 mm and 5.55 mm long.
This is similar to the three peaks shown in the .22 caliber version of these pellets when tested by HAM previously.
The average length of the pellets tested by HAM was 5.48 mm. At 5.32 mm, the shortest pellet had a length 6.20% less than the longest at 5.65 mm. Although most pellet manufacturers have relatively poor length control, this is a wide spread of pellet lengths.
DIRTINESS
The tin of Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets tested by HAM contained a total of 1.296 Grains of lead dust and junk. Of course, such lead waste is an unavoidable result of manufacturing lead pellets.
However, for a tin containing (nominally) 500 pellets, this is a very good result at just 0.259 Grains of lead dust per 100 pellets. This low dirt level may be due to the relatively hard lead that Crosman pellets are manufactured from.
DOWNRANGE PERFORMANCE
As this Chairgun chart shows, the Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets gave effectively “flat” shooting between 11 and 35 Yards using HAM’s standard “1,000 FPS” Beeman 1074 air rifle. Sight-in range was 35 Yards.
But the low Ballistic Coefficient of 0.012 does mean that these pellets do loose FPS quite rapidly downrange. Therefore they have a strongly elliptical flight path.
HUNTING USE
In the HAM “ballistic soap” test, a representative Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellet shed its energy very rapidly on contact with the target. Penetration was just 31 mm when fired from the Beeman 1074 test gun.
When retrieved from the soap, it could be seen that the pellet had expanded from an unfired diameter of 4.53 mm to 6.22 mm. The length had collapsed from 5.52 mm before firing to just 4.02 mm.
All this means that these pellets would be suitable for small game hunting – as recommended by Crosman – but at relatively short ranges. As the Chairgun chart shows, 30% of the original Muzzle Energy has already been lost within 17 Yards. It’s down to 50% after 35 Yards.
BUYING AND OWNING
As mentioned above, Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain pellets are available just about everywhere, both online and in physical stores. This makes them very easy to buy.
But having purchased the pellets, you may sometimes find that it’s incredibly difficult to remove the screw-top lid. Some Crosman pellet tins open relatively easily, while others require the assistance of a strap wrench!
However, although these pellets have no foam padding disk and rattle around in the tin, the hard lead alloy used by Crosman means that they are very resistant to shipping damage. There were no damaged pellets in the tin tested by HAM – and this is quite normal in our experience.
TEST DATA
BUY FROM PYRAMYD AIR
Crosman Premier .177 Cal, 7.9 Grains, Hollowpoint, 500ct![]()
BUY FROM AIRGUN DEPOT
Crosman Premier Hollowpoint Pellets 7.9 Gr 500 Ct
For background details on HAM’s Pellet Test Review methodology, check out this link.
Chairgun is a product of Hawke Sports Optics LLC and is used with permission. Check out http://www.hawkeoptics.com
Understanding HAM Pellet Awards
HAM Pellet Awards come from the most rigorous, professional and comprehensive pellet testing by any independent publication. They are the result of much precise measurement and analysis using high precision measuring devices and highly-experienced testers.
Note that accuracy is a product of the complete “system” of airgun, scope, atmospheric conditions and shooter ability – not the pellet alone.
This means that no pellet test review can predict the accuracy of a particular pellet with YOUR individual air rifle. That’s why we do not measure accuracy in these pellet tests.
What HAM Pellet Awards do recognize is manufacturing consistency. Inconsistent pellets definitely will be inaccurate, consistent pellets are much more likely to be accurate.
HAM Awards also recognize value. There’s considerable variation in the price of airgun pellets. This means that an 8 cent pellet needs to score higher than a 2 cent pellet to achieve an award.
For full details of the HAM Pellet Award scoring methodology, please check out our Pellet Testing page.
For a full listing of HAM-tested Ballistic Coefficients, please see our Ballistic Coefficients page.
This entire article including scoring, data etc is Copyright Hard Air Magazine and may NOT in part or in whole be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the publisher.
The post Crosman Premier Hollow Point 7.9 Grain .177 Caliber Pellet Test Review appeared first on Hard Air Magazine.