There’s a huge choice of airgun pellets in the USA!
In fact, as of July 2015, there are about 388 different airgun pellet SKUs to choose from. (A SKU is a Stock Keeping Unit, that is a particular type of pellets or pack size).
This total is for airgun pellets in the regular, that is “non big bore” calibers of .177 cal, .20 cal, .22 cal and .25 cal.
And, amazingly, there are more airgun pellets being introduced almost every month! HAM knows of at least two further companies planning to introduce new pellet ranges in the next few months.
This pie chart shows that, overall the 388 different airgun pellet SKUs, the most popular type of pellet is the domed, or dome head pellet with 42% of the SKUs. This makes sense as domed pellets are great general purpose pellets that can be used for hunting, plinking and target practice.
Second most popular are pointed pellets. Primarily used for hunting, these make up 24% of the SKUs for airgun pellets.
Third most popular are wadcutter – flat fronted – pellets that are primarily used for target shooting.
Hollow point pellets, again used for hunting and general shooting, make up another 10% of the SKUs.
This leaves a small number of other, highly specialized, airgun pellet types. Cylindrical pellets make up 3% of airgun pellet SKUs. Round balls account for 2% of SKUs and concave headed pellets make a minute fraction of a per cent.
Airgun pellets are manufactured in many countries, including Argentina, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Slovenia, UK and USA.
Crosman, of course, in the largest US manufacturer, most of their pellets are produced in the company’s headquarters in Bloomfield, NY. Other large manufacturers are Gamo and H&N.
H&N – Haendler and Natermann to give the company its full name – is a major German manufacturer of high quality pellets. H&N pellets are available under their own brand and also several other brands, including Stoeger Airguns and Hatsan.
The moral of this is that there’s a HUGE range of pellets in the market. There’s no need to stick to just one type. You may find another type of airgun pellet that shoots as well – or even better – in your air rifle or air pistol. Check out the test targets included in HAM’s airgun test reviews to see how different types of pellets can make major changes to accuracy in both air rifles and air pistols.
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