Anybody remember when the smooth vs. ribbed Kodiak pellets were available? I do remember the Kodiak match pellets were $1 more per tin. Ran out of a .22 Kodiak tin recently, and opened a 2nd hand Kodiak tin from the stash. I don't remember ever shooting ribbed Kodiaks before. The Kodiaks match pellets must of had higher tolerances. The Kodiak Match pellets in the photos are lubed with Krytech.
Ooooooooweeeee!!!
Blast from the past! ROFL!
ORIGINALLY, the Baracuda pellets (developed for the ether-burning Barakuda rifle) were made by rolling, as all pellets prior to he 1960's
In the 60's Vogel made the first two die machines to produce pellets from wire. Prior to that, the wire would be cut, then swaged into a slug that had the head and a large hollow base, then the slug was rolled between two steel disks's sides, the disks impressed the striations put there to act as "drive" for the pellets to pass along the route, and by having closer and closer distance between the rollers, the skirt was made.
RWS MeisterKugeln were the first pellets made with two half dies and a base punch.
BUT shooters still felt that striated pellets were better made, the smooth sided ones that were made by rolling were indeed less round, as the pellet could slip and not roll evenly.
So, H&N HAD to make the dies with the striations ("Gerifelt" in German) to satisfy those users, among them, Doc Beeman. You can clearly see that the die/split lines are visible, parallel to the striations.
It took some years for shooters, to realize that smooth sided pellets that had a well made skirt cavity were made with a punch, not by rollers that had empty air to act against. And that was when the striations came out of fashion.
🙂
Thanks for the flashback!
HM
Standard Deviation #'s from 10 random pellets from each tin. Most consistent in terms of weight:
1. Barracuda Match
2. Kodiak Ribbed
3. Kodiak Smooth