MAKO’S HOME PELLET TESTING RANGE
My Pellet Testing rig consists simply of a WorkMate 550 folding work bench with a heavy 5″ vise bolted to one of the removable top working surfaces. I believe the WorkMate was around $90 and the vise was around $60.
The vise comes with plastic vise jaw protectors, to which I glued pieces of wooden molding that duplicates the circumferance of the air cylinders. I lined the molding with some cloth tape as further protection for the air cylinder’s finish. Obviously you tighten the vise only enough to immobilize the pistol. Make sure the air cylinder is fairly tightly secured to the pistol itself.
This rig will not hold a pump type air pistol (IZH46) tighly enough to allow one to pump it between shots without the pistol moving.
Originally I was laying a couple of 30 pound weight lifting weights across the top of the WorkMate for added stability. But this does not seem necessary if one is reasonable gentle in manipulating the air pistol during the test and the WorkMate is on level ground.
My target box/pellet catcher consists of a 8″ X 8″ steel electrical junction box filled with four pounds of Duct Seal electrical putty. You should be able to find both of these items at a large “Home Depot” type building supply store. I bolted a folding carrying handle on top, a paper spring clip to the front and glued strips of industrial carpeting to the front edges (bottom one has fallen off after 1.5 years of mostly sitting outside). The Duct Seal makes the box back heavy. I’ve attached 1/4 inch high self adhesive rubber pads to the bottom rear so that the box leans slightly forward to compensate for the back weight. There are probably better solutions to this.
Note that when I test pellets, I don’t just hang a target on my pellet catcher. I tape a cardboard frame that is slightly smaller then my target to the front of the target holder and tape the target (back of an Edelmann target for clean holes) securily to this cardboard frame. I do this so that there is less chance of the target shifting while shooting groups.
The film cannister on top of the pellet catcher contains 10 meters of string with an added knot to indicate the correct 55” height.
The particular vise that I purchased allows one to both pan and tilt the pistol. I found it actually easier to keep the pistol in one place and slide my target box sideways between groups.
Note that the sample pellet testing card was shot with my Steyr LP10 
that was set to shoot at around 550 FPS. The resulting groups are only valid for this pistol and that velocity. 550 fps is probably a bit hot. Some people consider 510 to 530 fps an optimum 10 meter velocity. Some manufacturers say 475 fps is optimal. That lower speed is certainly “optimal” for getting their advertised amount of shots per air cylinder load. Group sizes can be optimized by adjusting the velocity.
While having the perfect pellet matched to a particular air pistol is not necessary for most of us, at some point group size can effect your score. Most high quality match air pellets will group fine with any match air pistol. As you can see from the sample test target, size and weight does make a difference. Generally you would pick a light weight pellet with a less powerful air pistol.
The old adage that a heavier pellet is perferrable for a match air pistol is not necessarily true.
Unfortunately most manufacturers do not tell you all of the info that you need about the pellets they used to shoot their sample test target that is usually included with the new pistol. You need type, weight and size. Walther is to be commended for listing all of that info, at least with their new LP300 air pistol. But even with all of that information, you still might not be able to reproduce their results because of slight difference between batches.