I’m an avid .177 user when it comes to hunting, but just recently I’ve had an influx of test rifles in .22 calibre, and part of my new testing regimen is to see just how well each rifle performs in the field as well as on the range, when conditions allow. With that in mind I needed some decent .22 pellets to help with testing, and as soon as I opened a tin of the new ‘Dead Center’ range from JTS I knew I was on to a winner.

I’d opted for the heavier of the two available weights, the 18.10gr version, mainly because I’d be shooting rabbits on a permission where the actual target range was between 20 and 30 yards. I knew I wouldn’t have to push out much further than that due to where I was shooting from, and where the rabbits were emerging, so the heavier option was perfect for that scenario.

If I was going to have to push out maybe another ten yards, then I’d likely opt for the lighter 16.06gr pellets, just to give me that little bit more leeway without having so much holdover.

A BRIEF HISTORY

The guys at The Shooting Party, who distribute these pellets in the UK, have worked closely with the founders of JTS in Katy, Texas, for over a decade, and they have been their manufacturing partners for many of their most successful products. JTS Airguns officially introduced Dead Center Pellets to the world on January 4, 2023. Having spent more than two years reviewing the current market offerings, they determined that there was a need to produce a competitively priced product that has performance characteristics better than the industry’s best.

They commissioned a multinational group of engineers with disciplines in mechanical, industrial, aerospace and design to set this project in motion. This team quickly determined that airgun pellet manufacturing had essentially been unchanged for years. Current pellet processing is inconsistent and requires sorting of all production products to ensure that consumers receive acceptable products. This inspection process is both expensive and time consuming.

The team took the next step in the evolution of pellet manufacturing and designed proprietary equipment that would stabilise the manufacturing process and ensure its consistency, thus reducing the need for sorting. Once the manufacturing equipment was completed the team moved on to the next step in this evolution.

Pellet production consistency is also largely affected by the tooling required to make each pellet. The JTS tooling was designed with three key things in mind. These keys were Standardization of Tooling, SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) and No Adjust Tooling. These three concepts are what sets Dead Center pellets apart from their competitors.

 

The next step was to design pellets that were accurate across as many platforms as possible. As we are all aware there are many styles of airguns from breakbarrels to high-end competition PCPs. JTS designed the pellets utilising the latest in aerospace designs to ensure that the finished pellets would be superaccurate and consistent. The designs then went through extensive testing across a wide range of airgun platforms and environmental conditions.

CONCLUSION

I think the results speak for themselves. I won’t bore you with photos of paper targets, there’s no need for that, I have tested these pellets in various PCP rifles over the past three months and they have performed equally as well in everything I’ve shot them with – which really is quite a rare occurrence as you will be aware.

I think the quality and consistency of these Dead Center pellets is the main reason why they seem to perform so well in all manner of rifles. Give them a go and see how they perform in your own .22 rifle, and please let me know how you get on with them.