HAM’s Top Ten Most Popular Airgun Pellet Reviews 2020

Drum roll, please! Here are HAM’s Top Ten most popular airgun pellet reviews 2020. And – guess what? – the most popular one is a slug!

Firstly, the whole HAM Team would like to thank all Hard Air Magazine readers – every one of you! In 2020, you read over 800,000 HAM test reviews – that’s an increase of 200,000 compared to the previous year.

In total, you spent 0ver 54,000 – yes FIFTY-FOUR THOUSAND HOURS – reading HAM reviews this year. Thank you for your support! We hope that you continue to find HAM test reviews informative, useful and interesting

So this really is your choice of most popular airgun pellet reviews for 2020.

Out of these top ten most popular airgun pellet reviews 2020, six were for .22 caliber pellets. Three were for .25 cal and just one for .177 caliber.

Most popular manufacturer was JSB, with seven out of the top ten places. Crosman placed second with two and FX third with one (although it was the winner).

Congratulations to all the manufacturers! Here they are…

First Place – FX Hybrid Slugs .22 Caliber

This FX Hybrid Slugs test review is the first HAM test of airgun slugs. What we find are projectiles of an unique design with enormous potential for shooting at extreme range. So long as you have a very high powered PCP air rifle with a barrel that tolerates slugs…

If you have a Power Plenum-equipped FX air rifle or similar powerhouse, these are likely to be great slugs for long-range hunting.

So why not a higher HAM ranking than this Bronze Award? Well, these slugs are expensive and they don’t really match the manufacturer’s specs in all respects. But if you have an appropriate air rifle, you really need to try them!

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FX Hybrid Slugs .22 Cal

Second – JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy .22 Caliber

JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy 18.13 Grain pellets are well-priced and give excellent quality of manufacture. It’s easy to see why they win a coveted HAM Gold Award!

These pellets would be ideal for airgun hunting with a powerful PCP air rifle. But they’re probably somewhat heavy for a mid- or low-power springer, resulting in a rather elliptical trajectory with lower powered air rifles.

JSB pellets have a great reputation for accuracy. If your gun likes these pellets and has enough power, why look further?

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JSB Match Diabolo Exact Jumbo Heavy .22 Cal, 18.13 Grains, Domed, 250ct

In Third Place – Redesigned Jumbo Monsters .22 Caliber

The redesigned JSB Exact Jumbo Monster 25.39 grain pellets are a great choice for airgun hunting with powerful PCP air rifles.

They easily achieve a HAM Silver Award for quality and value. Had the test pellets matched JSB’s usual standards for cleanliness and weight variability they could have achieved a Gold Award.

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JSB Jumbo Monster Pellets .22 Cal

Fourth – JSB Hades .25 Caliber

JSB Hades 26.54 Grain .25 caliber pellets are likely the best “one piece” pellets for airgun hunting.

They combine consistent, high quality manufacturing with devastating expansion upon impact. Although not tested in this review, they also have an excellent reputation for accuracy.

Hades pellets are an easy HAM Gold Award winner. If you’re an airgun hunter shooting .25 caliber, you definitely need to try them out!

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JSB Match Diabolo Hades, .25 Cal, 26.54gr, Pointed 150 ct 0.25

In Fifth Place – JSB King Heavy MkII .25 Caliber

JSB Exact King Heavy MkII 33.95 Grain .25 caliber pellets combine heavy weight with a high Ballistic Coefficient and excellent control of head diameter.

This is a great pellet for the long range shooter. The tin of pellets tested by HAM did show more variation in individual weights than is normally found in JSB products, however.

But in spite of this, these King Heavies earn a HAM Bronze Award. That backs-up their outstanding reputation for long range accuracy. HAM will be including them as a standard test pellet for our high power .25 caliber PCP air rifle reviews.

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JSB Exact King Heavy 300 Count

Sixth Position – Crosman Premier Domed Ultra Heavy .22 Caliber

Crosman Premier Domed Ultra Heavy 19.0 Grain .22 caliber pellets are fairly decent pellets.

If these heavy – not ultra heavy – pellets prove accurate in your air rifle, they could be worth trying for hunting; preferably with a powerful PCP air rifle. However the low Ballistic Coefficient means that they are best used at short range.

The main reason they do not achieve a HAM Award is that they are simply too expensive for the manufacturing quality they offer.

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Crosman Premier .22 Cal, 19 Grains, Domed, 200ct 0.22

Seventh – Crosman Premier Hollowpoint .22 Caliber

Crosman Premier Hollowpoint 14.3 Grain pellets are far from being the most consistent pellets available. But they do work well in a wide variety of airguns and sometimes can match the accuracy of much more expensive pellets.

Crosman’s distribution muscle means that these pellets are available everywhere airguns are sold. That’s another great benefit, although it doesn’t factor into our scoring.

These Premiers justify a HAM Gold Award because their remarkably low price makes them outstanding value. If you’re looking for a “go to” pellet at a very low price, this is the place to start!

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Crosman Premier Hollowpoint 14.3 Grain, 500 Ct

Eighth – JSB Exact King .25 Caliber

Twenty Five is a primary airgun hunting caliber. JSB Exact King 25.36 Grain .25 Caliber pellets are the most popular out there and it’s easy to see why from this HAM test review!

The relatively high Ballistic Coefficient of 0.038 gives these pellets good downrange hunting characteristics and the head sizes are very consistent.

This is an easy HAM Silver Award winner and – without one short pellet in the test sample – would have achieved Gold.

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JSB Exact King 25.39 Grain .25 Cal Pellets, 150 Ct

Number Nine – JSB Exact Diabolo .177 Caliber

JSB Exact Diabolo 8.44 Grain .177 caliber airgun pellets easily win a coveted HAM Gold Award. This is because they offer excellent manufacturing consistency for a very fair price.

It’s clear why these pellets are a favorite among Field Target shooters. In addition, they shoot well in a wide variety of air rifles and are a great “go to” pellet when testing-out your latest .177 caliber air rifle for the first time.

Recommended.

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JSB Match Diabolo Exact .177 Cal, 8.4 Grains, Domed, 500ct, 4.52mm

Tenth – JSB Exact Jumbo Diabolo .22 Caliber

JSB Exact Jumbo Diabolo pellets represent good value at a relatively low price. They would be an effective hunting pellet, particularly for more powerful air rifles.

Unfortunately, the weight consistency of the sample pellets tested by HAM was not representative of other JSB pellets we have reviewed. Maybe we got unlucky this time?

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JSB Exact Jumbo Diabolo 15.89 Grain .22 Cal 250 Ct

Again, thanks to all of you for checking-out HAM’s top ten most popular airgun pellet reviews 2020 and reading them throughout the year!