Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 Caliber Pellet Test Review
Overview
Testers: Doug Wall
Caliber: .177
Model Number: N/A
Test Date: July 20, 2017
Serial Numbers: N/A
Source of Supply: Supplied by Predator International, Inc.
Condition: New
We Like
Good manufacturing consistency.
We Don't Like
But the price is very steep.
HAM RATING
- Comparison to Makers Claims:70%
- Most Common Head Diameter 50%
- Variation in Head Diameter 60%
- Most Common Weight 90%
- Variation in Weight 70%
- Most Common Length 50%
- Variation in Length 60%
- Dirtiness 80%
65%
HARD AIR MAGAZINE TEST CONCLUSIONS
There’s no doubt about it. Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets are an excellent choice for 10 Meter paper punching.
Consistency is excellent and this means that they are likely to perform well in air pistols or low-powered air rifles.
Unfortunately the price is just too high for them to qualify for a HAM Award.
VALUE FOR MONEY
Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets are labeled as “Olympic Grade”. This is because they have been used by Olympic-level competitors with success over the years. These pellets have a very high reputation among the precision air rifle shooting community.
These “QY” pellets are individually packed in foam sheets, 100 pellets per sheet. Two sheets per package.
Manufactured by Zhuhai Qiangyuan Sportsgoods Co. Ltd. in China, Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets are expensive – as you would expect from a product with this reputation and background. The Street Price is $16.99 for a tray of 200 pellets, making the cost per pellet a hefty 8.5 cents.
Of course, leading online retailers offer “buy four tins, get one free” offers, so the price could be correspondingly less if you buy in bulk.
BUY FROM PYRAMYD AIR
Qiang Yuan Olympic Pellets, .177 Cal, 8.2 Grains, Wadcutter, 200ct
TEST DATA SUMMARY
| Price per Pellet | 8.5 cents |
| Most Common Weight | 8.55 Grains |
| Pellets at That Common Weight | 22% |
| Variation in Pellet Weight (Smallest to Largest) | 2.0% |
| Most Common Head Diameter | 4.52 mm |
| Pellet at That Common Head Diameter | 60% |
| Variation in Head Diameter (Smallest to Largest) | 0.4% |
| Most Common Length | 5.68 mm |
| Pellets at That Common Length | 24% |
| Variation in Length (Smallest to Largest) | 1.9% |
COMPARISON TO MAKERS CLAIMS
The Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets tested by HAM contained 200 in the pack, exactly as claimed by the manufacturer.
The claimed weight of Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets was exceeded by the pellets in this test review. The average tested pellet weight was 8.53 Grains.
Although no specific head diameter is claimed explicitly for the Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets, there’s a label on the bottom of the box that included the numbers 4.50. The head diameter of the pellets tested by HAM averaged 4.52mm.
CONSISTENCY
There were no damaged or malformed pellets in the HAM test sample.
Head diameter of the Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets was tightly controlled, with a minimum of 4.51 mm and a maximum of 4.53 mm. 60% of the “QY” pellets tested by HAM had this head diameter, with 36% at 4.52mm. Just 4% had a head diameter of 4.53 mm.
The variation between smallest and largest head diameters in the pellets tested by HAM was just 0.4%.
Weights of the Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets tested by HAM varied between 8.43 Grains and 8.60 Grains. So, none of the pellets actually weighed the claimed 8.18 Grains. The heaviest pellet thus weighed 2.0% more than the lightest tested.
The most common weight was 8.55 Grains, with 22 % of the tested pellets recording this weight on Hard Air Magazine’s incredibly-precise, laboratory-grade milligram balance.
The most common length for the Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets tested by HAM was 5.68mm. 24% of the tested pellets were of that length. The longest pellets – at 5.72 mm – were 1.9% longer than the shortest, which measured 5.61 mm.
DIRTINESS
The photograph below shows the amount of lead dust and dirt particles that was in the pack of QY pellets tested by HAM. This measured 0.45 Grains of dirt for the 200-pellet pack, equal to 0.23 Grains per 100 pellets.
This represents a low level of the dirt and dust that’s inevitable in lead airgun pellet manufacture.
DOWNRANGE PERFORMANCE
As usual, HAM charted downrange performance for the Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets using the ChairGun ballistics program. We used a Ballistic Coefficient of 0.011, supplied by Predator International, the US distributors for QY pellets.
Muzzle Velocity averaged 907.3 FPS with the standard HAM test gun, the Beeman 1074. That equates to 11.74 Ft/Lbs of Muzzle Energy. Standard Deviation – the measure of shot-to-shot variability in Muzzle Velocity, was very low at just 3.97 FPS.
As Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 Caliber pellets are specifically designed for 10 Meter shooting, most shooters of these pellets will not be concerned with their performance at longer distances. However, Chairgun tells us that – if sighted-in at 35 yards – these QY pellets will shoot to a point of impact within plus or minus half an inch between 11 and 39 Yards.
Below is the data from which the above chart was calculated.
Range POI Drift Time Vel. Vel. Energy Energy Drop
(Yard) (In) (In) (sec) (Ft/s) (%) (FtLbf) (%) (In)
10 -0.49 -0.38 0.035 804.2 88.6 11.74 78.56 -0.2
15 -0.06 -0.84 0.054 761.5 83.9 10.53 70.45 -0.5
20 0.22 -1.49 0.075 722.1 79.6 9.47 63.34 -1.0
25 0.34 -2.33 0.096 685.6 75.6 8.54 57.10 -1.6
30 0.27 -3.38 0.118 651.4 71.8 7.70 51.54 -2.4
35 0.00 -4.62 0.142 618.8 68.2 6.95 46.52 -3.5
40 -0.50 -6.09 0.167 588.0 64.8 6.28 42.00 -4.7
45 -1.25 -7.79 0.193 558.6 61.6 5.67 37.91 -6.2
50 -2.28 -9.73 0.221 530.5 58.5 5.11 34.19 -8.0
55 -3.62 -11.93 0.250 503.6 55.5 4.61 30.81 -10.0
60 -5.30 -14.40 0.280 477.9 52.7 4.15 27.74 -12.5
HUNTING USE
Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 Caliber pellets are specifically designed for precision 10 Meter shooting competition. So, it’s not really fair to evaluate them for hunting use. However, the accuracy and wound channel characteristics indicate that they could be used to good effect for very short range hunting of small animals or birds.
As a wadcutter, that’s flat-fronted, design, Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 Caliber pellets loose speed and energy very fast downrange. In fact Chairgun calculates that the retained energy will be just 11.0 Ft/Lbs at 15 Yards from the muzzle. That would be our recommendation for a maximum hunting range with these pellets.
However, the large – 10 mm – wound channel in the standard HAM soap test block would be an asset for hunting. Pellet head expansion was 16.5% in the soap block. The original head diameter of 4.52 mm had expanded to 5.27 mm in the target.
BUYING AND OWNING
Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 Caliber pellets are individually packaged in a push top plastic tray. As you would expect, this provides excellent resistance to damage from shipping. The wadcutter design gives very sharp, clean round holes in paper targets. Again as expected.
As a specialty product, Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 Caliber pellets are not widely available. However Pyramyd Air does carry them, so they are easily available for purchase by phone or online ordering.
Although these Qiang Yuan 8.18 Grain .177 caliber pellets are fairly clean to handle, all appropriate precautions associated with any lead product must still be taken in use.
TEST DATA
For background details on HAM’s Pellet Test Review methodology, check out this link.
Chairgun is a product of Hawke Sports Optics LLC and is used with permission. Check out http://www.hawkeoptics.com
BUY FROM PYRAMYD AIR
Qiang Yuan Olympic Pellets, .177 Cal, 8.2 Grains, Wadcutter, 200ct
Understanding HAM Pellet Awards
HAM Pellet Awards come from the most rigorous, professional and comprehensive pellet testing by any independent publication. They are the result of much precise measurement and analysis using high precision measuring devices and highly-experienced testers.
Note that accuracy is a product of the complete “system” of airgun, scope, atmospheric conditions and shooter ability – not the pellet alone.
This means that no pellet test review can predict the accuracy of a particular pellet with YOUR individual air rifle. That’s why we do not measure accuracy in these pellet tests.
What HAM Pellet Awards do recognize is manufacturing consistency. Inconsistent pellets definitely will be inaccurate, consistent pellets are much more likely to be accurate.
HAM Awards also recognize value. There’s considerable variation in the price of airgun pellets. This means that an 8 cent pellet needs to score higher than a 2 cent pellet to achieve an award.
For full details of the HAM Pellet Award scoring methodology, please check out our Pellet Testing page.
For a full listing of HAM-tested Ballistic Coefficients, please see our Ballistic Coefficients page.
This entire article including scoring, data etc is Copyright Hard Air Magazine and may NOT in part or in whole be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the publisher.
