Predator vs Crow Magnum Pellet Test
By Tom Holzel
June 2006

One of the ideas Robert Beeman and I had back in the early 1990's when we were designing the Crow Magnum pellet, was to put a round plastic ball in the forward-facing hollow head cup of the pellet to increase its ballistic coefficient. The concept was for the ball to reduce air resistance, and then still permit the eggcup-like pellet to open up significantly to increase the size of the wound channel.  But we decided it would be difficult to exactly center the ball.  With the pellet's high-speed rotation, any off-balance element would lead to wild oscillations and poor accuracy.

As it was, the Beeman Crow Magnum pellet was the first "Hollow-Head" pellet, and the first one to actual open up inside the body of the quarry.  The advantage of this feature was to essentially eliminate "over-penetration," by which only a third or so of the pellet's energy was transferred to the target--the rest being carried out with the exiting pellet. The expanding pellet diameter greatly increased tissue damage, thus making it a much more lethal pellet.  This reduced wounding (non-lethal hits) and helped assure a rapid death of the quarry.

However, the downside of this design is a reduced ballistic coefficient (BC). The yawning open front end is not as efficient as most pellets in cutting through the air. This meant more energy was lost to atmospheric friction, and a somewhat more bowed trajectory results for the pellet's weight.  Nevertheless, the practical effect was an accurate pellet of significantly better hunting performance in the field, and the Crow Magnum quickly won a large following of air rifle hunters of fur-bearing critters.

Now along comes Predator International, Inc with a hollow-head pellet that successfully adds a ballistic enhancing fairing--and one that performs a secondary function as well.  The sharp conical plastic tip of the Predator pellet not only greatly increases its ballistic coefficient, but probably also increases its ability to penetrate the tough hide of a four-legged varmint. 

The photo shows some .22-cal Predator pellets before and after being fired into my animal flesh simulator--bars of Ivory soap.  Note that the pellets did nicely expand in diameter.  In fact, at 40 yards, they expanded in Ivory soap while the Crow Magnums do not. (Of course, while Ivory soap is pretty good at predicting penetration--unless bones or gristle are hit--it is less accurate at predicting expansion.  Most Crow Magnum pellets I have exhumed all showed some expansion, even at 50 & sometimes 60-yards.)  But I could not find any cooperative woodchucks to determine how well the Predators do in real animals.

In flight, the Predator did exceptionally well.  I used a .22-cal RWS 350 (19 ft-lbs) to test Crow Magnum and Predator pellets in Ivory soap at 40 yards. Shown below is the channel in Ivory soap.  Note that the plastic tip releases (second Ivory bar) as the pellet expands and travels on almost 4 bars deep. 

The depth of penetration of the Predator averaged 3-2/3rds inches--the Crow Magnum 3-1/4 inches. Of course, the Crow magnum strikes the ivory soap at 465 fps and 9 ft-lbs of energy at 40 yards, while the Predator, fired out of the same rifle, hits the same target at 603 fps and 13 ft-lbs of energy. (It would be interesting to test penetration of the two pellets at equal energy and equal velocity.)

The conical tip and the pellet's lighter weight made a difference in flight, too.

Graph. Predator )blue line) trajectory zeroed at 50 yards. The other two trajectories are Crow Magnum pellets zeroed at 45 and 50 yards.

The 16-grain Predator could be zeroed at 50 yards with a 1.9-inch rise at 30 yards. The 18.2 grain Crow Magnum needed to be zeroed at 45 yards to hold the 2-inch rise limit I give myself (2.2-inches in this case).  Zeroed to 50 yards the Crow Magnum rises 3.2-inches at 30 yards.

But the heavier Crow Magnum should deliver more energy to its target, right? It doesn't seem so. With a BC of 0.013, (vs 0.025 for the Predator) air resistance eats up energy rapidly and the Predator is more forceful at all ranges.

Both pellets were equally accurate on this test day--about 1/2-inch at 40 yards with no wind and 58F degrees.  It would be another interesting test to see how the two pellets do on a windy day. Traditionally, heavier pellets fare better, but that is because they usually have a better BC.  Here is the unusual case of a lighter pellet exhibiting a superior BC--quite an accomplishment.  

Of course this performance comes at a cost.  A single tin of 200 .22-cal Predators cost $12.50 plus shipping when bought from the manufacturer. Crow Magnums are available everywhere and sell on the internet for $7.95 plus shipping.

I must say that I had only briefly shot the RWS 350 used for this test about six months ago, and forgot what a very pleasant rifle it is. Light on the shoulder with a cocking effort that is easy, the rifle points wonderfully and is a real pleasure to use. It looks and feels like a fine Weatherby or other high-end center fire hunting rifle, an air rifle any serious shooter could be be proud to own and use. Given the excellent reputation RWS has with the reliability of its rifles, the 350 is certainly worth considering for anyone wanting to move up to a real magnum-class (20+ ft-lbs) hunting air rifle.