JSB is an abbreviation for Joseph Schulz, Bohumin. Bohumin being the city where the pellet factory is located. Mr. Schulz is an electrician by trade. However, his hobby is shooting, initially with firearms where he won the Czech Republic championship in Standard Pistol. After the Soviet invasion in 1968 Mr. Schulz changed professions from electrician to photography. His interest in shooting did not diminish any but changed to airguns. In that year the Czech shooting teams had a problem purchasing good quality pellets. They were too expensive from Germany and none with the sought after quality were available at home. In 1983 Mr. Schulz came up with his design of an automatic pellet press. The same year as the machines were being developed experimentation continued with pellet design. The best designs being evaluated at the Bohumin range. But early on these pellets were used only by the local shooters and the national team representing the Czech Republic.

The Bohumin range is a rather large complex by European standards. Covering almost a quarter of a million square feet, that includes 24 stands for 50 meter (m) pistol. There is running target at 50m as well as 10m. A 25m range for service pistol, 100m range for service rifle, submachine guns, and a grenade range. This latter I am particularly anxious to see for myself, since I didn't believe such a thing could even exist for civilian use.

After the 1989 revolution Mr. Schulz had to figure out how he was going to make a living and save the range while continuing with pellet production. With the range he had the help from fellow shooter and coach Margita Kolebacova. She was more than capable of handling the range from the organization to the coaching aspect. Just before the birth of JSB, Mr. Shulz worked for a steel mill as a technical and research photographer .

In 1990 the new government established guidelines for small business. This was the start of the JSB company. With a loan and a provision of that loan that the company employ 7 workers within 3 years. First a rolling mill that makes 45 pieces per second was introduced into production in six months time. The main press took several months to set up. However, the biggest problems were the lubricant used in production and the automatic feed of unfinished products to the machine itself. All pellet production has to solve the lubricant problem. Not only the machinery itself but for the finished product; the pellet. I am sure there are shooters that complain that the tin is too greasy or it stains hands (JSB pellets are among the cleanest on the market). That is the result of the lubrication process used by that particular manufacturer. The company also needed a melting furnace, and high pressure press for making lead wire. Final sorting, packaging, packing and design of tin covers, were just a few of the many problems that presented themselves. Once the machines were made and delivered, production started with the basic match wad cutter type pellet. From the previous testing two weights were produced; a 0.520 gram (8.1 grains) and 0.475 gram (7.32grain) pellets. Both are still in production to this date. Naturally these pellets have different lengths from 5.2 to 5.5 millimeters to cover almost all the air pistols and rifles on the market. And to top it off the customer can now order them in 4.47mm to 4.52mm head diameters.

Up to 1994 JSB had a broker that handled sales. In 1994, JSB decided to market the product for itself. Ms. Kolebacova being responsible for sales along with her front office duties. The first major break into the world market came when Styer became the sponsor of the Czech national shooting team. From that time all Styer pistols were tested with JSB pellets before they left the factory, and I am sure the test target is included with the pistol. From Styer the information was passed on to Dynamit Nobel. Dynamit Nobel and JSB worked together for about 3.5 years. No doubt there are some JSB pellets under the RWS lid. To this day there is a firm in Munich that distributes JSB pellets to the German speaking Europe exclusively; which includes Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In time the company had enough customers asking for .22 caliber pellets. This pressure was due to the importing of .22 cal. airguns from Spain. The first .22 pellet was a standard flat head pellet called Jumbo Match. Jumbo was closely followed by a semi-pointed Straton, somewhat similar to the Barracuda Kodiak but lighter at 16 grains. Recently a round nose pellet called Exact was introduced. T.G.A.G. (480-513-3778)currently sells the complete line of JSB pellets in the states under the original JSB label.

In 1998 an English firm contacted the company to see if JSB could produce a round nose pellet. Samples from H&N, RWS and Crossman were sent and from those samples evoled Exact. It's marketed in England as Diabolo Field in .177cal and .22cal. The .177 weighs in at .547 grams (8.44 grains), the .22 weighs 1.035 grams (15.89 grains). This English customer also supplied the airguns of their make and specified what the accuracy the pellet should produce. Their specifications demanded that it shoot a group no larger than 12 mm at 50 yards for the .177cal, 16 mm for the .22 caliber. JSB provides this same service for any customer that is willing to supply the rifles or pistols.

There was a sticking point with the customer, they wanted exclusive rights for not only England but the whole world. It is worth noting that there was another English company who was also interested in all of JSB's pellet prodution. The pellet was simply that good. At first JSB did not want to agree until England assured the company it would take all pellets JSB could produce of this type. This was hard to do since the English firm did not invent the pellet; only request it. In any event, the purchase of all pellets produced could not be met so with a renegotiated agreement, a modified pellet is now sold throughout the world. Changes are primarily in the neck and height, both of which are hard to detect. These pellets are now sold under more familiar names like: Daystate, AOA Select and JSB's own label, Exact. I spoke with a lot of shooters that shoot the higher power airguns and they seem to like these new pellets better. It seems they shoot better in the higher power rifles than the pellets made for rifles generating only 12 foot pounds.

It is important to note that virtually all pellet makers will put any label on the tin. If the customer doesn't have their own label design the manufacture can provide the artwork. Then the same pellet as the maker produces is marketed under the customers' label. A customer can also order variations in the weight, diameter and height. Good examples are; Nygord pellets are by H&N, AOA, Daystate, and Air Arms by JSB. More familiar is the Daisy brand made by Gamo, as is the Canadian Ruko brand. I have even seen pellets under the Eley label that looked too much like Gamo. Finally let's not forget Beeman pellets, provided by H&N.

Is there anything wrong with the practice? Absolutely not, for the pellet tin collector it makes for some very interesting collecting. But, when reading or writing an article that claims one brand shoots better than another, stop and think. Is this Daystate pellet shooting better than the JSB pellet because it has different diameter? Or is it just an accident in the few groups shot to determine the winner. To make these sort of articles valid one must state the diameter and the amount of groups shot. If they are a three shot group or a ten shot group, is important. The number of groups matters. More the merrier, and lets face it is all for the fun of the sport.

Today JSB employs 19 people, of which 5 oversee the manufacture of pellets on 12 pellet presses. 13 are employed to sort the pellets for imperfections: By hand. Yes, I am not making this up. There are people employed to sort all the pellets a shooter mainly takes for granted by HAND. Over worked Ms. Margita Kolebacova is also in charge of production. There's nothing she can't do!

I have tested almost all the pellets JSB produces with few exceptions (mainly in length variations). It does not matter whether it is for punching paper or toppling silhouettes, these pellets perform second to none.

.................................( JSB Heavy pellets )

On my regular call to T.G.A.G. to see what is new, I was told JSB heavy pellets came in.  So I drop my spoon into my soup and head immediately over to get some for testing.  Expecting to find a large mound of cases I find JSB send over a well-padded generic tin for test firing out of some of our higher powered airguns. The tin does not even have a label on it, so I cant even reveal what they are called.  It seems that JSB wants to make the design of these pellets friendly to all airguns. Not just the 12 foot pound rifles like the 8.44 Exactwere supposedly when they first came out. The second manufacturer of the 8.44 Exact is friendly to any power airgun within reason.  So they air mailed some samples for testing and that is what I had my hands on.  Looks like a good amount of pellets for a fair test, so here is how it is going so far.

    The rifle is my S410E that zips 8.44 pellets out at 1050 fps with some impressive accuracy.  Pumped up to 200 bar I started shooting five shot groups. After every 20 shots the rifle was topped off to 200 bar again.  All shots were from a sand bagged rest forward and under the rear of the stock. Pellets were lightly lubed with Ballistol.    
    At first glance the JSB heavies looked long by comparison to some of the other 10+ grain manufacturers.  So I got my caliper out and here is how they stacked up;

.....................................................................Pellets.In length.
.............................................................Barracuda/Kodiak----.268
.............................................................RWS/FTS---------------.271
.............................................................Crossman---------------.264
.............................................................JSB-----------------------.272

At first I was sort of concerned since the length was so close to the FTS, a pellets I cant get any of my airguns to shoot well at all.  But then the length is also good for long range stability.
Also I was not sure the weight of the pellets.  I heard some comments it will be 10.5 then the weight was less and on it went.  So I picked at random 50 pellets and using my Dillon electronic scale I came up with 21 pellets with the weight of 10.2 grains; 18 pellets at 10.1; 8 pellets at 10; 2 pellets at 9.9; and 1 came in at 10.3 grains.  Average of the 50 came to 10.122, so since most pellets came to 10.2 grains I will just refer to them as such.  At least until the shipment comes in with a label on it. And before I forget the batch I had was 4.52 mm. head diameter.

    Range time proved sort of disappointing since it is raining here on and off so all I had time to shoot only at the 25 yard range.  The 50 yard range will have to wait for clearer weather and that I hope will besoon.  Also testing was done with non select pellets, just picked out of the respective boxes.  And since I shoot the JSB 8.44 Exact out of the AA S410e I also shot them for control groups.  The average groups presented here is from seven five shot groups measured center to center.
  Here is how they faired;

........................................	JSB Light-----------.166	..............................................
	JSB Heavy---------.173
	Kodiak match------.203
	Crossman-----------.263
	FTS-------------------.361

So far I like what I see, groups look good.  One thing I also noticed was that the point of impact was not that much different from the lighter JSB Exacts.  I will have a follow up at 50 yards as soon as calmer weather arrives.