How are air gun pellets made?

Answer 1

Airgun pellets are made by the same process as bullets, called swaging. The pellets start as lead wire which is then pressed at room temperature into a die(swage) that is the inverse of the desired shape.

The die itself will usually be three to four parts. The first two parts clamp together much like a mold to form the diabolo shaped outer dimensions. Some dies have a third portion for the tip of the projectile which prevents a seam forming called the inner punch. Sometimes (as the case with Beeman Kodiak) the inner punch will have a pin hole in the very tip that allows excess lead to be extruded, ensuring uniform weight. The last part of the swage assembly is the punch which presses the lead from the rear to fill the die and forms the skirt or hollow inside of the pellet.

After the swaging process a sample of the results are inspected for quality before they are packaged by weight.

Shotgun pellets and bbs are made by a different process. They start off as lead or mild steel wire which is cut into pieces and rolled. The machine that rolls them has a lower half with a spiral groove that gradually decreases in diameter as it approaches the center and looks much like a giant metal record. The top portion is another flat plate which rotates just above the lower one similarly to a grain mill. As the top portion rotates it rolls the pellets along the groove toward the center and they exit in the center where they move on to a sorting machine. Over or under sized pellets will be recycled into wire and run through the machine again.

Steel bbs are electroplated with copper or zinc before packaging to prevent rust.