Cricket chirps in the moonlight….
My synthetic stock .25 Cricket has had my personal touch applied to the max. I have achieved near dead silence, and can now see in the dark.
I “vented” the rear of the shroud, and that reduced the muzzle sound to near zero, with the hammer slap and pellet impact being FAR more noisy.
I wrapped the air cylinder with neoprene close cell foam, and attached it with the sticky back adhesive. The hammer slap was reduced considerably.
Neil Clague made me a slip-on moderator for the Cricket. (May I suggest you Cricket owners consider this model, as his work is flawless and effective) it fits like a glove, and is easily removed. I had asked Neil to go “maximum” on length. 8″ on the moderator and 2″ inches for the “slide-on”. That gave me plenty of up and down room so I could slide the moderator up or down, as needed, so my fill probe would lift without problems. Once I snugged the grub screws on, it has remained solid. Aluminum and weighs near nothing. I believe the screws are delrin. (soft) The shroud has not seemed to suffer any scratches, and I put a very light layer of silicone grease on the shroud where the moderator would slides on and off.
I do not think it is humanly possible to get a .25 Cricket, tossing 30gr Barracudas at 880 to 900fps, to get any quieter!
What would I change? Weight! That synthetic stock is quite heavy, about 3.5 pounds. Durable beyond reasonable damage from use, but heavy. I’m talking to Maddog Doug about a replacement bullpup stock. He’s reasonable in cost, and has indicated he might be willing to come up with a bullpup stock, with the proper urging. I’m saving up the “proper urging” as we speak. His laminate poplar is very light and durable, as I already own one of his full length stocks. Also, I don’t need or want any finish but flat black. So Doug and I are ready to do some stock business. I suspect Doug’s stock would take off two to three pounds from the Synthetic Cricket stock.
Specs: 42″ OAL with Neil Clague slide-on magic. Weight…a whopping 13.5 lbs, with the 4 X 16- 42mm day scope mounted. The NV MK410 adds about two more pounds to that figure. (Now you know why Maddog and I are going to do business) That 3.0 lb NV MK410 isn’t light either, but I don’t move around when I’m night hunting.
However, I can slide off the moderator, remove the NV scope, and go back to basic length and weight whenever I choose. Most of my mischief is done at night.
The Atlas bipod…cute, functional, quite well made, but in the end doesn’t do anything for me, personally, that my UTG didn’t do. I don’t pan, swivel, or need all those various settings for the legs as to length and slope, but it’s there if I choose to use it. Quite light and compact when in the UP position.
For me, this is the perfect sniper weapon. I can live with the weight and length, because everything else, at night, simply does not exist to anyone more than ten feet away.
Here are the photos…enjoy:
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Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
Huh?
What pictures?
Actually, my photobucket account had so many pictures posted, that I was at 99% capacity, and I had to give my account an enema. Sorry guys…
The foam pad was simply placed over the breech, down to the wood on each side. The foam covered the part of the breech where the pellet was seated in
the barrel. By extending it forward of that point, you cover where the hammer hits the valve, and the sound is muted. Pretty simple.
I used some strong contact cement, as the glue on the foam was not up to the task of keeping the foam on.
I delete the sensitive ones after a while before they do too much damage sometimes with all of the slugs on the net. There may have been something in them or he just forgot cause he is old. 😕
This mostly happens when the pictures are deleted off the photobucket account….hoot probably deleted the pics because he doesn’t own the rifle anymore or it was too much of an emotional strain to see pics of a gun he traded so he deleted them. 😆
Hmmm….
Don’t know what’s up, but at 6 AM Sep. 24, Hoot’s images are not visible on my computer. Plenty of other Forum images are showing up.
Anyone else experiencing this image loss, aside from Terry?
Hoot, your masterful orchestration of Cricketdom needs to be seen. Perhaps your cruel streak has influenced you to delete said images.
Awaiting your toxic reply…
Hoot,
Sure would like to see where you placed the foam as your previous post have been deleted.
Thanks Terry
The best you can do for $1500 would be a Gen 2, which is a Gen 1 with a board inside that increases the number of lines of image resolution per mm. So a better resolution of the image, but still a modified Gen 1 scope.
Perhaps a better solution would be one of the new “Divital” scopes like the PS 550 or PS 750. A different technology.
Suggest you post a question in the NVand scopes section. Better answers there as some of those guys own that equipment.
Very interesting. I saw some Gen 1 videos on youtube and they seem to function adequately for vermin shooting. I looked through a Gen 3 a few years ago and it was really impressive but expensive. What is the best bang for the buck with a $1500 or so budget these days? Probably 50% of my pesting is at night.
I have three raccoon babies coming out daily and nightly that my family won’t let me shoot 😕 but they make perfect testing volunteers for the night equipment. I tested the green laser flashlight last night and it works pretty well with my scope. I found out, however, I must turn on my illuminated reticle because the green projection is blotchy and it makes it difficult to see the black lines on the glass etched reticle. I also turned the magnification down to 8x which really improved things. It works but is not optimal. The raccoons ignored the green light pretty much from about 32 yards away unlike the white LEDs. 🙂
I’ve tried several Gen 1 NV scopes, all had severe “fisheye” tunnel vision. You had a coin sized spot in the dead middle of the field of vision, and all around it was distorted and out of focus. That’s common with all Gen 1 scopes, and with low magnification, it was a real problem for my tired eyes.
The ATN MK450 gets around most of that limitation by using the largest Gen 1 objective lens on the market. Less distortion, larger field of view, better magnification. It costs in the mid $500USD range, but if you can’t afford to go upwards of $1500 for a Gen2 or better, it’s the only NV scope on the market that works for me. Others will disagree, but this has been the experience I’ve had with Yukon and ATN scopes.
Further, the onboard IR light is only 450mW, about 1/2 Watt in power. I went on Ebay and picked up a full 5 Watt NV light for $35.00. It fits in a 1″ picatinny mount. The only thing you must watch for is getting the exact same nanometer wave length as your night scope can see. Most of the current Gen 1 NV scopes use 850nM wave length, and they are commonly available in 1,3, and 5 Watt powers. Being LED helps keep their price down and the batteries last for a good while.
The Gen 1 scopes are HEAVY…all of them. It’s 60+ year old technology, wedded with some current tech circuitry. The Russian Federation controls just about all NV scopes made today. The MK410 has come down in price from it’s original $600+ range from last Winter.
I took a chance, and it turned out quite well. I originally ordered a Yukon, but at 1.5 power, and severe “fisheye” didn’t work for my old-timer vision, the Nightvisionguys.com were pretty good about an upward exchange, with no loss to me.
Here’s the link: http://www.nightvisionguys.com/gen-1-night-vision-equipment/night-vision-weapon-sights/atn-aries-mk-410-mk410-spartan-night-vision-rifle-scope
AWESOME, DUDE! I almost get sticky britches just looking at it!
Looks good Hoot. How about a close up pic of where it attaches to the shroud?
I’ve tried several Gen 1 NV scopes, all had severe “fisheye” tunnel vision. You had a coin sized spot in the dead middle of the field of vision, and all around it was distorted and out of focus. That’s common with all Gen 1 scopes, and with low magnification, it was a real problem for my tired eyes.
The ATN MK450 gets around most of that limitation by using the largest Gen 1 objective lens on the market. Less distortion, larger field of view, better magnification. It costs in the mid $500USD range, but if you can’t afford to go upwards of $1500 for a Gen2 or better, it’s the only NV scope on the market that works for me. Others will disagree, but this has been the experience I’ve had with Yukon and ATN scopes.
Further, the onboard IR light is only 450mW, about 1/2 Watt in power. I went on Ebay and picked up a full 5 Watt NV light for $35.00. It fits in a 1″ picatinny mount. The only thing you must watch for is getting the exact same nanometer wave length as your night scope can see. Most of the current Gen 1 NV scopes use 850nM wave length, and they are commonly available in 1,3, and 5 Watt powers. Being LED helps keep their price down and the batteries last for a good while.
The Gen 1 scopes are HEAVY…all of them. It’s 60+ year old technology, wedded with some current tech circuitry. The Russian Federation controls just about all NV scopes made today. The MK410 has come down in price from it’s original $600+ range from last Winter.
I took a chance, and it turned out quite well. I originally ordered a Yukon, but at 1.5 power, and severe “fisheye” didn’t work for my old-timer vision, the Nightvisionguys.com were pretty good about an upward exchange, with no loss to me.
Here’s the link: http://www.nightvisionguys.com/gen-1-night-vision-equipment/night-vision-weapon-sights/atn-aries-mk-410-mk410-spartan-night-vision-rifle-scope
Cool. What night scope is that?
damn that thing looks crazy heavy…but i would love to shoot that monster.
I can see them???
Put down your bong and try again. Just to be safe, I’ll repost the links in case it’s my bong that’s malfunctioning!
Regards,
H 😯 😯 t
come on hoot..you made me read your hole post and when it comes time to see the sexy photos….BAM nowere to be seen????……whats the deal?
Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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My Dear Uncle H 😎 😎 T;
You are great, informative and talented Uncle.
So, What do you have for the Edgun? any new idea for being quieter?
Tell us some new things about Edgun, or i am sure you are waiting the new R3M and 30cal, 😯 😯
Hemn .M
What pictures?
Actually, my photobucket account had so many pictures posted, that I was at 99% capacity, and I had to give my account an enema. Sorry guys…
The foam pad was simply placed over the breech, down to the wood on each side. The foam covered the part of the breech where the pellet was seated in
the barrel. By extending it forward of that point, you cover where the hammer hits the valve, and the sound is muted. Pretty simple.
I used some strong contact cement, as the glue on the foam was not up to the task of keeping the foam on.