EDgun Matador R3 versus Kalibr Cricket, my comparison….
Hi guys,
Warning for those who don’t like images:
This is going to be a thread with lots of graphics….. 😉
As promised, I’ll try to share with you my personal opinion and findings while comparing these beauties:
As some of you may know, I have two Matador Std R3s and I have one Cricket (with access to another one). All are cal.22……
My wait for my Matadors should be well documented on this very forum…..
The Crickets were a part of a group buy masterminded from Europe somewhere. The Crickets were shipped in parts to Norway and reassembled by my good blueprinting friend Egon Olsen. In the process he had to remove a “restrictor” screw that had been put into the guns before shipment. Most probably because of Power limitation rules at origin….
The Crickets arrived with no documents whatsoever. No instructions, – no nothing. I don’t think this is standard procedure though…..
The Cricket weighs less than the R3, – and is approx 5 cm shorter. Not a lot, – but overall it makes the Cricket even easier to handle than the already tiny R3….
The side by side comparison was done from my modest little shooting table at my summerhouse:
– and the shooting range is here, – with my target set up at 46mts:
Why 46 mts ? Simply because I could not pull my shooting stand further back right now. A huge tree has fallen during winter, and all the branches have taken up my space… 👿
First problem: How to fill the f…. Cricket ?
The fillprobe nut is so tiny that a standard foster coupling gasket will not seal. The entire probe is small, – and you fear you may break it while trying to tighten it:
The above (sorry for the image quality) is a comparison between ED’s, Cricket’s and Falcon’s fill probes. You can probably see what I mean….
As I could not make a standard Fostergasket fit, Egon had to make special gaskets that we fitted into the Foster coupling itself. Not an ideal solution, – and I have no clue how long it will last…….. 🙄
On the fill probe: Matador 1, Cricket 0 points.
Air filling:
I honestly dont like any of the solutions that these two manufacturers have chosen………..
The Cricket people have come up with the worst. To expose the hole for the fillprobe, – you have to slide forward the tip of the reservoir. But that stupid tip is retained by a spring, – and slides back with a smack once you let go:
If you’re not careful when taking the fillprobe back out, the tip will spring back and ruin the fill probe O-rings faster than I can say my name….
While filling, the “tip” rests on the previously mentioned small nut. And there’s not a lot clearance. So a bigger nut (for those with lathe skills), – is not going to help you much. A thicker nut might…….
In short: A very stupid filling system, – BUT once you know how to operate it and care is taken, – at least it covers the hole when filling is over.
The Matador does not come with anything to cover the filling hole at all:
I use tape right now, – but a plug of some sort would be good….. 😉
My preferred system would be that of Falcon:
The tip of the reservoir has been turned into a curled “collar” that you rotate to expose the hole. Simple, easy and effective. And few moving parts that may break or go astray……….
Now, I have no idea how much air I can fill into the Cricket, – and the gun gauge certainly does not help much:
I trust the gauge on my fillkit, – and 3000 psi is roughly on the border between green and yellow…….
Points for airfill procedure: Matador 1, Cricket 0. In my opinion….. 😉
Cheers from Trygve 😀
To be continued……….. 😀
(if you so desire…… 😳 )
All Replies
Zocoloco, I have followed this thread from the start and also your “Edgun in waiting” thread and it has been a very informative and interesting ride.
Something I have noticed this thread has neglected to review is the barrel and bore of the two rifles.(or maybe I missed that bit?)
Back when the Cricket was made in Russia and Ed was building the Matador R2.5 they both used the same L/W stock run of the mill barrels which are by no means a bad barrel but things got very different with the introduction of Eds R3 and the relocation of the Kalibrgun factory to Czech Republic. Ed has had an all new barrel made for his monster…
Here a post from Ed I copied on his Russian forum When he first released the R3 referring to the barrel work he did with L/W and JSB pellets.
I have edited it slightly for Ed, as our translator friend “Mrs Google Translate” is sometimes not the best when translating Russian to English
Ed Wrote:
Over the last year we had a lot of research. Including the barrels, the benefit of our close cooperation with the German company Lothar Walther allows us to not just buy media gross barrels, and ordered their blanks, what we want. During the year we “played” with a twist, internal diameters, grooves, finally, the material stems. Made to certain requirements for the R3, LW will now send blanks they make to our specifications.
I thank Gerd Walter, who when our conversation on IWA 2010 exhibition, though perplexed about “Why do you need all these different twists, pressure and so on, because everything is already invented and tested?” However, he did what we requested, including all new tools for the manufacture of our barrels.
It is clear that this is not easy and not cheap, but they “give” the results of which are paid for.
It’s one thing just to buy media gross barrels and quite another to make barrels to specific order. The price of our Lothar Walther barrel is 100% higher than of the price of the gross manufactured pig.
Now we even have the thread, chamfer and crown made at the factory LW. Everything is done at the LW factory, including polished internal bore, on manufacturing premium blanks.
Regarding the inner surface of the barrel, I must admit that we had to pay a little attention to it, it was necessary to periodically clean the barrel, and should be.
The new R3 bores are significantly smoother putting more dependence on accuracy.
On the older bores it was more noticeable with a dirty barrel, with just a few hundred rounds you could scrape up a lot of lead out of the barrel, literally scales settled on a patch, and now, after two and a half thousand shots a patch comes out slightly darkened, but scales of lead is out of the question.
The old gross manufactured barrel bore “cross cut”. Note the rough chatter grooves
and rough dragged un-polished steel from the older tooling of the manufacturing process ..
The new R3 Spec custom L/W barrel cross cut. It is easy to see where the long range accuracy begins…
This gives the user what he needs most – stability result of fire.
In addition, we have moved on to the threading the barrel to the breach, which in a positive way affected the bore, the bore deformed less than it was before. The threaded breach end area of the bore is opened up for the bolt probe and pellet leaving the entire length of the bore unaffected by clamping.
The Matador R 2.5 barrel could be clamped up too tight making a “choking” effect in two places where the barrel mounts clamp up in the centre section of the barrel.
Speaking of barrels and shooting results, it would be wrong to ignore the important question of how to weaponize the R3.
For today, in my opinion, only JSB pellets provide the necessary accuracy and stability of our shooting. Of course some people may say that I am speaking only for the reason that I have the exclusive rights to sell JSB pellets in Russia, but if you approach the situation from the other side – what I had to do to receive this exclusive right, why would I push this product if I was not sure about the quality of products JSB? I work with JSB pellets more than five years, I know well the business owners in the Czech Republic, I have testing with their bullets not just a business relationship, we are friends. And that’s the reason that I know these bullets, I know how they are made, I know people who make them, I know their attitude to what they do. Therefore, all of the experiments we carried out on my barrels were with these pellets and I set up the products under these pellets.
There you have it guys.. How many other PCP manufacturers get custom made barrels made with newly supplied tooling for specific bore sizes, twist rates, bore finishing and barrel blank grades to match a particular well tested and proven pellet at an optimal pressure and velocity??
Anyone know the specs on the bugs barrel other than they state its a “CZ(L/W)” barrel on the catalogue?
I was thinking of trying some of Jerry’s six ring slugs in my .25 Cricket. Does anyone know what diameter would work best???
Great info…. A lot of pictorial detail and the Google Chrome translation is enough to make sense of it all. Might be a good thread to copy into the Talon for safekeeping. Or maybe Octavius can translate? 🙂
My two gems, the R3 2855 and my Cricket are still performing well. And based on the input on this forum, – there does not seem to be a lot of problems with the Crickets out of the Czech Republic……… Also there does not seem to be any significant difference between the Russian produced ones and the Czech………….
Now, for those interested, – here is a CZ-link to a a complete strip down of the Cricket with lots of images. Google may help you translate, – but really the images are all you need…
Enjoy…………. 😉
http://www.fieldtarget.cz/vetrovky/kalibrgun-cricket-tuning.html
Cheers from Trygve in his Norwegian summer place where it all started……… 😀
That could come in handy. :thumb:
A little over a year since I started this thread, – and It’s difficult to digest all that has happened……….! 😯
My two gems, the R3 2855 and my Cricket are still performing well. And based on the input on this forum, – there does not seem to be a lot of problems with the Crickets out of the Czech Republic……… Also there does not seem to be any significant difference between the Russian produced ones and the Czech………….
Now, for those interested, – here is a CZ-link to a a complete strip down of the Cricket with lots of images. Google may help you translate, – but really the images are all you need…
Enjoy…………. 😉
http://www.fieldtarget.cz/vetrovky/kalibrgun-cricket-tuning.html
Cheers from Trygve in his Norwegian summer place where it all started……… 😀
I like your way of thinking ! :8:
Nope. I stocked up on JSB 25s (appx 15k still on shelf) and another 2k Predators for rats. They’re proven accurate and I’m good with that. I’ll wait for 9mm version for more FPE and already have 10k JSB 35s stocked up in anticipation. :-).
Demp, have you tried the Surefire slugs in the EdGun? 😯
I agree Syn. Larger pellet,bigger bore and grooves = more lead dust. Imagine 9mm version.
Likely because of the additional surface area Demp of the 25 compared to 22. 😉
I didn’t think about having to clean the baffles! I’ve noticed a lot of dust coming out of the vent holes close to the scope mount. 😯
The 25 JSB have a lot more dust on them than the 22s straight out of tin. Even after washing there is noticeably more dust residue in the baffles of the 25 . I suspect the bigger deeper grooves in 25 barrel compared to 22 cutting into pellet more.
Brgds
Jack
Same here, excellent trick, figured it out for my USFT and carried it over to the Matador.
I didn’t mean to imply people were taking off the shroud cover to clean the barrel. I think they were doing it to solve potential poi changes or something. 😉
Like Mr. Demp said it´s wise to clean the baffles/housing every once in a while. It gets really dirty in just a course of a 500 tin of pellets.
You are right, Naser!
I have red that old post of yours a while ago.
I made me a tool.
Since then it is possible to adjust the reg from the gauge side in…… 6 minutes.
Including de-gassing and putting the pressure back on again.
Thank you for that!
Regards, Robert.
What? Where?? Why ??? How ???? I need to know !! 😯 😯
Brgds
Jack
Same here, excellent trick, figured it out for my USFT and carried it over to the Matador.
I didn’t mean to imply people were taking off the shroud cover to clean the barrel. I think they were doing it to solve potential poi changes or something. 😉
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Wingman of NZ,’
Thanks a lot for this information which I don’t think a lot of people may have known……… 😀
You’ll notice the difference when cleaning your barrels, – but not too may have the oportunity to clean the Cricket and the R3 side by side and compare….. 😉
Cheers
Trygve 😀