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
I don’t even take off the baffle cover on the R3, just use a plastic straw up to crown & run a weedwacker thru breach & pull…easy
Brgds
Jack
I get the point.
I’ll even admit that to get inside the Cricket it may be slightly easier. There have been plenty of folks who have had trouble just removing the shroud internals on the EdGun. The Cricket breaks down far easier in some ways, harder in others.
In other ways, like you mentioned, bore cleaning and power adjustment is easier on the EdGun.
Each one has it’s easier and more difficult features. To claim one is easier to do everything on is patently false.
My point was he never took the time to get into the EdGun and claimed it was difficult because he is trying to make the Cricket look better.
Easy things are made more difficult if one is stupid. 😉 😀
Barrel cleaning is simple on Edguns. I just remove front baffle cover to wipe clean baffles and to see crown as I push down cleaning rod to breech end where I put on patch to pull back through. Or I drop through boresnake. No need to take apart the whole assembly. Tie to me.
As far as hammer spring adjustment, that’s a non issue to me as its a set and done item. Does the Cricket have a problem with keeping HST set and need to be adjusted regularly? The Edgun has set secrew to keep it locked down, what does Cricket use? These springs aren’t tailed on the ends to lock into a fixed point,they are flattend so are free to rotate when cycling if they want to and that friction pressure against HST base will slowly move it over time(shots)if it isnt locked down.
I still prefer simplicity of Edgun single bolt breech, only a few moving parts.
He should have opened up Cricket breech/lever box to show its internals and
the many moving parts/springs.
He clearly makes point of numerous parts and difficulty(for him) to disassemble Edgun and likes ease of Cricket breakdown and its few basic parts. However he neglects the breech boxs many components which to me is the Crickets biggest source of wear and maintainance.
I do like the air bleed screw idea. That’s smart.
Didn´t actually miss no point since that´s my exact point too. I don´t know about the Bug (yet-but soon i will 😉 ) but cleaning the EdGun barrel is easy-peasy and done in a minute : Either with a Patchworm (without taking anything apart), with a slightly modified Bore Snake (shortened brass weight/removed brushes) or by removing the breech (two screws) and using a rod.
The HST is an easy job too – although not as easy as on the Bug (Cocroach,Locust,whatever) but then again- who needs a constant access to the HST and speed adjustment anyways ? Once you have it right – well: you have it right…. Right ???
For me – and that´s my POV only – it doesn´t matter whether the disassembly of a gun takes five minutes or if it takes ,God forbid, upto seven minutes of my overly precious time. The most important thing – again,my humle opinion only – is that the rifle is well thought out,rugged and the servicing can be done without any special equipment nor a Doctors degree,like some Daystates with that electronic system. And the MOST important thing being that you don´t need to repair things on a regular basis.
You guys are missing the point, yes we can all get into the rifle & take it down in 10 minutes but thats beside the point. The point is how easy is it compared to the Cricket to do a particular job like cleaning the barrel or adjusting the power with the hammer spring.
Check an old post by me where i show the “fastest” way to adjust the regulator without even taking the gun apart, but its not about that & no i am not a Cricket fan & i don’t own any & i love Edguns & i just ordered three (3) new EDGUNS.
From what I have read, MANY people have opened up these rifles for maintenance, adjustment and repair.
Ed has even added insight, the Cricket representatives have had ZERO input on tuning, repair, maintenance, repair. I don’t think anyone has even received a response to emails inquiring about these thing.
That said, i’m looking to get a Cricket to compliment my Edgun. No such thing as too many good shooters. 😀
Don´t get it either. The gun is picked into its atoms in no time. It takes me max. 10 min to have the reg out- including the bleeding of the tube. As i´ve said all along a trained monkey could work on these – i quess some people don´t have what it takes to work on that level though.
My only grief is the non-existing customer service for spare parts. One should be able to get a hold on any and all parts within a week – 14 days at max. That´s the part of the business Ed really needs to work on since if he only could get the parts supply to be half as good as his rifles are life would be good indeed.
Of course I would get another EdGun Matador and skip the Cricket if Ed would make the R3 long with a 24″ 177 barrel…
YOU LISTENING ED? 
I’m just having fun. 😉
I agree with Ed on this one. I think this guy is somehow trying to sell Crickets by bad mouthing Matadors. Just all of his postings on the KalibrGun Facebook sight is suspicious. I am not sure he will be their best spokesman. 😡
What is so hard about getting into the EdGun?
From what I have read, MANY people have opened up these rifles for maintenance, adjustment and repair.
Ed has even added insight, the Cricket representatives have had ZERO input on tuning, repair, maintenance, repair. I don’t think anyone has even received a response to emails inquiring about these thing.
That said, i’m looking to get a Cricket to compliment my Edgun. No such thing as too many good shooters. 😀
Now i want a Cricket 😀
Yes he is rough, even just tossed the screw driver away after removing the screw on the stock. I have trained some Kuwaiti soldiers to be better technicians on the bench that what we saw in the video.
Actually its an R3 hes showing & comparing in the video, but not the latest model with the aluminum breech or the new bolt & other smaller improvements. I really don’t like his way nor how hes too rough and has little respect for the rifles but i will have to agree that he has a couple of valid points too that anyone can spot in that video.
Now i want a Cricket 😀
Thank you Naser! Very interesting. I read on one of his comment postings on his own video and he claims he is working on an English version. From his postings and comments of others in Kuwait it sounds like the Edgun dealer is at least a part of the problems he is having. Not sure there is a lot of credibility to his review considering it is an R2.5 although he does have a few valid points. He posted a bunch of this stuff on the KalibrGun Facebook site but there doesn’t appear to be a direct relationship there but who really knows. :15: Maybe he is friends with the Cricket dealer in Kuwait? 😀
back to first video.
@8:55 he shows the older version of the breech & says look at the terrible quality of machining & the number that comes stamped of the breech from the factory and @9:10 he says that he even sanded it a little from the inside to make it a little smoother.
@9:20 he says watch the friction between this part, look for $2500 what your getting & this is after less than a year of usage, this is from the rifles that shipped just before this latest shipment.
9:33 He shows the bolt that broke & he says thanks to Ed he finally fixed these issues on the latest models, he also says that they asked (Ed), why don’t you make the Edgun multi-shot (magazine) & supposedly Ed replied that why should I make a multi-shot rifle when I have loads of people waiting in line to buy my current rifle/design (single-shot) !!!
He says he’s right (being sarcastic) why should Ed makes a completely new design to accommodate a magazine when he’s selling well !!
10:15 He talking about the top rail & how Ed design is hollow (cut) in the middle while the cricket is not, some people consider this important some don’t & he’s going to consider it not important.
10:40 IF you want to increase or decrease power on the rifle than with the cricket all is needed is to turn this clockwise for power & anti clockwise for less power
while on Edgun, you need to remove the stock & remove this tiny screw & than turn the aluminum bolt.
11:15 He’s talking that incase you had an issue & need to repair or tune regulators or even clean & decide you want to drain the air, its so much easier with the cricket & all that’s needed is unscrew this a little until you hear the air while on the Edgun its so much more complicated & you need to open this & that etc & even than you need a rod or broom & press against the valve hard or keep hitting it.
12:20 Filling the guns, the EDGUN has this opening for filling & no cover and you see on YouTube how people find different ways to cover that so no dust or dirt go inside, this is an important factor.
12:38 The Cricket has this cover you pull to fill than push back, these are issues many people don’t care about but its important.
13:10 now the air is drained from the cricket & now assuming you want to open the rifle to do some maintenance, this is all you need to do than @13:13 he goes through the “easy” process of how to open it, he also says that this is something that most people in Europe & the U.S do at home (which is a important part of a rifle “maintenance”) but here not so many people know how or comfortable with it.
14:02 (with much disrespect to the rifle, banging it in the process) he says here it is completely apart in this easy step.
14:10 He asks(sarcastically), THIS (EDGUN) how do I open this rifle !!!? okay fine I can open it, but if someone else wants to open the matador for some maintenance, this big block of closed(sealed) design, HOW ?!
He than goes on to say ” I don’t want to even discuss which one is better, forget my opinion I just showed you some things that’s needed to be done on both rifles & you be the judge.
than he talks about the cricket, describing briefly the different parts.
14:45 He says oh lets not forget the air tank, look how easy to even open the caps of the cricket air tube to set regulator or replace O-rings.
15:54 Finally he talks about the Edgun again & says now after banging on the valve to release the air I have to open these 3 front screws holding the front cap & than obviously he talks about how to open the back which is a lot harder etc..
Than he goes on to say, fine all this is fine but do we have a workshop or can the distributor do these maintenance to the rifles or do I have to run around calling friends & people to come help me ? Accuracy wise I wont dispute that the Edgun is pretty amazing but is that all ? What about maintenance ? I can do it but what about others ?
at the end he seems really upset & angry because some comments from other users that he’s taking sides & than he made this video to show these people the difference.
That’s it.
hope this helped 😀
Before I finish translating the rest of the video, I just clicked on his video in Arabic posted on May 6th where he says
“A message to the Edgun designer & manufacturer Ed”
He wants to ask a question about his msg to Ed where he shows how the bolt broke & that he contacted him a week earlier in English & never received any reply about the older models before the aluminum breech & why is he having a distributor that’s has no clue about fixing problems with his guns nor do they stock any spare parts.
He’s 2nd question is, check how many New guns your distributor order vs. the spare parts he ordered. It seems its purely about making money & I respect Ed & his work but this gun is selling for around $2500 shouldn’t it at least work better without having these issues ?!?
Its weird since now he’s saying that the Ed sells for 1800 Euros since Ed has problems shipping them out & the Cricket sells for only 1150 Euros only.
He says That you (ED) know how much the manufacture cost for cricket(more) compared to your rifle & yet it sells cheaper is the hiking in price from you Ed or from your distributor ????
I wont translate this video cause he has it translated already but I’m not sure how good it is, will finish the first part first.
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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.