First groups with my new cricket .25 wst
Yesterday I received my new to me (used) Cricket .25
I spent the day cleaning it meticulously. I used Ballistol and a polyester type cloth to wipe down all external parts. I then used the ballistol on a Hoppes .223 sized bore snake to clean the barrel, 4 pulls through and it was shiny to the eye. By the time all that was done it was dark outside.
So today I got to sight in my Optisan Viper 4-16×50 on it. Just took about 3 shots and I was on the bull at 50yds. My first mag was kinda spread wild around 1 1/2″, but continually tightened as I continued. I assume the barrel was leading.
All my shooting was at 50yds, off a bipod holding the stock to my shoulder sitting.
The best group of the day, and my life for that matter, was 1/4″ ctc. It was five shots (JSB King) and occured immediately after I switched my shroud back to the oem from the Neil Clague cf. I was planning on shooting a full mag, but I got a flier on the 6th shot. If I include the flier to group size, it was around 3/8″ ctc.
Another group produced 3/4″. A full 12 shot magazine. It was pretty windy, maybe 10-15mph.
I also had one magazine of Predator Polymags to try out that the seller was kind enough to include. The first seven shots with those ended up being 3/4″ strung perfectly horizontal.
I figured maybe the barrel wont show true potential from a different kind of pellet in the first few shots, so I saved the last five for a fresh target. My last five shots with the polymags made a nice 1/2″ group ctc. Im really stoked about this and am eager to get my hands on a nice sleeve of those. My Cricket is going to be the primary hunter so the benefit the polymags offer is really a great asset. I have a prod that also shhots them well, but its going to now be designated my plinker and sparrow puffer. The starlings on up are only getting the adult sized dose of .25 cricket from now on :biggrinn:
Im pleased to report the cricket has exceeded my expectations. Its very quiet and at 920fps, with a 230 bar fill, I got 5 mags before I refilled at around 120 bar without any notice of poi shift. I assume thats the way to tell if youve come off the reg or not yet?
Im not sure what this guns reg is set at, and if there is a way to tell besides poi drop, please let me know.
One of the features I enjoy with the Cricket is the way it slowly fills itself. My old valve on my scba tank can be a pain to use, extremely touchy.
Hopefully I’ll have more posts to come on my Cricket, and will start including pics once I figure out how to transfer them from my iphone to the tablet and post on here. I hope its a less painful process than what I used to have to do over on the Yellow.
Thanks for reading fellas. If anyone wants to see the group pics, or pics of my cricket, pm me your cell number and I’ll send you some.
All Replies
I would’ve, but I clean my guns pretty frequently and would rather have a magnet that will separate and go back together cleanly than having to pull tape apart, reapply, etc every time I want to wipe down under the cheek piece.
Put simply double sided tape to cheek piece and it will be hold property. 😉
Forgot to mention, I do currently have a bit of a dislike. The cocking lever definitely has a heavier, “rougher”, pull to it compared to the only other side lever ive used, the AA s510. Im just used to the crisp, clean pull of that, but im sure ill get used to the crickets in time.
Another nit picking complain of mine is the way the mag system works with that little lever. You definitely need to learn a technique for switching mags since its a two hand, dexterous, operation. After loading in a new mag and chambering a pellet, I forgot to move that little lever into the forward position before firing, thus on the next shot, the mag wouldnt cycle and I had to waste air. Not that wasting a shots worth of air matters, I just find it an annoyance that I kept forgetting to reset that pin in the correct position. Im no engineer, and wouldnt have a clue how to come up with a simpler design, so I’ll train myself to remember that indexing pin or suffer.
lastly my wood cheek piece is loose and will fall off easily when carrying the gun vertically. This will soon be fixed as a fellow tag member was generous enough to send me magnets to mount inside the cheek piece and offer me a tight hold.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
You could always use some Velcro to keep it in place