My first Cricket 22 shooting
Got my Cricket 22 standard from WWAG last week. I finally got a chance to go to the range to try it today. I shot 6 groups of 5s at 50 yard and 75 yard (3 groups each) shown below.
Few disclaimers and notes:
– Pellets used are JSB 15.8 in all tests shown. I plan to test the JSB heavy 18.1 in a later day to see which gives more consistent results.
– I sorted my pellets to exclude the deformed ones. I have to say that in general I am not impressed with the symmetry of the pellets tails in the tin, but JSB is the best I can get.
– This is an indoor range so no wind effect. Occasionally some vibration in the dangling target when the guy next to me shoot his high power rifle, but I wait to rest.
– The tank pressure was between 180 bar and 120 bar throughout the tests.
– The scope used is AEON scope 6-24 set at 20x.
This is my first ever shooting with the cricket aside from some warm up shooting in house (15 yrd) the days before, and I did my best to eliminate shooter error. In total this gun has less than 200 pellets shots at the time of this shooting. Overall I am pleased with the accuracy which is far better than anything I ever shot with. The 50 yrd groups are dime size and the 75 yrd groups are quarter size. My best 50 yrd group was about 3/8″ CTC and my best 75 yrd was about 5/8″ CTC. I tried to do 100 yrds but the AEON scope does not have enough mildots. I know I could go around this but decided to wait until I install my Hawke scope later and try the 100 another day.
While I am happy with the results, I wonder how it compare to what people who are familiar with the gun see. Do these guns need break-in too like springers? Should I expect my groups to improve with time (assuming barrel cleaning)? Did anyone try oiling the pellets and if so is that recommended for better accuracy? Are there better pellets to try? Any advice for improving the accuracy further?
Feedback and suggestions are appreciated.
Awny
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Del – PM me !
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I finally went back to the range to try the 100 yrd groups. I tried both 75 yrd again and 100 yrd for the first time.
Settings are same as in the initial run with the following important exceptions:
– I used 18.1 JSB with speed pumped to 890 fps, compared to 15.9 JSB at similar speed in the initial test.
– I cleaned my barrel, thought I have to say the barrel was not dirty from what I saw so not sure how much of an impact this was.
– I adjusted the scope turrets for elevation instead of holdover as suggested earlier.
– This time I did not sort my pellets. I loaded directly from the tin.
– As I am still new to this I am still changing and experimenting with the handling of the gun so variations from the shooter are a factor here.
Results for the 75 yrd are good. Equal or slightly better than what I had before.
Results for the 100 yrd are first to me and the gun so nothing to compare to. The spread nearly double compared the 75 yrd but still around 1 MOA.
I still feel I could have shot better and got better groups. Having a 300 Magnum firing less than 3 feet from your ear every few seconds (by the neighboring shooter) did not help for the deep concentration needed for accuracy shooting. Needless to say the big guns firings were shaking the platform. I thought I picked a time where the range would be almost empty but it was completely full. I need to find me a better place.
those 75 yard groups are very very good m8 did you turn the power up to 900fps yet ?
sir ville
am going the autosol way when i get the time cant seem to find any JB Bore Paste anyware where you getting yous from ?
heres a wee bit of something you may find intresting going on about your barrels and cleaning bearing in mind these are not ag’s
follow the series here the first one
cheers del
Just an update
I finally went back to the range to try the 100 yrd groups. I tried both 75 yrd again and 100 yrd for the first time.
Settings are same as in the initial run with the following important exceptions:
– I used 18.1 JSB with speed pumped to 890 fps, compared to 15.9 JSB at similar speed in the initial test.
– I cleaned my barrel, thought I have to say the barrel was not dirty from what I saw so not sure how much of an impact this was.
– I adjusted the scope turrets for elevation instead of holdover as suggested earlier.
– This time I did not sort my pellets. I loaded directly from the tin.
– As I am still new to this I am still changing and experimenting with the handling of the gun so variations from the shooter are a factor here.
Results for the 75 yrd are good. Equal or slightly better than what I had before.
Results for the 100 yrd are first to me and the gun so nothing to compare to. The spread nearly double compared the 75 yrd but still around 1 MOA.
I still feel I could have shot better and got better groups. Having a 300 Magnum firing less than 3 feet from your ear every few seconds (by the neighboring shooter) did not help for the deep concentration needed for accuracy shooting. Needless to say the big guns firings were shaking the platform. I thought I picked a time where the range would be almost empty but it was completely full. I need to find me a better place.
Absolutely! Many guys complain about a problem with changing POI and although it can be due number of things a shitty barrel sure is one of them. Good point ! 😉
Also, another advantage to knowing when to clean eliminates having to waste pellets to get original POI back.
Ballistol needs cutting down with water ?? Is that guy on Drugs ?? If you mix Ballistol with water it emulsifies into a foamy goo. I know one guy who uses that for severe case of shave-rash and such. The Genuine German Ballistol was indeed created for the Preussian Army since they needed something that would work as a CLP,stock oil, for Leather and skin care, as desinfictant for small cuts and so on. It does work well for all those purposes and is a wellknown Gun Care Product Worldwide. My Wife even sprays flowers and plants with it to fight ticks and Bugs too – works very well!
Needs cutting down with Water for Gun care … :rofl:
Balistol is more popular here and is not problem buy it in my local firearm shop. I will go for visit to the shop and I will see what they have and buy something 😉
http://ingunowners.com/forums/general-firearms-discussion/209174-ballistol-vs-breakfree-clp.html 🙂
Doesn’t much matter – both will achieve the same results.
To my knowledge the Ballistol sold in US isn’t the same, original and genuine German Ballistol they sell here.
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For the 18.1: 858 860 860 859 860
This is what I got from WWAG tests. I need to generate longer strings across wide pressure range later. I don’t have that now.
Exactly the same speeds I´m using too. I´m cleaning barrel every 200 shots with Brunox
but is almost empty so I´m thinking what to buy next CLP or Balistol ??
Keeping your barrel constantly clean is a pretty thought but virtually impossible. I see no need for it regarding AG´s anyways. Competitive BR shooters (PB world) clean their barrels constantly – some even between cards but the key word here is “Competitive” as in “Top”.
Totally inpractical and needless for a casual target shooter and even less so for casual target shooter using an AG.
Thus you have to learn to know your Gun so you know ,roughly , how many shots it takes after the cleaning before the accuracy is back and how many shots before the accuracy starts to go South. This is called the the “Window of Accuracy” by the more educated bunch in this matter. I´m not one of those though …
Once you learn that for your Gun ( ie 200-220 shots) you know when it´s due and you´ll stay inside the “Window”.
Could you elaborate more on the “polish the new barrel/bore”? Do you mean cleaning it with patches and CLP or ballistol (as discussed earlier) or do you mean something extra?
If I understood you right Sir Ville, you suggest cleaning the barrel then taking few shots to fill irregularities and then the gun is in best shape. Did I get this right?
Thanks
By “Polish” i mean using a paste (50.000 grid or so – i use a German product called Autosol) for metal polish and i follow that with JB Bore Paste. That´s my way of doing it. Ballistol/CLP/Whatever is used for cleaning the barrel – polished or not.
After every cleaning a few “fowling” shots should do it – a mag or so – and you should be good to go.
The problem with leading of barrels is two reasons with respect to my shooting experience. The first reason is that point of impact deviates from its original from a clean and smooth barrel. Yes, POI becomes consistent from leading, but that POI changes once the barrel is cleaned then leaded again; when you relead the barrel again, the POI will change to another than the previous one, albeit close to it. This requires the shooter to always adjust scope settings. At least it happened to me. The second problem is that leading will create lead buildup to the point in which the grooves become flushed with the lands on the rifling. Cleaning will thus become more extensive. The advantages to always keeping a barrel clean ensures that your gun retains its true POI, eliminates constant scope adjustments and keeps you from having to go through extensive cleaning sessions.
Could you elaborate more on the “polish the new barrel/bore”? Do you mean cleaning it with patches and CLP or ballistol (as discussed earlier) or do you mean something extra?
If I understood you right Sir Ville, you suggest cleaning the barrel then taking few shots to fill irregularities and then the gun is in best shape. Did I get this right?
Thanks
I don´t buy the “leaded barrel” in that sentence. The barrel will get leaded after just a handful of shots and thus the irregularities are filled. The leading , however , keeps on building – layer for layer – untill it´s too thick. I go with the “polish the new barrel/bore” – method and that will remove those microscopic grades and such helping the break-in procedure. A modern Match Grade barrel / bore should need no break-in time in the same sentence they did many years ago.
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Nice shooting Del. Those 75 and 100 yard groups look real nice….. My Cricket is running 897-899 fps also and shooting REAL good with the 18.1 JSBs. I haven’t tried 100 yet..
I’m not changing anything on mine….
Zonk