New Cricket .25…Taking the Next Step
I decided recently to “bump things up a notch,” and buy a Kalibre Cricket in .25. For the first time I have gotten lucky with an airgun purchase. The Marauder was a bit anemic out of the box and it took adding a hopped up valve to fix that and the Condor has had accuracy issues which, I am in the process of fixing..so all good there. Don’t get me wrong; both are great guns.
But the Cricket arrived after work yesterday, and out of the box…all I can say is, I’m VERY impressed! Solid as a rock…beautiful clean lines…all black tactical look. I think had Borat been here, he might have said: “Great Success…She’s a Nice.”
I cleaned the barrel first thing, (it was filthy), then set it up with the Aeon 6-24X50 that I bought as well. It was chrony’d and checked for accuracy before leaving the retailer and here are their numbers, with JSB 25.4:
969.4; 969.7; 970.1; 970.1; 971.9; 972.7; 970.1; 972.5; 969.5; 974.1
After the set up, I threw a target up at 30 yards. Shot the first shot…right on the bull…held my breath, thinking…please, please, please be a good one and the second shot was right in there too. One flyer or I might have pulled it, then it settled down into grouping like a Mofo-D! :8:
I quickly shot the remaining 5-shot groups (JSB EK’s) before losing the light.
First shots right out of the box….(not sure why I only shot the 3rd bulls-eye once….must have gotten overly excited)
This is looking to be a real “shooter”….good power and accurate…oh, and the trigger? For the first time I understand what people are talking about when they use phrases “crisp” and “breaks like a glass rod.” Not touching the factory setting…works for me. Wonder how this gun will be once broken in. Couldn’t be happier.
For the remainder of the evening I sat on the couch, with it in my lap just looking at it….LOL.
KPinNC
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Hate when stuff gets left out. I got the sealed O-ring bad, but no adjust screw. GKU thanks for postingI emailed the retailer but no response, Guess I’ll call them. I don’t have a way to machine a point on a threaded screw properly to get a good alignment.
Are you guys just buying long screws with that thread for the regulator? I might need to get to that soon. I had to back the HST out a good three whole turns to get the velocity to drop to 920 and I think that’s really not the way it’s done for max efficiency so I’ll need to check into that. For now it’s just shoot to break in then maybe start into it. The first thing will be to polish the barrel but can’t til I get the missing alignment screw replaced.
Thanks for the input.
I am wondering is Earnest accessible? How would one get in touch with him?
KPinNC
Yea, when I got my .25 I couldn’t figure out what that “spare” screw was for in the o-ring bag. It didn’t seem to fit anything on the gun… Figured it out when I stumbled upon Earnest’s video of disassembly/assembly/torquing of the AT and Barrel…
Here’s how it looks like and it shouldn’t be hard to make one, just need to put a point on it.
You can also sight align buy looking down the hole with a flash light and you can see the barrel indent.
Also this is the same thread size for the regulator puller.
~ GKU
Nope didn’t get it. Nor did I get an extra spring….got the o-rings though. guess I’ll call the retailer….
The 0.5 gap is only good when your experiencing big poi shifts. I’d leave it alone if there is no issue. The barrel alignment screw should have been with gun when you bought it. Its usually in the bag where spare orings are.
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Cool…will check that alignment with the tape method.
I have been reading some of Ernest’s discussions and if I take the barrel off to lap, I’ll need the alignment screw for re-installation. Uh, where does one obtain such a screw? Also, what is the 0.5 mm gap thing, do you pull the barrel out 0.5mm from the breech? trying to read and decipher what I can find.
Thanks,
KPinNC
Ooooooo thanks for telling me now!! I already shot my index finger off!!
lol I was going to do this but my gun was leaving an obvious lead smug in one spot of the shroud cap.
also I tried the rotate method and it helped but did not fix the clipping.
Looks a little of center eelect…………….. :rofl:
Did you do this yet? Take some masking tape and press it tightly around shroud exit hole. Mark the exit hole with pen. then shoot a pellet and see what you get. I’m sure you know to do the masking tape stuff with NO pellet in gun.
After polishing my barrel I get about 60 shots before my accuracy gets bad. Before polishing I would get about 35 shots before accuracy got worse and worse. By the way all of this was tested after figuring out that my pellets were hitting the shroud so I tested accuracy with out shroud which I was disappointed with my accuracy drop at not even 3 mags. So I polished the bore to see if that would fix the clipping pellets. It did not help and it did not make my accuracy better but my accuracy lasts longer which is a huge plus. :biggrinn:
A couple things to consider when own a 25 cricket. First polish the barrel as per extensive info on this forum on how to do it. If your in doubt ask slick Ville! Next find a lubricant that works with your gun and lube your pellets. I used Hornady case lube. I can easily shoot a tin of pellets without cleaning my barrel. Its very easy to clean if you indeed have to. One word of caution is DON’T polish past choke. Just polish up to choke that’s it. Cheers
Good to know….hoping that the cleaning interval will eventually increase…but if groups continue to be this good…then clean I will! I have never shot this well before!
Some barrels is necessary to clean just after 50-55 shots 🙁 My is similar. I have to clean it up to 100 shots better each 55 😉
I was going to start a new thread, but since this Post is kinda a General Stuff post…and that we have gravitated to lapping, I’ll continue on. I shot about 40-50 shots last night at 30yd with super tight groups…this morning was a totally beautiful day with practically no wind, so I thought I’d shoot at at 50. Disappointing groups; thought what the heck, I’ll pull a couple of dry patches through to see if that helps. So pulled two… they were dirty. I lined it up again and shot a 5-shot group that measured 3/16,” right off the bat…I kid you not…I could barely believe it…and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to believe it…but I’m not posting this to brag on a group…I’m posting to say that my barrel is getting dirty after only, say 50 or 60 shots. That’s OK; not problem pulling a few patches through if this is going to be the result! :8: Happy, happy!
My thinking is that the barrel is still a bit rough from manufacturing and is dirtying up faster. I thought about lubing but that will just slow the natural process. If, say after 1000 shots it’s still getting dirty fast then I’ll lap…but with groups like this I’m afraid to try and fix what ain’t broke! 🙄
Anyway reporting as I see it.
KPinNC
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Check your PM…. 😆