I took delivery of this rifle on March 8 and have had some time to get acquainted with it. The sole purpose of purchasing this gun was to hunt pigeons, squirrels and other furry and feathered pests. Previously I have been using a RTI Prophet Compact and Taipan Veteran Shorty, both in .22 as well. The latter two are both excellent rifles and I don’t foresee getting rid of either.
I ordered the optional external hammer spring adjuster and I am glad I did. It’s certainly possible to tune this rifle without it but it would be a royal pain unscrewing the buffer tube, adjusting the HS, replacing the buffer tube, test firing and then repeat until the desired tune is achieved. With the external adjuster it’s a matter of turning the adjuster wheel to tune the HS to achieve your desired velocity. I am not a guy who keeps monkeying with a tune but rather finds the optimal tune for my projectile and then leaving it alone.
My hunting buddy uses a P-rod with great success. We hunt on a large industrialized dairy farm with 4 barns that are 1/4 mile long each. The barns used to have steel roofs and I could use about anything to hunt there without fear of punching a hole in the roof. Two years ago the owner replaced the roof with fiberglass panels at a cost of $850,000.00. Now we have to be very selective of our shots to make sure if we miss we don’t poke holes in the new $$$ roofing. The low velocity of the P-rod is the perfect barn tool, at least for these barns.
So, why did I buy the Atomic if the P-rod is so perfect? Well ………… I did buy a Prod a few months ago. After I unboxed it, I (tried) to air it up and the air blew right back out. Seems they forgot to put a check valve in the fill valve. Even though they included a test target and verified it held air for 72 hours which were both out right lies. I was unable to get a magazine into the rifle either. Sent the gun back to Crosman for warranty repair. They returned it 3 weeks later. Aired it up and shot a test target at 30’ and it looked like it was shot with a 12 gage shotgun. Still couldn’t get the magazine inserted so I short it single feeding. Found the shroud was loose so I tightened it up. Then discovered the barrel was loose. Tried to tighten the set screws and it kept moving the barrel rearward. Took the rifle back to the dealer and got a refund. Sorry Crosman but you have some serious QA issues to work out before I spend any more money with your company.
Fast forward … I started researching other small alternative rifles. The Atomic piqued my interest so I read all of the articles, reviews and YouTubes I could find. Then I pestered L.Leon here on AGN through PMs with lots of questions. I noticed his shot pretty well with CPHPs and that was another goal that I had was to find a rifle that would shoot those inexpensive pellets accurate enough for my pesting trips. My other rifles just wouldn’t shoot them accurately and I was tired of using expensive lead on pests.
I had been using my veteran Shorty with great success but lugging that around for 4 hours was tiring. It’s super accurate, quiets without an additional moderator, awesome trigger, great shot count, 250 bar fill (which I prefer) and as reliable as a rock. My Prophet Compact is a great rifle too, a tad lighter, about the same shot count as Shorty and a 300 bar fill which I am not a huge fan of.
I ordered the Atomic from AOA and about a week later it was delivered. I mounted a USO 3-12 scope, cleaned the pipe and proceeded to start feeding it lead. The Atomic is lighter than the other two and it’s a 250 bar fill which are two pluses for me. I experimented with several tunes but Steve Scally at AEAC said to tune any pellet at 700 FPS and he was spot on. I found the best accuracy with CPHPs at 709 with SD under 2. My groups shrank o a single ragged hole a5 25Y at that tune and that is where it’s now.
The atomic is not a bench gun but can be shot from a bench. Its best use IMO is in the field. It shoulders quickly, it’s light, short and maneuverable.
Now to the cons … there always is, right?
1) In stock form, it’s loud and not back yard friendly. I’ve tried a few LDCs and I found that the FX Donny FL is the quietest and most accurate at my current tune.
2) I was hoping the power adjuster (transfer port) would give me more shots than it did. #2 (medium) yielded about 3 more shots and #3 (low) yielded about the same before it fell off the regulator. Both #2 and #3 TP settings made the SD numbers go way up. #1 (high) had the lowest SD numbers.
3) We’ve been hunting in cold weather. I find the edges of the safety and trigger guard are quite sharp and made my fingers sore rather quickly. I would like to see Brocock soften these edges on future generations.
4) Air usage is quite good considering the air chamber is only 45cc’s. This translates to about 33 shots before it falls off the reg. We are hunting in a target rich environment but in a perfect world I’d like to see a slightly larger air tube and at least 50 shots.
I’ve got well over 1000 pills down the pipe now and have tried many different pellets to see if it has any preferences. It certainly doesn’t like JSB 13 and 14 grain, Gamo RedFires or Poly Mags. It shoots JSB 18s OK but has a preference for JSB 15.89 and AA16s being the most accurate. CPHPs with a 5.52 head size we’re almost as accurate as the 16s but still suffer from the WTH occasional random fliers.
Bottom line, this rifle is a keeper filling a niche that I have been searching for. It’s not a 100Y bench gun nor is it a fire breathing
slug hurler. It’s a close range 50Y and in pest blaster that knows its job and does it quietly and quite well. Perhaps
it’s a rifle that you are looking for too? Only you know what you are looking for.
