As a long time AGN member, I have been very fortunate to NOT have the classified experiences some of you continue to convey. To the contrary, my experiences to date have been very satisfying in terms of the many rifles acquired, and the really neat AGN members I have become acquainted with as a result.
My latest acquisition is no exception, is a .20 caliber Beeman R9, as AGN member Herb, aka "Grackleblast," advertised as a <12 ft lb rifle, in very good condition, with minor handling marks. As I get more squeamish about using PayPal, F&F, I contacted Herb through PM, and explained that I really needed this rifle like a hole in my head, as I already had one one of these that is a real tack driver, as well as several other springers in .20 caliber, but that I would take it if he forwarded me a copy of his driver's license.
Herb balked at the idea of forwarding a stranger his DL, but he did offer me enough other credible information and details, that I was able to get comfortable with the making the purchase and sending the payment, and I did so in short order.
Within a couple of hours, I had photos of the rifle being very carefully packed and a tracking number.
A couple of days later, I did not receive the rifle, but to my surprise, received another shipment from Herb containing two new tins of JSB pellets as an expression of gratitude and well wishes.
The rifle arrived within a week via UPS and in perfect order. It was in much better condition than advertised - virtually like new. If you get a chance to do business with Herb, don't hesitate to do so.
The first thing I always do is clean the barrel - which I proceeded to do. The barrel was actually very clean as received, and needed very little attention. I then tightened all of the stock screws down to very firm. As the rifle cocked extremely smoothly, I then proceeded to mount a new Vortex Diamondback 6-24x50 FFP tactical MRAD scope on the rifle, on top of a new set of Sportsmatch vertically adjustable rings.
The results of the performance test can be found as below. Shooting two 10 shot groups with six different pellets, I was satisfied, in general (I am hard to please) with the performance with the exception of some creep in the trigger. After completing the performance tests, I removed the stock and the trigger group, adjusted the creep out of the trigger after inspecting all of the touching components, lubricated the trigger group, and reassembled. As the power plant was very smooth, and all of my other springers are in the 14 - 17 fpe range, I decided to leave the powerplant as is for now.
Even though the chrono stats were not as good as the balance of the pellets tested, I couldn't argue with the group size results, so I opted to sight this rifle in using the H&N Baracuda 13.58 grain pellets. The sight-in group can be found below as the last exhibit.
Another fun project now complete.
DZ
My latest acquisition is no exception, is a .20 caliber Beeman R9, as AGN member Herb, aka "Grackleblast," advertised as a <12 ft lb rifle, in very good condition, with minor handling marks. As I get more squeamish about using PayPal, F&F, I contacted Herb through PM, and explained that I really needed this rifle like a hole in my head, as I already had one one of these that is a real tack driver, as well as several other springers in .20 caliber, but that I would take it if he forwarded me a copy of his driver's license.
Herb balked at the idea of forwarding a stranger his DL, but he did offer me enough other credible information and details, that I was able to get comfortable with the making the purchase and sending the payment, and I did so in short order.
Within a couple of hours, I had photos of the rifle being very carefully packed and a tracking number.
A couple of days later, I did not receive the rifle, but to my surprise, received another shipment from Herb containing two new tins of JSB pellets as an expression of gratitude and well wishes.
The rifle arrived within a week via UPS and in perfect order. It was in much better condition than advertised - virtually like new. If you get a chance to do business with Herb, don't hesitate to do so.
The first thing I always do is clean the barrel - which I proceeded to do. The barrel was actually very clean as received, and needed very little attention. I then tightened all of the stock screws down to very firm. As the rifle cocked extremely smoothly, I then proceeded to mount a new Vortex Diamondback 6-24x50 FFP tactical MRAD scope on the rifle, on top of a new set of Sportsmatch vertically adjustable rings.
The results of the performance test can be found as below. Shooting two 10 shot groups with six different pellets, I was satisfied, in general (I am hard to please) with the performance with the exception of some creep in the trigger. After completing the performance tests, I removed the stock and the trigger group, adjusted the creep out of the trigger after inspecting all of the touching components, lubricated the trigger group, and reassembled. As the power plant was very smooth, and all of my other springers are in the 14 - 17 fpe range, I decided to leave the powerplant as is for now.
Even though the chrono stats were not as good as the balance of the pellets tested, I couldn't argue with the group size results, so I opted to sight this rifle in using the H&N Baracuda 13.58 grain pellets. The sight-in group can be found below as the last exhibit.
Another fun project now complete.
DZ
