Accuracy test of a CP-1M pistol

I saw a lot of favorable reviews for the Air Max CP-1M CO2 pistol in .177 cal, a couple of years ago. However, when the accuracy was brought up, all I saw was that it was "accurate, very accurate or extremely accurate" but no targets backing up these claims. 


Decided to take the plunge and try it out. While the fit and finish was very good for a $79 air gun from China, when checking the accuracy, it was less than desirable, to me. It's more of a plinking gun.

I could get around 42 to 43 shots before the velocity would start dropping. I even ordered an adjustable hammer for it to try and get more shots per CO2 bulb or Powerlet. With the hammer adjust long or short, it only would get around 21 to 22 shots with a large amount of wasteful CO2 shooting out. The velocity was only around 10 FPS faster, depending on pellet. Replaced it with the stock hammer. It's no target gun but still fun to shot.

To check the accuracy, a 2-7x scope was used with the Parallax set to 10 meters, shot on sandbags, pellets sorted out by weight, head diameter and rolling radius. These initial 10 shot groups are for checking which pellets to further check out. Reason for shooting at 10 meters is the longest distance I have these days is 20 yards, plus it's illegal to shoot air guns in the city limits, other wise it would be shot at 25 yards for comparison.


H&N Green Match 5.25 gr. - 565 fps

Crosman Boxed Dome 7.9 gr. - 506 fps


RWS R10 7.0 gr. - 534 fps
JSB Dome 7.33 gr. - 530 fps



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Nice post, Ron_c. These are neat little guns; real bargains for the price! Below are the final results of my .22 caliber CP1-M after some amount of monkeying.

16 grain AA Field, 98F, booster spring, best 25 shots- Low= 452, Hi= 467, ES= 15, SD= 3, Average= 460 FPS / 7.5 FP

7/17/15 Five consecutive 5 shot groups at 25 yards with 2-7X scope from bench-rest averaged .80” c-t-c with 14.3 JSBs.

Regards,

Ron R

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I like mine. I've only used it with a red dot sight so I can't say I've really explored the limits of its accuracy. I'd need to scope it to do that but at 10m it's boringly easy to clean out this Gamo resetting target:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUOqs6w_pVM

This was my first (and so far, only) airgun with a red dot and at first I could not fathom how I would ever manage to hit anything small-ish at 25 yards. I have a shopmade spoon spinner target set up at that distance. Actual spoons...soup spoons (large) and teaspoons (small). After a while I got to where I could hit the soup spoons at will and the smaller teaspoons better than half of the time. Not offhand, I mean with my hands supported on a table.

Here's a 25 yard group I was shocked to get. By no means can I shoot like that consistently but it gives some sense of what the gun is capable of.



It took some work to get there. For example, the crown looked like it was done with a rusty drill bit running backwards. Here's the before and after:



With that done, it would group pretty much any pellet at 10m well enough for the resetting target but at greater distance, the RWS Basics really shined. That's what produced the 25y target above.

I ended up tuning it with a bstaley O-ring buffer. My notes say the average velocity with 7.9gr CPHP was 459fps (3.7fpe) for 84 shots. Total fpe for a 12gr cartridge across those 84 shots was 311fpe. A full chronicle of my experiences with it, tuning, etc. is documented here https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=124266
 
you might what to try Diana Chaser and here is why they have a different trigger setup and with that difference you can make some improvements

the two pistols are about the same other wise

the Chase trigger are made to be easy to assemble and that makes a trigger assembly loose, sloppy for lack of another team

and all of that can be addressed but the one part that the Chaser trigger assembly can be modded is the sear and that mod is a trigger stop grub screw

so the Chaser trigger has two screw in it, one thru the blade and one behind under the guard, the front in the trigger grub screw is alright in length but the back one that they don't what you to see is 3mm and it needs to 8-10mm in total length all new grub screw have 2mm ball bear epoxied on them

so with the different screws and the stop on the sear, all the pins were changed and shims were added to take up the slop

pin were replaced with 2.6mm drill bit ends and they come in at 2.57mm and fit the frame on the money but the sear hole OD's are both different and small so you have size the drill shanks the factory pins are 2.5mm at 2.47 and just fall out, remember the easy assembly at the factory and even the frame that the pins go in can be crooked



the sear has to be heated before drilling and a drill press should be used 3mm x 6-8mm used

now is any of this a quick fix, no it isn't but the idea that it can be done is good, I have done 3 frames they were all different in needs and took hours to do

sanding 1000's off little bitty shims is slow sand fit sand fit

also I replaced the sear spring with a .3mm x 10mm stretch to 13mm for the .67mm x 12mm spring

but after all the work you will get a first class trigger and a first class trigger always help make smaller holes

oh I have other pistols with first class trigger FWB65-90, Diana 10's, IZH 46m and others

it a project and was fun to do but you have to collect the pieces first

so nothing more then ideas

take care

mike
 
Thanks to your post, I decided to go dig mine out of the drawer where it has been hibernating for the winter. Apparently I had put a fresh cartridge in the tube but didn't pierce it yet so I went ahead and did so, grabbed a tin of wadcutters and stepped out onto the back porch to pull the trigger a few times.

I don't shoot 10m very often so the nearest target is the spoon spinner at 25 yards. That's a low percentage shot for me with no magnification, lower still with a pistol, and somewhere down in the Marianas Trench when off hand.

Oh, what the heck.

I tried to keep the red dot roughly on target as I squeezed the trigger. Ding! I was so surprised I chuckled.

Loaded pellet #2 and tried again. Sort of winged the spinner based on the sound but hey, I'll take it.

No way I can do it 3 times in a row. Pop...ding!

Deep in the Powerball odds now. Loaded pellet #4. Pop...ding!

That's it. I know to quit while I'm ahead.

So thanks for reminding me about this fun little pistol. Looks like I'll be giving it some of my airgunning time this spring.
 
I have 2 of these pistols. One in .177 and one in .22. Neither is what I would call accurate. I could hit things with them but when I sandbagged them for groups, my Daisy Red Rider BB gun could give them a run for their money. Recrowning the barrel and cleaning up the lead in the .22 got it on par with acceptable accuracy. The .177 required me to build it a new barrel. I used a Crosman match barrel and it shoots pretty good now. The OP said about hearing how accurate these guns are. Maybe accuracy is in the eye of the beholder. I paid $79 for it, I can hit cans at spitting distance, its accurate, no buyers remorse.