Brocock Bantam .25 Cal vs Red Ryder with the compass in the stock.

I'm sure the title will require some explanation. The last BB gun I owned was in the 1970s (The Red Ryder). Last week I ordered a Brocock Bantam .25 cal wood stock, from AoA. I don't know much about scope selection so I went with the Athlon 3-12x40 Mil Dot. I've also ordered the Altaros Pressure Regulator.

The rifle will be here Friday - ugh took a week to setup and ship, such is life.

The Regulator will be here at some point.

This will be my first real pellet rifle so here is my - Plan of attack.

1. Clean the rifle well - should I use the J-B non-embedding cleaner? I've used Tubbs Final Finish on my firearms with very good results in the past, so polishing the barrel makes sense to me - suggestions?
2. Fill the bottle and do a shot string over a chrono figure out where the peak velocity is - use this data to set the regulator when it shows up - but to what part of the graph? Below the peak on the up or down slope? I don't think it matters but?
3. Is there a procedure for tuning pellet rifles? Obviously the pressure when the regulator gets here, but also the efficiency with the hammer? 
4. Shoot and get nice tight groups at 25, 50, 75 and 100 yards, which is a little close. The Marine Corps we qualified at 200, 300 and 500 yards open sight - M16A1 80's

Suggestions welcomed although I reserve the right to ignore some of it, it's an internet thing ;)

Thanks,

John




 
She arrived today from AoA. The 25 yard group (5 shots) all through the same hole, VERY tight, but we'll have to take some time to get to know each other. The regulator shipped so it's a week or two off. The 5 shot Chrono is around 810 +/- 5 FPS.

I'll be headed over to my buddies tomorrow to fill off his tank and put a few down range.

Very excited to see what we can do.

Smitty
 
Brocock Bantam .25 is a squeek assassin extrordinaire. Mine cleared out my property of prairie dogs, that were eating my cacti, in a hot hurry. Very accurate for me (Aztec Emerald 12-25x50) out to 60 yards. I have no need to reach farther out than that. Nothing special for me in terms of cleaning, nor use of a regulator. Not that those are undesirable things!



Enjoy your Bantam .25.



I love mine! (Also from AOA which, fortunately, is close by me.)
 
This isn't going to work well. UGH.

I was looking through the scope testing zoom and focus and was having some issues with the focus. The image, regardless of distance or magnification, seemed to keep moving around and I was having some trouble keeping it clear. That's when I remembered I'm wearing progressive lens in my glasses. For those that don't know, these lens have a variable magnification from the bottom of the lens (up close) to the top of the lens (far away) and the focal point changes as you look through different areas of the lens. They are also shaped like a hourglass which leads to different focal planes when keeping your head still and sweeping your eyes left and right.

Solution - get a different pair of glasses for shooting, Get new eyes, just wear shooting glasses no magnification and hope you have enough adjustment on the scope focus, or LASIK.

We'll cover Right Handed Shooting with a Left Eye Dominate later ;)

Smitty 
 
" We'll cover Right Handed Shooting with a Left Eye Dominate later "

easiest in the seated FT position.

And yes if possible do not wear glasses/contacts ( contacts in one eye makes them prefered if needed). Any RX can mess up your range finding. I can not see a pellet w/out glasses - really - and darn sure can not range with them.

Have you figured out where to install a compass on the Bantam?







John
 
So small issue. When I received my rifle Friday, I took her out of the box and looked her over. Beautiful, the machine work, the feel, balance, weight, this rifle just looks and feels like a high quality piece of work.

I noticed the Pressure Gauge was at the Green/Yellow area, and put her back in the box. Opened the box the next morning and the gauge shows half way into the Yellow. Slow leak - UGH.

So I called AoA and they said within the first two weeks, they will pay for shipping back to them for warranty repair.

Is there something I can check prior to shipping it back? It's two days there, repair of X days, and two days back.

This is my first real air rifle so I'm not to inclined to tear into it without knowing what's going on first. Some simple things to check? 

Have you figured out where to install a compass on the Bantam?

John

I'm thinking super glue and the stock with the leather cord around the trigger guard ;)

Suggestion

Smitty
 
She arrived today from AoA. The 25 yard group (5 shots) all through the same hole, VERY tight, but we'll have to take some time to get to know each other. The regulator shipped so it's a week or two off. The 5 shot Chrono is around 810 +/- 5 FPS.

I'll be headed over to my buddies tomorrow to fill off his tank and put a few down range.

Very excited to see what we can do.

Smitty

Smitty... congrats! Awesome rifle... I have a Brocock Bantam Hi-Lite .25. Is that the same rifle that you have? AOA recommended JSB Exact King 25 gr pellets when I bought my rifle from them, so that’s what I’ve been shooting.



I don’t have a chrony. What pellets were you using with your chrony test?
 
I have to ship it back to AoA. It has an air leak. Took her over to my buddies house, he has a full tank. Hooked it up and the air was coming out of the end of the barrel.

The Data I have is what shipped from AoA. So I haven't even shot it yet, tank is at ZERO.

For PCP to avoid this issues, I suggested that prior to leaving for the day, they charge the PCP to 2,000 PSI and see if there are leaks, that way they can correct the issue prior to sending it to the client. It warranty work so they'd paid for the repairs, it just wouldn't cost me another week in shipping back and forth.

Smitty